The Philadelphia Eagles cleared their first two playoff hurdles by beating the Green Bay Packers 22-10 in the Wild Card Round and the Los Angeles Rams 28-22 in the Divisional Round. Next up in the NFC Championship Game is the 6 seed Washington Commanders, who finished the regular season with a 12-5 record, and have advanced to the NFC finals by beating the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Detroit Lions on the road.
Everyone on the Eagles' 53-man roster is healthy enough to play in this game, though they do have a couple of defensive starters on injured reserve, like Nakobe Dean and Brandon Graham. The Commanders are relatively healthy for this matchup as well, though they did announce on Saturday that starting DT Daron Payne would not play. You can find the Eagles-Rams inactives report HERE.
As we noted in our Eagles-Commanders preview when the Eagles have the ball, expect the Commanders' focus to be on slowing down Saquon Barkley, who ran for 296 yards in the two Eagles-Commanders matchups this season. The Commanders will also have to find an answer for A.J. Brown, as Marcus Lattimore couldn't cover him Week 16 without grabbing and pulling at him all day. The Eagles will hope to get their woeful passing game going.
When the Commanders have the ball, the Eagles will have to find an answer for Jayden Daniels' ability to extend plays with his legs. In the Eagles' loss to the Commanders Week 16, Daniels ran 9 times for 81 yards, including several drive-extending scrambles or third and fourth down. They will also have to continue to focus on slowing down All-Pro receiver Terry McLaurin. The Commanders lost starting RG Sam Cosmi for the season with a torn ACL, which has to be a concern for them against Jalen Carter.
The Eagles are 6-point favorites heading into this matchup. Here are our staff writer picks.
Feel free to discuss the game in the comments section below.
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