Mild temperatures, mostly sunny skies—a good day for a rodeo.
Here are the nuts’n’bolts’n’spurs matchups for today’s game, according to Tim Lynch of Mile High Report:
“The team that gives up the most ground in their strengths is the team that will likely find itself in some trouble on Sunday.
“Let’s start with the obvious. Carson Wentz has been the primary reason the Eagles are 7-1. He is one of the league’s best passers when throwing while inside the pocket(101.3 passer rating) and also one of the league’s best when throwing outside the pocket(104.9 passer rating). That means the Broncos will need to do more than just move Wentz off his spot. They need to pressure him and pressure him a lot. Wentz has been one of the most pressured quarterbacks in the NFL this season and the Broncos defense is among the league leaders in getting to the quarterback. Wentz has a 59.8 passer rating under pressure this season.”
- Third Downs. Wentz sports a league best third-down passer rating at 118.8. On the other side, the Broncos defense is very elite at getting off the field. They are an NFL-best at it in 3rd and 3-6 yards and second-best at getting off the field in third and 7+. This is truly a strength versus strength matchup. The game outcome could be decided with this one. Over the last four games, the Broncos defense has utilized the blitz 55% of the time and man coverage 71% giving up just 1.8 yards per play. Those are Star Wars numbers.
- Limit Big Plays. Wentz likes to go deep with the football. He ranks third in the NFL with 14.4% of his passes going 20 yards or more. That will be put to the test against the Broncos defense that has given up the second fewest 11+ yard runs and 15+ yard passes in the NFL this season. As a team, the Eagles are second in the NFL at getting those kinds of chunk yards on offense.
- Red Zone. The Eagles will present the toughest challenge of the season in the red zone for the Broncos defense. They rank second in TD% in the red zone on the season with Carson Wentz ranking third in the NFL in the red zone with a 116.7 passer rating. Not an easy situation. In a bit of a head-scratcher, the Broncos offense as a whole ranks in the bottom five, but Trevor Siemian somehow ranked sixth in passer rating despite the lack of touchdowns in the red zone for the Broncos offense.
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The Broncos will only win this game if their defense wins their matchups. The Eagles will score points, but the path to victory is to hold them under 20. If they can do that, then the game will be close.
That is, if the offense somehow breaks out of its month-long slump under newly minted starter, Brock Osweiler.”
That’s pretty much how the Denver Broncos (and probably also Tony Romo himself) see this game: as the ultimate matchup between the Orange Crush defense and the brain/arm/legs of Carson Wentz. You and I know there is a whole lot more to consider if we’re going to win this rodeo, but there is your headline event in the hooves vs. talons category.
If you want an alternative “Live Thread” to the game tonight, please join us on a site called discord.com.
Our regular commentator and home-run king Ryan Lubrich (aka The Lubricator, aka GSXR Mustang) has created an alternative chat forum for in-game real-time conversation.
Here’s a link to his interesting new talk machine if you wish to give it a look:
As Ryan explains, it’s like a chat channel, primarily used by like-gamers who stream on Twitch, but he figured we might be able to use it for gameday chats. I have found it to be very functional and very entertaining. It took me a few minutes to get the hang of some of the whistles and bells, but after a short while I was zooming along with the other EYE guys and Bored members there talking Eagles football.
It even auto-refreshes on every comment!
See you at the game!
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