Eagles-Saints player matchups to watch in Week 3

Eagles-Saints player matchups to watch in Week 3 originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

The Eagles (1-1) will travel to New Orleans to face the red-hot Saints (2-0) on Sunday afternoon.

While the Eagles are coming off a disastrous collapse in a loss to the Falcons in Week 2, the Saints cruised to a 44-19 win over the Cowboys and have scored 91 points in the first two weeks of the season.

Let’s get to the matchups:

Eagles’ Swiss cheese run defense vs. Alvin Kamara

The Eagles’ run defense has been atrocious so far this season. Nick Sirianni after Monday night’s game talked about how sometimes the defensive line has to earn the right to pass rush. The way you earn that is by stopping the run and the Eagles haven’t been able to do that so far.

Through two games, the Eagles have allowed 315 yards on the ground and have given up 6.4 yards per carry, which ranks dead last in the NFL. The Eagles have given up 4.37 yards after contact per attempt, which is the most in the NFL. They have given up more yards after contact per attempt than 13 teams have given up per attempt, period. It has been very bad.

And here come the Saints. Alvin Kamara through two games has 35 rushing attempts for 198 yards and 4 touchdowns. The Saints’ bigger, change-of-pace back, Jamaal Williams, has 19 carries for 77 yards and another score. Kamara is also a big-play threat. He’s tied for the league lead with 7 carries of 10+ yards and has hit 15 mph on 11 of his runs. So if he hits the hole hard and the Eagles’ DL gets out of their gaps and can’t take him down, it could mean disaster.

Eagles secondary vs. Rashid Shaheed

The Eagles have started Darius Slay, Quinyon Mitchell and Avonte Maddox for the first three games of the season. While the lack of pass rush has certainly hurt the secondary, the Eagles’ back end will have a tough matchup against Shaheed in this game. The Saints’ top receiver has 7 catches for 169 yards and 2 touchdowns through two games. He’s averaging an…

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Author : NBC Sports Philadelphia

Publish date : 2024-09-20 11:00:00

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