A Look at the Eagles Offense

This week the Jets are traveling to the City of Brotherly Love to play the 5-8 Philadelphia Eagles with a clear objective - win and stay in front of the race for the final Wild Card spot. To achieve this objective the Jets must try and stop one of the league’s most potent offenses. The Eagles have dealt with injuries to their star quarterback, injuries to their receiving core and a bout with diva wide receiver. At times they have shown their potential to be an explosive offense gaining over 400 yards in 7 games this season. But frequently they have shown to be ineffective and mistake prone – ranking 30th in turnover ratio and last in the NFL in INTs thrown.

The Eagles – led by 2nd year RB LeSean McCoy – rank 3rd in the NFL in rushing at 148.9 yards per game. McCoy has been the Eagles’ biggest weapon on offense this year, rushing for 1,172 yards and 14 TD’s thru 13 games. He is a mismatch in the passing game; catching 45 passes for 310 yards and 3 TD’s. The Jets – who have struggled at times against the run this year – will need to find a way to slow McCoy down. The Jets defense has done a better job shutting down the run of late; only allowing 2 teams to rush for over 100 yards in the last seven games. However, they did struggle to stop Tim Tebow in the closing moments of their week 11 matchup with the Broncos which could foreshadow a problem going up against the running Michael Vick.

Fortunately for the Jets, Vick’s injuries may hamper his running ability thus eliminating a weapon from the Eagles’ arsenal. The Eagles possess a big time deep threat on the outside with DeSean Jackson. Jackson - who has had an up and down year - can make life difficult for defensive coordinators and their secondary’s will likely match up with Darrelle Revis. Revis has set the standard for cornerbacks and will be in for a tough matchup with Jackson who averaged 22.5 yards per reception in 2010. Despite his on the field as well as off the field issues this season, Jackson still is Vick’s primary target.

The Jets have had issues covering TE’s this year and now must contend with the Eagles’ Brent Celek. Celek who has great hands could pose problems for the Jets who will be without starting safety Jimmy Leonhard. It’s likely that Celek will be the main target for the Eagles with WR Jeremy Maclin nursing an injury an DeSean Jackson lining up against Darrelle Revis. The Eagles passing game with Celek and McCoy being their primary weapons could be a problem for the Jets. The Jets will need to rush the injured Michael Vick and force him into mistakes.

This is a game that sets up perfectly for Aaron Maybin to come up big. I would expect to see Maybin on the field early and often forcing Vick to move out of the pocket. Normally this would not be a sound strategy but with Vick’s rib injury this may be the best way to shut down the Eagles Offense.