PREPARED TO DEFEND
Vikings, Eagles tough to move ball against
PHILADELPHIA — One team has a suffocating defense. The other team is even better on that side of the ball.
Defense should win at least the NFC championship.
Two of the league’s elite defenses will go at it today when the Philadelphia Eagles (14-3) host the Minnesota Vikings (14-3) in the conference title game.
“They have a great defense, we have a great defense,” Eagles linebacker Nigel Bradham said. “Whoever is most complete will win.”
The Vikings allowed the fewest yards (275.9) and fewest points (15.8) per game during the regular season. The Eagles were fourth in yards allowed (306.5) and fourth in points allowed (18.4).
“Typically, when you’re good defensively, you’re going to stay in the ballgames,” Vikings coach Mike Zimmer said. “Then you have a chance to win them at the end.”
Minnesota has three Pro Bowl selections on defense: outside linebacker Anthony Barr, end Everson Griffen and cornerback Xavier Rhodes. Rhodes and safety Harrison Smith are All-Pros, with Rhodes making the first team as a cornerback and the second team as a defensive back.
“It’s just a smothering defense,” Eagles coach Doug Pederson said. “(Griffen) is a game wrecker. They just mix it in. You don’t know necessarily what’s coming. Rhodes is a tremendous corner, safeties are playing extremely well.”
Defensive tackle Fletcher Cox and safety Malcolm Jenkins are Philadelphia’s Pro Bowl picks. Defensive end Brandon Graham had an excellent season, and cornerbacks Ronald Darby and Jalen Mills are solid.
Hearing about Minnesota’s defense all last week seems to have provided extra motivation for Philadelphia, which is a home underdog for the second straight game. The NFC’s top seed beat the sixth-seeded Atlanta Falcons 15-10 in the divisional round, holding off a last-minute rally.
“When you’ve got the number-one defense coming in statistically, obviously it fires us up,” Cox said. “We know going into this game that whoever’s defense plays better is going to win the game. The way we’re prepared, we won’t change nothing that we do. We’ll just go out and be ourselves.”
The dynamite defenses will provide a challenge today for both starting quarterbacks, but they share an offthe-field friendship and a knack for perseverance that has kept their NFL careers going.
Nick Foles and Case Keenum were teammates with the St. Louis Rams in 2015 and began this season as backups. Keenum had a breakout season for the Vikings after Sam Bradford was injured. Foles is 3-1 since MVP candidate Carson Wentz tore his ACL late in his second pro season.
Expect the defenses to focus on the running backs and test the quarterbacks.
“We’ve got to make Nick Foles win the game,” Griffen said. “We’ve got to make him win the game, but we’ve got to stop the running game, affect him and give the ball back to our offense as much as possible so that they can score points.”
One safety valve for Foles could be receiver Alshon Jeffery, who has more catches (45), yards (685), and touchdowns (seven) against the Vikings than he has against any other team.
But Jeffery, who spent his first five seasons with the Bears, did most of his damage against other cornerbacks while also being the featured guy in Chicago’s offense. The Eagles spread the ball around, so Jeffery had only 789 receiving yards during the regular season, but his nine touchdowns were the second-most in his career.
Leaning on that defense again isn’t a bad plan for the Eagles, who have trusted in the leadership of two-time Pro Bowl safety Malcolm Jenkins. That was true even before Wentz’s injury, but Jenkins’ words — he’s the first player allowed to address the team after Pederson’s post game speech — have been especially valuable lately.
Jenkins said the team hasn’t allowed an injury to its star quarterback — or the fact that several other big contributors have been hurt this season — to discourage the quest to bring Philadelphia its first Super Bowl victory.
“We always focused on the guys we had in the huddle,” Jenkins said. “Losing the amount of guys that we’ve lost and facing a lot of the adversity that we have, to have that mentality that we are sufficient, that the guys we have in this room can get it done, no matter what’s in front of us, has kind of been the story line of this team.
“Obviously I think everybody has kind of embraced that mentality.”