Philadelphia Eagles: 3 keys to victory over the San Francisco 49ers

Prediction

When just looking at this game on paper, it comes as lopsided as probably any game we have seen this year. The Eagles are currently sitting at 12.5 point favorites and that line should probably close around -12. Philadelphia is the class of the NFC and the 49ers are just beginning what will likely be a massive rebuild.

The Eagles are established at quarterback and that is where they will get the significant edge on Sunday. Beathard is very inexperienced, so expect Jim Schwartz’s defense to take advantage of that inexperience.

San Francisco still has some pretty good skill position players, like notorious Eagle killer Pierre Garcon, who has had a solid season in his reunion with coach Kyle Shanahan. In addition to Garcon, running back Carlos Hyde can gash any defense and the Eagles front must continue to shut down the run and force the game on the young quarterback’s shoulders.

On defense, the 49ers are not very good. Wentz and company are poised for a huge day offensively and should follow up exactly what Dallas did to San Francisco last week. The Eagles should have no issue getting the run game going as the 49ers, who currently rank 29th in the league in run defense. To put how bad their run defense has been into perspective, they have given up 473 more yards on the ground than the Eagles this season.

The 49ers have played in some tight games, and they should pull one of those games out eventually, so the Eagles cannot let San Francisco hang around and give them any hope of pulling out a win. For a team that has to travel cross country for what would be a 10 AM start in California, the Eagles should take advantage of the inferior 49ers.

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It may be close early on, like many of the Eagles games have been this season, but expect the running game to have a huge day and Wentz to make plenty of plays through the air to lead the Eagles to a (hopefully) not too stressful win to move to 7-1.

Final prediction: Eagles 34, 49ers 20