Philadelphia Eagles: 3 keys to victory over the San Francisco 49ers
By Jake Starr
1. Continue to Stand Tall in the Face of Adversity
Sunday will be the first game where the Eagles will be without two of their most significant players, one on each side of the football. Jason Peters and Jordan Hicks were both lost for the season, and against the 49ers we will get our first glimpse of the depth behind them.
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I wrote about how the Eagles must embrace that next man up mentality going forward, and that starts this Sunday and must continue throughout the rest of the season.
Mychal Kendricks and Halapoulivaati Vaitai will begin to see much more playing time starting this week, and while they will surely not be able to fill the big shoes left by the losses of Peters and Hicks immediately, they must be sufficient enough for the Eagles success to continue. Quite frankly, there is no reason to doubt that those two should be able to thrive in expanded roles, as Kendricks has thrived this season and Vaiti held up pretty well in the second half against Washington.
But the Eagles’ Week 8 game will surely represent another challenge, and another form of adversity to challenge the team in a unique way. Doug Pederson’s team has done a fantastic job of stepping up to the challenge when needed and this team is well equipped to continue to do that.
If this Eagles team was not well equipped to handle adversity, they would not be sitting at 6-1. We’ve seen several previous seasons go off the rails due to injuries or taking a punch during a game where they failed to respond, but this year has most certainly felt different, and the traits the Eagles have shown so far are what we see in Super Bowl caliber teams.
If the Eagles wish to continue to establish themselves as a true threat in the NFC, they must show that even though they have suffered injuries, they can continue to thrive and win football games. And as long as they have Wentz at the helm, I believe they can do that.