Monday night football will feature two teams with playoff aspirations. The Philadelphia Eagles are coming off of a blowout victory over the rival Dallas Cowboys while the Chicago Bears outplayed the Tamp Bay Buccaneers in London and are getting healthy coming off their bye week. Each team will need a win to keep up with the leading teams in their division or give them the advantage in the race for a wildcard berth.
Time to check out three key factors.
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1) Helping Forte
56 of Forte’s 124 carries and 440 of his 670 yards have come outside off of the left or right end, so the offensive tackles and defensive ends are more likely to featured in this one. Left tackle J’Marcus Webb (-10.0) struggles in pass protection, but has actually been solid in the ground game (-0.2). That will give Bears fans some hope that Trent Cole (+4.9) can be contained on runs to the outside. Across from Webb, Lance Louis is likely to be manning the right side of the line. There is some chance that rookie Gabe Carimi (-0.3 in 100 snaps) might play, but the coaching staff appear likely to be cautious because of the nature of his injury. Louis (-5.6) is a better run blocker than pass protector, and he will face the inconsistent Jason Babin. He’s been everything the Eagles’ hoped as a pass rusher (+10.8) but has been inconsistent against the run (+1.6).
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2) Eagles offensive tackles vs. Julius Peppers
Jason Peters announced his return to the starting lineup in style against the Cowboys. The former Bill registered one of our best grades we’ve ever given to an offensive tackle (+6.2), and he now ranks thirteenth with a pass blocking efficiency rating of 95.4. Across from him, right tackle Todd Herremans is slowly adjusting to life on Michael Vick’s blindside. He also played well against Dallas (+2.2) and has graded positively in each of the past three games. Herremans has steadily improved his pass blocking efficiency ranking to 94.3 (30th) and has given up just one quarterback disruption in the past two games. All-pro defensive end Julius Peppers likes to move around the formation so he’ll probably try his hand against each tackle before settling on one. Despite injuries slowing him down, Peppers has steadily improved this year. He too is coming off his best game of the season (although it was two weeks ago because Chicago had a bye) against Donald Penn and Tamba Bay (+5.8). It will be a tougher test on Monday night in Philadelphia but he’s proved it against them in the past, racking up a sack and five pressures in week 12 last year.
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3) Eagles wide receivers vs Bears cornerbacks
Although none of the Eagles’ wide receivers grade particularly well, they have put up some big numbers. None of them have less than 400 yards as Andy Reid goes three wide most of the time. Jason Avant is Vick’s safety net over the middle as he’s set to have career highs in both catches and yards. All three rank in the top 25 in yards per pass route run. Jeremy Maclin (2.07) and Avant (2.06) are sixteenth and seventeenth respectively while Jackson (1.86) isn’t far behind at twenty fourth. To put that in perspective, Devin Hester and Dane Sanzenbacher rank a full 0.5 behind with only Johnny Knox (2.18) stacking up well.
Matching up against them will be Charles Tillman (+3.1 in coverage), Tim Jennings (-2.5) and slot corner DJ Moore (+1.9). Although each allows a high percentage of passes to be complete, they have also prevented big plays. In addition they all possess perfect zeroes in the touchdown column, an impressive feat through seven weeks. Moore has even chipped in with big plays in the form of three interceptions.
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