Eagles-Packers: Four matchups to watch in a wild-card playoff rematch

From a soccer pitch in Brazil back to Lincoln Financial Field, the Eagles’ schedule has come full circle.

A few moments after they capped the regular season with a 20-13 win over the New York Giants on Sunday, results elsewhere solidified the team’s wild-card round matchup against the Green Bay Packers roughly four months after the two teams met at Corinthians Arena in São Paulo, Brazil.

Although plenty has changed since the Eagles’ 34-29 win over Green Bay in Week 1, Eagles coach Nick Sirianni said Sunday the team would still make good use of the tape from the first matchup in the coming days.

“Both teams are different from that day until now, no doubt,” Sirianni said. “But you’ll use that, you’ll use everything. ... They’ll use that, we’ll understand that. They’re a really good team, they’re really well-coached.”

What will Sirianni’s film study revolve around? Here are the matchups the Eagles will spend the week focused on:

One of the biggest differences between the teams’ Week 1 matchup and the upcoming rematch is the absence of Green Bay cornerback Jaire Alexander going into the postseason.

The Pro Bowl corner went on injured reserve Saturday because of a knee injury that also held him out the week before against the Minnesota Vikings, leaving Green Bay with Nixon and Ballentine going into the playoffs. Alexander has been the fulcrum of the Packers defense this season. According to a Next Gen Stats metric published before Sunday’s games, opposing quarterbacks’ completion percentages increased 9.7% against the Packers defense without Alexander on the field.

The pair of Nixon and Ballentine has struggled in recent weeks as well; Vikings quarterback Sam Darnold put up 377 passing yards in a 27-25 win over Green Bay two weeks ago, and Bears rookie Caleb Williams went 21-for-29 for 148 yards and a touchdown on Sunday.

While Minnesota managed to get four players more than 60 receiving yards, the Eagles should have the matchup advantages to justify featuring Brown and Smith heavily on the outside with success against Green Bay.

Packers starting quarterback Jordan Love missed most of the team’s 24-22 loss to the Chicago Bears because of an injury to his throwing elbow suffered early in the second quarter, which explains the asterisk. Still, Green Bay coach Matt LaFleur said Love should be ready for Sunday, which sets up a challenging matchup for the Eagles secondary against one of the conference’s most talented quarterbacks.

Love went 17-for-34 in the first meeting between these teams with 260 passing yards, two touchdowns, and one interception, and finished the year sixth in yards per attempt and 12th in passer rating. The 26-year-old excelled in the Packers’ wild-card round win against the Dallas Cowboys last season as well, illustrative of the impact he’s capable of having on high-stakes games even on the road.

That’s not to say the Eagles defense can’t stifle Love, though, especially if he’s still dealing with the aftereffects of the elbow injury that left him with numbness in his throwing hand. He’ll likely be without starting wide receiver Christian Watson, who left Sunday’s game at Lambeau Field with a knee injury that required him to get carted off. Without Watson, the Packers will have an unheralded receiving corps matched up against an Eagles secondary that has fared well even against some of the most talented groups in the league.

If Eagles defensive coordinator Vic Fangio can win the chess match against LaFleur, the Eagles should have the matchup advantages on the perimeter to make things difficult for Love in the rematch.

With the advantages the Eagles should have on the perimeter with Brown and Smith, offensive coordinator Kellen Moore will still need to account for the risk of throwing in the vicinity of Packers safety Xavier McKinney.

McKinney finished the regular season with seven interceptions, one of which came against Jalen Hurts in the season opener. Hurts, still in the concussion protocol, also needs an asterisk going into the week of practice with Sirianni reluctant to give many details about the quarterback beyond acknowledging he’s “progressing in the protocol.”

Even if Hurts does clear concussion protocol in time to return, McKinney could spell trouble for him. The quarterback’s former teammate at Alabama spent the first four years of his career with the New York Giants and has managed four of his 16 career interceptions against the Eagles. Three of those came against Hurts, with the other at the expense of Marcus Mariota last season.

Hurts has had dry spells targeting the middle of the field throughout his career but has found success at times this year through under-center play-action calls integrated by Moore. Hurts will have to be careful throwing in those areas against the Packers with McKinney, especially considering their history.

» READ MORE: Tanner McKee showed he can handle filling in for Jalen Hurts. Will he have to against the Packers?

Passing matchups aside, the second meeting between these teams could very well be decided by who has the better day on the ground.

Seemingly using the 163 rushing yards they compiled against the Eagles in the opener as a springboard, the Packers went into Week 18 ranked fifth in total rushing yards and seventh in yards per attempt. Josh Jacobs finished the regular season with 1,329 rushing yards, setting up a challenging matchup for the Eagles defensive front.

It’s fair to acknowledge how far the Eagles defense has come since Jacobs reeled off 84 yards on just 16 carries against them in September. The group’s tackling made significant strides midseason, and Cooper DeJean’s integration into the starting secondary gave them some additional physicality near the line of scrimmage.

Those changes will be tested against the Packers, whose offense is at its best when the threat of the running game is contributing to LaFleur’s play-action-heavy scheme.