The Eagles came off their bye week with a disappointing 10-point loss to the Giants last week and now they will face five consecutive teams with winning records.
The Eagles are 3-5-1 and the Browns are 6-3 to set up Sunday’s game.
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And here are three important things to know:
1. The Eagles and Browns were both affected by COVID-19 this week. Both teams had to put several players on the COVID-19 list, the Browns had to briefly close their facility and the Eagles are leaving a few coaches behind after they had close contact outside the building. As cases of COVID-19 spike nationwide, the NFL has seen a rise too.
The biggest news for this game is that Myles Garrett is out. The Browns’ defensive end leads the NFL in sacks with 9 1/2 and they won’t have him on Sunday afternoon.
The Eagles have three players on the active roster on the COVID list: Vinny Curry, J.J. Arcega-Whiteside and Corey Clement. And QBs coach Press Taylor and WRs coach Aaron Moorehead aren't traveling to Cleveland for reasons unrelated to the other incidents. They both came in contact with someone outside the building, a source said.
2. On Friday, the Eagles activated Isaac Seumalo off Injured Reserve, which means they’ll have the healthiest offensive line they’ve had in months. Seumalo began practicing last week, but he hasn’t played since Week 2, so the Eagles brought him back slowly.
Meanwhile, we’ll see what happens at right guard. Nate Herbig is still dealing with a finger/hand injury and the Eagles might go with someone else at right guard. They have options. It might be Herbig, Matt Pryor, Sua Opeta or even rookie Jack Driscoll.
Here’s a look at what the OL will look like on Sunday:
LT: Jason Peters
LG: Isaac Seumalo
C: Jason Kelce
RG: ???
RT: Lane Johnson
3. The Eagles opened as 3-point underdogs and then that moved to 3.5 points later in the week. When the news about Garrett surfaced, the game was taken off the board by PointsBet. Eventually, it was back at 3 points.
So you’re probably wondering why a six-win home team is such a minimal favorite over a three-win team coming off a terrible loss. Well, it’s because the Browns haven’t been nearly as good as that record suggests. Just one of their wins has come against a team with a winning record.
But the most shocking thing is that they have a point differential of -28. The Eagles have a point differential of -29.
The Browns have the second-worst point differential of any team with six wins through nine in NFL history. The only team to top them was the 1986 Bengals (-30).
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