Eagles-Giants player matchups to watch in Week 16

Eagles-Giants player matchups to watch in Week 16 originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

The Eagles (10-4) return home to the Linc to host the Giants (5-9) in an NFC East battle as they try to snap a three-game skid.

Here are some key matchups to watch:

Eagles run defense vs. Saquon Barkley

The Saints did a great job bottling up Barkley last week limiting him to 14 yards on 9 carries and 23 yards on 2 receptions. But Barkley is still a dynamic running back who is doing a lot of this on his own in 2023. In 11 games, he has still managed to rush for 797 yards with 3 touchdowns and has 33 catches for 2016 yards.

The Eagles gave up some chunk runs and missed some tackles on Kenneth Walker on Monday night. Walker ended up with 86 yards and a 4.5 average as the Seahawks rushed for exactly 100 yards. It wasn’t a horrible performance but it wasn’t great either. And the Eagles have been a noticeably different team against the run since the bye week:

Weeks 1-9: 66.3 yards per game (Best in NFL)

Weeks 11-15: 145.0 yards per game (28th in NFL)

The Eagles need to get this shored up and fast. It starts up front with the defensive line but it needs to be a collective effort with this group.

Eagles’ defensive line vs. shaky Giants O-line

The Eagles’ defensive line hasn’t been as dominant this season as last year when they had 70 sacks. While it was hard to envision a repeat performance like that, the Eagles are on pace for just 47 in 2023. Right now, they’re tied for 13th in the NFL, which isn’t awful. But they simply haven’t been taking over games the way they probably need to for this defense to hum.

The Giants’ offensive line isn’t very good either. They have given up 76 sacks this season, which is by far the most in the NFL. The Jets are No. 2 with 61 sacks surrendered. This is the second-most sacks ever allowed by a team through 14 games behind just the 1994 Eagles, who surrendered 94 sacks in 1986.

Josh Sweat will have the toughest matchup in this game,…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/eagles-giants-player-matchups-watch-120000397.html

Author : NBC Sports Philadelphia

Publish date : 2023-12-23 12:00:00

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