You look at the Philadelphia Eagles and you see a team cruising through another December perhaps on their way to another NFC East division title, a team with an explosive offense and a veteran playoff tested quarterback coming off an impressive victory over a hated division foe.  I look at the Eagles (9-4) and see a team with many deficiencies on the defensive side of the football, an inability to score touchdowns in the redzone, and an offense that gives up on the running game too easily.

The San Francisco 49ers come into the game off of an impressive victory on Monday night over the division leading Arizona Cardinals and a very slim shot of still making the playoffs. The 49ers (6-7) have a tendency to play up to their competition, as evidenced by their sweep of the Cardinals this year.  Then they also play down to their competition, losing to the Seahawks and the one win, at the time, Titans.

What is expected of the Eagles is another easy victory, in traditionally the month that they play their best football.   But, what is expected in the NFL doesn’t always occur.  I’m going to tell you a few reasons why the Eagles could be in trouble this week and into the playoffs.

The news of Alex Smith returning to starting quarterback for the Niners along with Michael Crabtree’s impressive debut, sometimes the most impressive part of the Niners gets overlooked.  Make no mistake, the defense is what holds this team together.  Patrick Willis has turned into one of the best linebackers in football and the Niners as a team are plus 6 in turnover differential this year, which would be much higher if their quarterbacks didn’t throw so many interceptions at the beginning of the year.  They have the 8th ranked scoring defense giving up just over 20 pts per game.  When they’re on their game they can make great offenses seem ordinary.

The Eagles are coming off an emotional victory on Sunday night over the Giants, and for good teams after an important victory like that, there’s almost always a letdown of some sort.  Especially, over a team the Eagles so despise as the New York Giants.  Philadelphia has great offensive minds in Andy Reid and Marty Morningwig who set the offense up to be explosive. Now, they also have explosive players on the outside who can make it happen.  DeSean Jackson, Jeremy Maclin and Jason Avant have lived on the big play this year.  Tight End Brent Celek leads the team in receptions. LeSean McCoy has filled in admirably for an ailing Brian Westbrook who may or may not return.  The team can score from any position on the field at any time.  Not many teams can say that.

Look deeper though and we can see some deficiencies on the offensive side of the ball.  The offensive line is finally coming together the last few weeks after struggling earlier in the year.  Who knows if that will continue especially if stud defensive tackle for the Niners, Aubrayo Franklin collapses the pocket like he’s done all year.

Far too often the Reid and Morningwig abandon the running game early in the game.  Too many times McNabb finishes the game with 40 or 50 attempts passing, when the running backs are averaging over four yards a carry.  I don’t know their reason and don’t even know if they realize they are not running the ball.  This has become a complaint of many Eagles fans the past few years, and when the Eagles lose that’s usually the reason.  If the Eagles go down early to the Niners will the team continue to run the ball or become one dimensional?  If they become one dimensional it will allow the Niners defense to take more chances and maybe force more turnovers.
The Eagles dismal display of scoring touchdowns in the redzone this year has been well documented.  Many people see the use of Michael Vick the past few games to run the ball inside the 5-yard line as an ode to the play calling genius of the coaches.  I see it as desperation, plain and simple.  The Eagles coaches are scared if they are in a normal offensive set with a fullback and halfback that they don’t have the ability to push the ball in the endzone.  Therefore, throughout the season and even more recently they’ve resorted to gimmicks, play action passes and even screens to try and score when inside of the opponent’s 10-yard line.  Watching them, the past few weeks they haven’t even tried to muscle the ball into the endzone, they’ve had to rely on Donovan McNabb to make a play or Mike Vick in the wildcat formation.   Their first instinct is gimmick rather than muscling up and bullying the ball into the endzone.  That’s a problem come playoff time.

The defensive display the Eagles put on Sunday night against the Giants probably had many Eagles fans scratching their heads and hoping Reggie White, Jerome Brown and heck even Mike Golic could still suit up for them. The secondary could not and didn’t want to tackle, the line couldn’t get pressure on Eli Manning and the linebackers looked out of position far too often.

This has been a recurring theme this season for an Eagles defense that many thought would easily get over the loss of Pro Bowler and inspirational leader Brian Dawkins in the off-season. The loss of Brian Dawkins has elevated safety Quintin Mikell to team leader of the secondary.  Truthfully, I’m sure he’s a great guy but he’s just cutting it this season on the field.  He had a good enough year last year to make the Eagles feel comfortable in allowing Dawkins to leave but this year he’s not tackling, he’s out of position and receivers are far too often running behind him when he’s the last line of defense.
Asante Samuel may very well end up being a Pro Bowl corner this year, and is one of the better cover corners in the NFL, but he doesn’t know how to tackle, and that’s not usually a problem with your corner, but too many times this year he’s been in man-to-man coverage without any safety help and he hasn’t made the tackle after the receiver catches the ball and that’s allowed the receiver to run for an extra 20 to 30 yards.  If he’s matched up with Crabtree on Sunday watch for the Niners to exploit that because Crabtree is a bigger, more physical receiver who has no problem running through arm tackles.

The linebackers this year have gone through many chances, starting with the loss of Stewart Bradley in training camp, who coaches thought would have a Pro Bowl year this year.  The Eagles have tried at least 7 different players this season at middle linebacker and are currently going with 87 year old Jeremiah Trotter in the middle as the catalyst for their defense. That is a problem.  Hey, I love Trotter, but that was in 2004 when he was on the cusp of being old.  Now, 5 years later he’s still playing but not producing as well, which is expected.

Will Witherspoon, who was acquired in a trade with the St. Louis Rams has been a good surprise but still has his problems in coverage.  The run defense has allowed huge chunks of yards this year, don’t be surprised if Niners running back Frank Gore gashes the Eagles defense for 10 and 20 yard gains, especially if he’s running through a secondary that can’t tackle and doesn’t want to tackle.
The Eagles defense just doesn’t have that swagger it had last year with Dawkins as its leader. I’m not saying players aren’t trying as hard as they did last year or aren’t working as hard in preparation. But, something’s missing. A ferociousness, a fierceness that they’ve played with on defense the last 20 years just isn’t there this year. Opponents used to come to Philadelphia and know that they might not be able to walk out of that stadium because of the Eagles defense.  It’s almost as if, they’re comfortable with the fact that the offense will score when they touch the ball, and all they have to do is make a few stops. That may work in the regular season and even win you a division title because the offense is so explosive, but come the postseason when every possession is crucial, it’s not going to work.

Game Information

• 49ers-Eagles Date: Sunday, December 20
• 49ers-Eagles Kickoff Time: 1:00
• 49ers-Eagles TV Network: FOX
• 49ers-Eagles Announcers: Kenny Albert, Daryl Johnston, and Tony Siragusa
• 49ers-Eagles Point Spread: Eagles -9
• 49ers-Eagles Over-Under Odds: 43.5

Predictions

Sean Coleman- I’m not saying the Eagles are a bad team. I’m saying that for everyone who watched the game on Sunday night against the Giants and saw an explosive unstoppable offense and an impressive victory, I saw what was beneath that.  I saw problems and deficiencies that unless they correct will lead to their ouster in the playoffs and maybe allow an upstart Niners team with a shot at making the playoffs to come through in a big way on Sunday. For that reason I’m taking Niners +9

Kurt Fraschetti- I find that the 49ers defense is playing out of their minds for arguably one of the games greatest middle linebackers ever in Mike Singletary.  I do not have as much faith in the 49ers offense as Sean does, but I do have faith in their defense to not allow this game to reach double digits.  So with that said, I like the 49ers +9.

Jerod Morris-MidwestSportsFans.com- The Eagles are going to score their fair share of points against a San Francisco defense that has not been great against the pass this year (Monday night – at home – notwithstanding). However, the Eagles have also been susceptible to big plays through the air this year and have given up 20+ TD passes. I think Philly will win this game since they are at home, but the 49ers have some momentum coming off of Monday night and still have not been eliminated from playoff contention yet. Eagles win but don’t cover. 49ers-Eagles free pick: 49ers +9

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Sean Coleman / ProFootballinsight

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