Eagles-Browns: A Final Score Prediction, Players To Watch, And More

The Eagles will be fully healthy for the first time since the season opener and look to move above .500 in a rare early-season home game.

Eagles WR A.J. Brown / Ed Kracz/Eagles on SI

PHILADELPHIA – Sunday’s game marks just the second time the Eagles will play at Lincoln Financial Field, and it’s already the middle of October and Week 6. They already lost their only other home game this year, 22-21, to the Atlanta Falcons in heartbreaking fashion, so they can’ t afford another home loss when the Cleveland Browns visit on Sunday (1 p.m./FOX).

After this game, the Eagles are back on the road again, where not only the New York Giants and Cincinnati Bengals await in back-to-back weeks, but so do some storylines.

The game in New York, of course, marks the first time Saquon Barkley will play against the team that drafted him and where he played six seasons.

The game in Cincinnati will see Eagles safety Sydney Brown line up against his twin brother and best friend, running back Chase Brown.

Before going there, here are some players to watch, bold predictions, and a final score guess for Sunday’s game:

PLAYERS TO WATCH

A.J. Brown. It’s been more than a month since we got to watch him, so he tops the list here. The receiver has played only one game this season, and that was the opener on Sept. 6. He had 119 yards on five catches in the win that night over the Packers. He will top both those numbers on Sunday.

DeVonta Smith. The return of the Eagles’ other grade-A receiver shouldn’t be overlooked.

Saquon Barkley. The running back is 0-6 in his career at Lincoln Financial Field. Dropping to 0-7 would be a disaster on many levels.

Philadelphia Eagles RT Lane Johnson / Ed Kracz/Eagles on SI

Jordan Mailata and Lane Johnson. The Eagles’ tackles will have the great challenge of lining up against Browns terror Myles Garrett, who likes to alternate sides during a game. The player on the other side is no easy task, either, with Za’Darius Smith and his 63-career sacks chomping at the bit opposite Garrett and his 92.5 career sacks.

It should probably be noted that Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts has already been sacked 13 times in just four games.

Cooper DeJean. Isaiah Rodgers and Kelee Ringo did not make DeJean’s first game as full-time punt returner easy, with Rodgers’ foolish decision to block a gunner into DeJean to create a costly fumble in Tampa. Ringo just banged into DeJean, knocking him over, in the same game. We’ll see what happens this week. We may even see DeJean get more than a snap or two in the slot.

BOLD PREDICTIONS (three firsts for the season)

-Jalen Hurts will play his first turnover-free game of the season. I like what I heard from the quarterback this week in giving his vote of confidence to his head coach, so the belief is this new version of the QB will lead to him being an improved version of himself.

-Bryce Huff will notch his first sack as an Eagle. This is a shaky limb but coming out of a bye week, where there was plenty of self-evaluation, I believe the Eagles will cut him loose and just let him get up the field and not worry about becoming a three-down player – at least for this week.

-Quinyon Mitchell will intercept his first career pass. The rookie has come close. This time he nails it. Now, I realize that’s two forced turnovers and that’s all the Eagles have had all season, but it could happen.

PREDICTION

A hunch led me to take the Bucs over the Eagles in Week 4. Wow, was that a mistake. Let’s hope this pick isn’t another one.

EAGLES: 30, BROWNS 20

Season record: 1-3.

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