In their Week 1 victory over the Washington Redskins, the Philadelphia Eagle had to rely on their passing game and the long ball from Carson Wentz to DeSean Jackson to squeak out a "W".
We don't know what the gameplan will be for their first road game of the season, but when the team takes the field in Atlanta on Sunday Night Football, they could end up relying on their running backs to try and get out to a 2-0 start to the season. There are two different reasons why the group of Darren Sproles, Miles Sanders, Jordan Howard, and Corey Clement could be the difference makers:
1) The Falcons' run defense is off to an atrocious start. The Vikings only threw the ball 10 times against Atlanta last Sunday, because they were able to rush for 172 yards in their victory. As long as the Falcons don't come out and start the game scoring on their first few positions, Doug Pederson might want to see if his running backs can do some damage on the ground.
2) Atlanta seems to ignore running backs in the passing game. In fact, they have given up the most receptions to running backs in each of the last four seasons.
Pederson loves to use his running backs in the passing game, so the is something he'll likely want to take advantage of. In the three games Pederson has faces the Falcons, he has had his quarterback throw to his running backs a total of 22 times (so about seven times a game).
Since Pederson took over as coach in 2016, the Eagles have never lost to the Falcons. Pederson will likely want to keep the same approach he has always had, and only make adjustments Sunday Night if it seems his strategy is no longer working. But all fans should expect the running backs to be the deciding factor in this game.
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