When the schedule was originally released in April, this looked like one of the most difficult games on paper, a trip out west against a perennial playoff contender they only see every four years, right on the heels of back-to-back-to-back battles against division rivals. Nobody could predict at that time though the magnitude and the number of injuries they would have already incurred to this point.
The defense is haggard right now, but making matters worse will be a huge loss on offense, in both impact and size. Despite making his best effort to play, Jason Peters will sit out today. Todd Herremans will slide over to left tackle, where he at least had the benefit of a few reps in practice this week. The guards will be some combination of Nick Cole, Max Jean-Gilles, and the dreaded Stacy Andrews. Andrews allowed two easy sacks last week that proved very costly in the outcome of the game.
If they're going to win, that group is going to have to keep Donovan McNabb upright. As we noted Friday, the beleaguered defense figures to have some trouble matching up with all of San Diego's weapons, so they're going to need points. That shouldn't prove to be much of an issue if McNabb is comfortable in the pocket, but that won't be the case if Shawne Merriman spends his afternoon in the Eagles backfield. Merriman appears to be just beginning to get back to himself, and has posted 4.0 sacks in their last two games.
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Brian Westbrook is actually going to play today. We've seen Andy Reid use a surprisingly balanced offense even in his absence, and if he sticks to that again today, it might take some of the pressure off the line. LeSean McCoy has looked excellent and is starting to show some explosion, but hopefully the re-insertion of 36 doesn't eliminate the touches Leonard Weaver was starting to see. He's really been a factor in the past few weeks, and they should stick with him in those tricky short yardage situations.
The only bit of relief the Eagles can take into this difficult west coast trip is this is an out of conference game, and a loss doesn't hurt them too badly in the standings. They'll simply sit beside a host of middle-of-the-road teams, but in good tiebreaker position with their division and conference records, poised for another December run to the playoffs. A win would certainly help take the taste of last week's loss out of everybody's mouths though.