Los Angeles Rams vs Philadelphia Eagles: Revisiting matchups to watch

“The most exciting game of the year” is a term that is thrown around a lot in the NFL. Sunday’s game between the Los Angeles Rams and Philadelphia Eagles certainly falls into that category.

Prior to the game, I looked at what could be some pivotal matchups. Let’s take a look back and see how they played out.

Sammy Watkins vs Ronald Darby

The edge has to go to Darby here. He held Watkins to 3 receptions for 21 yards and a TD - on 7 targets. Some of that had to do with Jared Goff not hitting his spots, but even when Goff threw a bomb to Sammy, he was well covered.

Rams Interior OL vs Timmy Jernigan and Fletcher Cox

I love the experience that John Sullivan has brought to the Rams, but he got beat pretty badly. The Rams interior OL did pretty well in the run game, but they collectively had no answer for the Eagles DTs. It compressed the pocket for Goff all day and he was clearly uncomfortable.

Sean McVay vs Doug Pederson

A clean sweep for the Eagles. It wasn’t so much Pederson impressing me as McVay disappointing me. Todd Gurley was having his way with the Eagles defense and didn’t get nearly enough rush attempts.

Injuries to Rob Havenstein and Andrew Whitworth only exacerbated the issue and McVay simply didn’t adjust to what was working for him. He didn’t go full on Mike Martz, but it was awfully close.

McVay has shown that he has the ability to make game changing adjustments at halftime, but he clearly needs to get better at adjusting from drive to drive.