Philadelphia Eagles' Sua Opeta Braces for Aaron Donald Challenge
PHILADELPHIA – Aaron Donald has had an amazing, first-ballot Hall of Fame career for the Los Angeles Rams.
Perhaps even more amazing is that, despite terrorizing most of the league in his 10 years in the NFL, the best defensive player in the game hasn’t done much at all in his four career games against the Philadelphia Eagles, who will travel to L.A. to play Donald and the Rams on Sunday (FOX/4:05 p.m.).
Donald has 105 career sacks. None of them have come against the Eagles in four career games against them. He has just four tackles and six quarterback hits in those games.
The New York Jets are the only other team that Donald has yet to record a sack against, per research from Zach Berman of www.allphly.com.
The plan in previous seasons for the Eagles was to double-team him, though you would think that would be a lot of teams' plans. Philly has an offensive line that can do it. Maybe.
Cam Jurgens is likely to miss the game. The second-year right guard who was playing at a high level was seen in the locker room on Wednesday still wearing the walking booth he was wearing leaving the locker room following Sunday’s 34-31 overtime win over the Washington Commanders.
In his place will step longtime reserve Sua Opeta, who will make just his fifth start since arriving as an undrafted free agent out of Weber State in 2019. One of those starts came in a wild-card playoff game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2021.
“As a backup, these are the opportunities you live for,” Opeta said. “Cam obviously getting hurt I have to be able to step in there and do my thing. As far as preparation it’s kind of the same, just because you want to prepare as if you are the starter even if you are a backup because you have to be ready to go in like I’ve had to the last couple weeks.”
Philadelphia Eagles guard Sua Opeta (78) in action against the Washington Football Team at Lincoln Financial Field on Dec. 21, 2021.
© Bill Streicher, USA TODAY
Opeta was reminded that he was once called a Tesla stock by center Jason Kelce because he was on the rise.
“It was really cool to hear because a Tesla stock, I think when he mentioned it, was shooting up," joked Opeta. "I don’t know what it is now.”
“He’s got that 0-to-60 Tesla torque to him," Kelce added." Sua has come a long way in his career here in Philadelphia and he does some amazing things. When he’s on, he is a pretty unbelievable player.”
Opeta said he will trust whatever game plan the coaching staff puts together to try, once again, to neutralize Donald. Kelce added that, yes, double-teams will be part of the plan.
“We’re going to try to know where he’s at every time and when we can we’re going to try to get attention to him,” he said. “A lot of it is play specific, personnel specific…That’s one of the tricky things when you’re playing against a really good player, too much attention to just one guy what is everybody else doing, what’s going on outside of that?”
As for Opeta, the coaching staff and his teammates trust that he can step in and handle the job. He played 43 snaps against the Commanders after Jurgens got hurt and head coach Nick Sirianni said Opeta played “outstanding.”
“He didn't play as much last year, but in 2021, gave us a lot and even before that, I'm just saying in the time I've been here, we won some big games with him in '21 on that field,” said Sirianni. “We know he has great power. He really can do the things that we require of our guards to do. And so, we have a lot of faith in him based off his previous games that he's played but you know, that faith really gets built year-in, year-out."
The Eagles and Rams kickoff from SoFi Stadium at 4:05 p.m. ET on Sunday.
