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NFL Wild Card Weekend certainly lived up to the hype. Now it is time to look ahead to the NFL Divisional Round games. In the NFC on Sunday, we have the Los Angeles Rams traveling east to take on the Philadelphia Eagles. Both teams are coming off impressive wins in their first games. Throughout this article, we will break down their victories in the Wild Card Round while also previewing this matchup and making a Rams @ Eagles pick.
The Rams are coming off an impressive showing against the Minnesota Vikings on Monday Night Football. The Rams won that matchup 27-9 on the back of nine sacks from their defense, which tied a playoff record.
The Rams’ defense set up their offense in great field position and for most of the game, the offense took care of business. Quarterback Matthew Stafford had a quiet game but did enough to win. He was efficient, going 19-27 for 209 yards and two touchdowns through the air.
It was Puka Nacua, not Cooper Kupp, who found the end zone through the air. Instead, it was Kyren Williams, who also had 16 carries for 76 yards on the ground and Davis Allen, who had his only catch of the game. Tyler Higbee led the team in receiving yards with 58 on five catches. Nacua finished the game with five catches for 44 yards, while Cooper Kupp was held to just one catch for 29 yards on one target.
As mentioned above, the Rams’ defense was the storyline in this game. Not only did they sack Sam Darnold nine times, but they intercepted him once and forced him to fumble another time. It was just a masterclass from this young Rams defense.
The Eagles taking on the Packers was also a similar situation, where the defense dominated the game once again. Philadelphia won 22-10, with their defense and special teams forcing four turnovers in the win. They set the tone from the get-go when they forced a fumble on the game’s opening kickoff.
After the Packers fumbled the opening kickoff, it quickly led to one of the two Jalen Hurts touchdowns. He hooked up with Jahan Dotson, marking Dotson’s first touchdown catch as an Eagle. Later in the game, Hurts connected with Dallas Goedert in the flat, and the big man had an awesome run after the catch, breaking tackle after tackle for the touchdown. Hurts finished the day with just 137 yards passing.
The main reason for that was the defense playing great and Saquon Barkley doing his thing. This is why the Eagles brought him in, so they could grind the running game out in the playoffs. They did just that, with Barkley getting 25 carries for 119 yards.
With Barkley and the Eagles defense dominating, there wasn’t much left for the pass-catchers. DeVonta Smith led the team with 55 yards on four catches, while star wide receiver A.J. Brown caught just one of his three targets for 10 yards. You have to believe they want to get Brown more involved this week against the Rams.
This is an interesting matchup between two solid teams. We saw this game happen once this season in LA, which was dominated by the Eagles, who came in rolling at the time. The Eagles won 37-20, led by an absolute bananas game from Saquon Barkley. Barkley finished that game with 255 yards rushing and two touchdowns. Both of Barkley’s touchdown runs came from at least 70 yards out.
On the season, the Rams’ run defense was in the bottom half of the league in rushing. However, maybe the Rams learned something from that Barkley game earlier in the season. They have allowed just one 100-yard rusher in seven straight games since then. The Rams can win this game if they slow down the Eagles’ rushing attack.
With that said, we do not think that will happen. With everything going on out West and the Rams having to travel across the country, that may be too much to overcome. We expect the Eagles to win this game and to do it on the back of Saquon Barkley. Our Rams @ Eagles NFL Divisional Round pick is for Saquon Barkley to record more than 21.5 carries.
Dylan has had a love for sports since he was a kid. Four years ago, he decided to dive into the sports content-creating industry specializing in Fantasy Football, NFL and NBA. He has since had his work published on sites that include Fantasy Alarm, Fansided, and Fantasy Six Pack.