Rams/Eagles TV talkers

[fearsomefour]

One interesting point made on some Fox Sports show was that the Eagles play a lot of man coverage. They also play to intercept. The result is that they are one of the worst defenses for Yards after the Catch. Who is the best offense for YAC? LA Rams.

On the show with Cowgerd, Eric Davis, Rey Lewis and Whitlock, three chose the Rams to win. Cowherd chose the Eagles because he thinks the fires in CA are a big distraction for the players. I am confident that McVey can keep them focused.

Bad air quality and backed up traffic....how is that a distraction in LA?
People tend to be distracted by things that affect them personally.

 

[TSFH Fan]

Back in the day, YAC was probably more of a straight up WR v. DB metric. Today, yards off screen plays are a big part of the Rams' YAC yards. The Rams are third in YAC yards and second in yards/screen. Goff is 4th in yards off the screen. All this is pushed by Gurley's team leading YAC. That the Eagles play man and play to intercept, like the FOX people talk about, isn't how I see screen plays playing out -- the fact that the Eagles give up a lot of YAC and the Rams get a lot of YAC doesn't matter much since the YAC happens in different ways (imo).

Off topic: The League's top 5 YAC players are all RBs. The Saints lead the league in YAC. Brees leads the league in short dump-offs -- which includes those that aren't tightly contested by the defense, giving more room for YAC (analysis: https://fivethirtyeight.com/feature...eaning-on-the-short-pass-and-its-not-working/ ).

So, yakking YAC is nice, but, y'know, context.

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Meanwhile over at Football Outsiders:

If the FO stats and weighted analyses are to be believed, the Eagles have a very, very good defense -- 4th against the pass and 3rd against the run. Three things stand out. (1) The Eagles rank 14th in defending the pass against RBs. Thankfully, Gurley can catch the rock. (2) The Eagles rank 17th in defending the pass against TEs. Thankfully, the Rams have TEs who can catch the rock. Breakout game for Higbee? (3) The Eagles rank 17th in defending passes over the middle. Goff can do that and Gurley and the TEs work there. Of course defenses have up up and down down games, and the Eagles are 28th in consistency -- so, yeah, it comes down to On Any Given Sunday.

To me, the Rams don't need to do anything radically special. The Rams just need to do what they do. Gotta give it 110%, take it one play at a time, and Good Lord willing, we'll pull this one out.

 

[Merlin]

Three things stand out. (1) The Eagles rank 14th in defending the pass against RBs. Thankfully, Gurley can catch the rock. (2) The Eagles rank 17th in defending the pass against TEs.

Yeah pointed this out in the other thread. They're real good vs wideouts but the TEs and RBs have been good against them. Part of that is probably who they've played (Skins for example with Thompson and those TEs twice) but regardless the stats do tell a bit of a story.

Eagles have been talking about shutting down Gurley. I think their keys are going to be really heavy on him, so if you chalk it up it does seem like the TEs are set up to have a good game if they execute.

Everett has been comin on of late. I think this could be a huge comin out party for him.

 

[Elmgrovegnome]

The Eagles stats have been padded against weak competition too.

 

[Ramhusker]

I want to see shocked looks on all these talking head experts after our Rams smack the Eagles in the mouth old school style by smacking them in the face.