A nice breakdown by Les Bowen over at Philly.com of the Packers upcoming opponent, the Philadelphia Eagles. This is a great companion piece to Bob McGinn’s opponent preview (sorry, sub required)
Here’s my take on what the Packers should be looking for:
Offense - Watch for the Eagles to try and isolate Brian Westbrook or even rookie tight end Brent Celek on the Packers’ linebackers. The Eagles will try to keep Poppinga on the field as much as possible in the early going, and they will try to get Westbrook out in the flat or in space on wheel routes against Poppinga, or perhaps even Hawk. While the Packers linebackers have had a lot of good press lately, they were suspect in coverage all last year. Week One will be a big test.
Defense - The Eagles will look to hide their linebackers, and the Packers three wide-receiver set will play right into this desire. While I think James Jones can overpower Eagle nickel back Will James, the Eagles would much rather test the rookie receiver against James than keep all three of their linebackers on the field. The group looked very, very raw this preseason, and very susceptible to mis-direction. If the Eagles can help it, they’ll play out of Nickle as much as possible.
