A Chance to Get Back on Track: Raiders-Eagles Week 15 Preview

The similarities to 2023’s season are evident.

In 2022, the Philadelphia Eagles went to the Super Bowl and followed that up with a dominant start to the season. But the season went off the rails with a complete and utter collapse, going from 10-1 and the best team in the NFL, to losing 6 of their last 7 games, including a Wild Card blowout loss.

This season, with last year’s Super Bowl victory in the rearview mirror, is beginning to head in the trajectory that 2023 went in. The Birds started 4-0, before losing back-to-back games, falling to 4-2, then regaining momentum and pushing to 8-2.

But now Philly, once again, is in a freefall.

The Eagles have dropped to 8-5 on the season and are holding on to just a 1.5 game division lead. Discussions of obtaining the one seed are out the window, and focus is now on finishing the season strong and making the playoffs without too much trouble.

Looking at the positive side of these losses is hard, especially as a Philadelphia sports fan, but the good thing is that of these 3 losses, all the games were close, and two were against highly probable playoff teams.

This upcoming game against the Las Vegas Raiders gives an opportunity to get back on the right track, and here’s why:

Las Vegas is Poor… at Everything

The Las Vegas Raiders are an abysmal football team, and if you ask Barstool Sports, they’re “doing irreparable harm to the sport of football.”

The Raiders are without an offensive coordinator after firing former Eagles head coach Chip Kelly, and there was a good reason for his firing. Vegas is last in the league in points, averaging just 15.1 points per game. The team is second to last in the league in total yards per game, with just 284.5, and is last in rushing yards with only 72.7 per game.

That last statistic is the most interesting on the offensive side of the ball for the Raiders. Ashton Jeanty came into the league after being the runner-up for the Heisman at Boise State. He was praised and was touted to be the next star running back to enter the NFL. But unfortunately for him, the Raiders have completely misused him all season long. The college star is averaging just over 50 yards per game, not due to a lack of ability, but rather a lack of blocking in front of him and playcalling behind him.

With the offensive side of the ball being atrocious, Vegas needed to compensate for that somehow, but the defense is just mediocre at best.

The defense allows 325 yards per game, which ranks smack in the middle of the league. But it’s their pass defense that Philly will look to take advantage of. The Raiders are 21st in the league in allowed passing yards, with almost 3,000 total, and can’t defend a deep ball for the life of them.

A.J. Brown is Red Hot

The elephant in the room has been Brown’s antics and complaining about not getting the ball. In the past 3 losses, he achieved over 100 yards in each game, showing that he still can be an elite receiver.

The bad news is that this hasn’t led to winning, but the good news is that he’s finally back in a rhythm.

Brown has barely been targeted all season long, but recently the tides have turned. Brown caught a total of 24 balls for 342 yards the past 3 weeks, after barely being able to sniff 5 catches per game earlier in the season.

Brown getting hot late in the season is a huge factor in how the Birds will play against Vegas.

His dominance as of late allows Nick Sirianni and Kevin Patullo to play through Brown, rather than run up the middle to Saquon Barkley or have Jalen Hurts roll out the pocket every play. What this means is that Brown can turn into the number one option, since the Raiders’ passing defense is poor, and Patullo can revert to Barkley if Vegas adjusts.

The Jitters are Behind Us

Hurts throwing 4 interceptions and finishing with 5 turnovers last week is tough for fans to accept out of their star quarterback. Calls to bench him and social media lighting him up over his poor performance show the passion that Philly sports fans have with their team.

But true Philadelphians stay loyal, even during turmoil.

Prior to the 5 turnover performance, Hurts had thrown just 2 interceptions all season long. He had the best touchdown-to-turnover ratio in the entire NFL for quarterbacks.

He is still that same player.

Rather than focus on benching Hurts or treating the team like it’s the worst in the league, the fans need to come together and realize that the jitters are behind us.

Hurts and the team have gone over the film and undoubtedly have regrouped. It should be expected that the offense will be on fire on Sunday because now, everything wrong that could’ve happened has happened.

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