Inside The Birds: How To Attack Dak?

(ITB photo: Eagles coach Nick Sirianni prepares for his Eagles-Cowboys rivalry game)

As Nick Sirianni and his staff prepare for Monday night’s rivalry game between the Eagles and Cowboys, the question is: Can they bounce back from an ugly Week 2 loss?

On the latest Inside The Birds, Geoff Mosher and Adam Caplan discuss their thoughts on potential matchups against Dallas and give predictions along with injury updates.

Dickerson vs. Brooks

Geoff Mosher: “Let’s say it’s about a 6-to-7 week injury for Brandon Brooks. But also let’s say Landon Dickerson is playing pretty well at right guard. What do you do [when Brooks is ready to return]?”

Adam Caplan: “That’s a good point. I never thought about that. I like that one. In fact, that to me will be fascinating if he starts kicking ass in a couple weeks. If we’re in, mid-October, late-October and it’s obvious to everyone that Dickerson is kicking ass, that’s a tough one because, look, this kid is the future. Brooks, unfortunately, we love him, but he’s been hurt so much.”

Miles Sanders

Mosher: “Here’s an opportunity to use that mass [on the offensive line] and really spring Miles [Sanders]. Not just as a consistent runner, but you’d like to see some explosive runs from Miles. He had more of those last year than anything – right – with the big breaks and the big, long runs. You’d like to see that this week.”

Caplan: “That’s going to be interesting, there’s no question with the Eagles’ offensive line, they should really win here [in the trenches], and I’ll be interested to see what [Cowboys defensive coordinator] Dan Quinn does to counteract that knowing the Eagles have a size advantage.”

Nick Sirianni

Caplan: “I’ll take my shot plays, but I want slants. These guys aren’t that good in the secondary. There’s gonna be an opportunity to win here and I’m so curious to see how they’re going to do this. Again, the tight ends should absolutely house them.”

Mosher: “There’s got to be a sequence, a pattern and a rhythm to what Nick Sirianni wants to do. His first play should be something that sets up what he’s going to do on the second play and then third play – if it gets there – and of course he should run plays out of formations that he wants to run later in the game and just get the ball to a different person from that formation. The eye candy. You want them thinking, ‘Oh, I’ve seen that formation, I’ve seen this guy get the ball in that formation,’ but now the ball is going elsewhere. You want plays that set up other plays.”

Eagles Defense

Mosher: “The Eagles have done a good job – probably the best of any team in the league right now – of limiting explosive plays. But they’re going to face a team that has way more explosive weapons than the first two teams combined. So, this will be a more telltale litmus test for the Eagles’ defense, and I look forward to finding out the answers and seeing what happens. My big three questions: do they blitz, do they stop the run, does Josh Sweat play a starter number of snaps?

– Justin Morganstein (@jmotweets_) is a staff writer for InsideTheBirds.com.

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