49ers Offensive Line Should Take Matchup With Eagles Personal
The degree of difficulty to win this week increases for the San Francisco 49ers.
Even though it came down to the wire against the Detroit Lions, the 49ers ultimately laid the smackdown on them. That likely doesn't happen against the Philadelphia Eagles this week.
The Eagles are no slouches. They actually have quite the array of talent on both sides of the ball that the 49ers have to take into account, especially the defensive line. When the 49ers played the Eagles last season, it was their defensive line that wreaked havoc for them. The Eagles tallied 5.5 sacks against the 49ers and this was the game that put Mike McGlinchey on notice with his questionable pass blocking.
The 49ers offensive line should take their matchup with the Eagles personal.
Ultimately, they were all punked last season. But no one should take this more personally than McGlinchey. The guy was basically acting as a dummy sled for the Eagles. He was constantly being driven back or put on his back. McGlinchey has added on more weight and looked solid against the Lions. He and the rest of his offensive line teammates need to rewrite the ownage they suffered last season.
“They've done some schematic changes," said Mike McDaniel at this Thursday presser. "They play some 3-4 looks now, but they also have, they did it all preseason, they have all their four-down stuff. I'm sure they have a couple packages waiting for us. So schematically, they're doing some different stuff and asking their players to do some stuff. And it's been very impressive that those guys that have been playing one technique for so long have the ability to still play that technique, which they do in nickel and when they're in their four-man base defense. So, it's very much like last year, but then there's an added layer where they've learned to play some two-gap stuff."
Against the Falcons, Philadelphia made Matt Ryan's day rough. He was sacked three times and pressured on 31 percent of his drop backs. Jimmy Garoppolo would like to not have to face a good deal of that pressure, although he performed strong against pressure against the Lions. Still, keeping him upright is always ideal to sustain the offense. And the offensive line cannot let last year's game replicate itself. They need to redeem themselves and this is a game that can propel their momentum going forward knowing they did so.
If the offensive line can get angry and take it to the Eagles defensive line, then the 49ers will be in good shape to leave Philadelphia with a 2-0 record.
