PHILADELPHIA - The Eagles don’t have much room left to breathe after getting rolled 27-7 in Chicago, and Week 4 got even more difficult with DeVonta Smith and Zack Baun ruled out. Now the question at Lincoln Financial Field is simple: can Philadelphia find enough answers against a loaded Rams team to stop the slide?
The game may come down to three key battles.
Start with Saquon Barkley and the Los Angeles run front. Smith’s absence changes the entire shape of the Eagles’ offense, and without him stretching the field, Philadelphia’s clearest path is to lean on Barkley and force the Rams to step out of dime.
Los Angeles has spent a ton of time in sub packages - an NFL-high 36.3 percent of its defensive snaps have come in dime - and it has not given up a run of 20 or more yards. The Rams are No. 11 against the run overall.
Barkley has put up 174 yards on 34 carries through three games, good for a 5.1 average, but the production has come in waves. He has 137 yards on 21 first-half carries and just 37 yards on 13 second-half attempts. He also has a strong track record against the Rams as an Eagle, having gone over 200 yards against Los Angeles twice in 2024.
If the Rams can stay light and still slow Barkley on early downs, Philadelphia’s offense - already near the bottom of the league in three-and-out rate - will be in trouble. With Smith and Dallas Goedert both out, Jalen Hurts is missing his two most dependable targets, and the receiving load falls to Dontayvion Wicks, rookie Makai Lemon and Zach Ertz.
The next matchup is up front, where the Eagles need to bother Matthew Stafford before he gets comfortable. Stafford was sacked four times in Denver and pressured on 45.8 percent of his dropbacks.
When he’s clean, he looks like the reigning MVP. When he’s not, the numbers have been far more ordinary - including a 5-of-18, 61-yard, one-interception night against the Broncos.
That is where Philadelphia has to win, even though its pass rush has not been doing enough so far. The Eagles have only three sacks in three games, which ranks 28th in the league. Jonathan Greenard should take on a bigger role after a pitch-count debut in Chicago, Jalyx Hunt has flashed pressure without finishing, and Jalen Carter is working through a hairline wrist fracture.
The Eagles know what this can look like when the rush gets home. In their two 2024 wins over Los Angeles, they sacked Stafford five times each. Last year’s meeting was a different story: just one sack, and Philadelphia still needed a blocked field goal on the final play to escape.
That kind of pressure matters because of who Stafford is throwing to. The Rams’ passing game ranks second in the league and leads it overall, with Puka Nacua back in the mix alongside Davante Adams and Kyren Williams. If the Eagles can’t get Stafford off his spot with four, they’ll spend the afternoon trying to survive in coverage.
The third swing factor is Zack Baun’s absence in the middle of the field. Baun, an All-Pro and one of the best coverage linebackers in football, is in the concussion protocol and ruled out. Jeremiah Trotter Jr. will start next to Jihaad Campbell and handle the green dot.
Trotter has only started in Week 18 games when the Eagles were resting players, and he’s viewed as a smart, instinctive linebacker who does his best work downhill. But he is not Baun as an athlete or a playmaker in space, and that’s a problem against a Rams offense that thrives through the air.
Baun’s absence puts even more of the intermediate and crossing game in Sean McVay’s crosshairs. It also leaves Philadelphia thinner in the middle than it was in last September’s meeting, when the Eagles held Stafford under 200 yards and Baun opened with an interception.
The communication load is heavier too, because veteran safety Marcus Epps is also out. Against a Rams offense that has been rolling, that is a lot to ask from a defense trying to hold together a thinner middle.
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