PREGAME NOTEBOOK: Eagles Hope to Continue Road Success in Las Vegas
LAS VEGAS – It’s been 10 days since the Eagles last played, 10 days to stew over a 28-22 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
During that time, they have re-evaluated both their offense and defense, with the offense perhaps ready to give the ball more to RB Miles Sanders and the defense trying to figure out how to start games quicker and adjust faster in-game, among other things.
Much also happened during that time off.
Right tackle Lane Johnson returned from a three-game absence to deal with anxiety and depression issues.
Tight end Zach Ertz was traded, opening the door for Dallas Goedert to prove himself over the final 11 games of the season.
“I’ve been waiting for my time since I got here,” said Goedert. “Obviously, I knew it wouldn’t be right away with Zach, and I didn’t know when it would be. Maybe I thought that me and Zach would play the rest of his career out together as teammates. That didn’t happen. Like I said, I’m just excited for this opportunity that I have in front of me.”
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The Eagles have won both of their last two games against the Raiders to take a 7-5 lead all-time during the regular season.
The road has also been kind to the Eagles. It is where both their wins have come – in Atlanta and Carolina.
After this trip to Vegas, they will again hit the road for a Week 8 matchup against the Detroit Lions.
The Eagles will be without safety Anthony Harris against the Raiders (4-2), who was ruled out on Saturday with injuries to his hands and groin. It will be the first game he has missed since joining the Eagles in the offseason.
Rodney McLeod and Marcus Epps figure to have an even bigger role with Harris out.
Harris had played every single snap through the first five weeks before suffering the injury against the Bucs. He returned in that game despite the injuries and notched an interception of Tom Brady
In addition to Harris, the Eagles’ other inactives are QB Gardner Minshew, CBsTay Gowan, who was acquired from Arizona in the Ertz trade, and Mac McCain, OL Jack Anderson, and Sua Opeta, and DL Marlon Tuipulotu.
Raiders tight end Darren Waller, a key cog in LV's offense, was scratched with an ankle injury.
Also out for Vegas are RB Peyton Barber, DE Malcolm Koonce, OT Jackson Barton, CB Amrik Robertson, and QB Nathan Peterman.
NOTES: Javon Hargrave leads all defensive tackles and ranks sixth overall with six sacks. His career-high is 6.5. Only two Eagles DTs have posted six sacks in the first six games of a season: Hargrave and Jerome Brown (1989)…
Jason Kelce will make his 112th straight start at center. The next closest centers are Ryan Jensen and J.C. Tretter, each of whom has started 70 straight each. Kelce’s streak is the longest by an NFL center since Chris Myers (123) from 2007-14
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Ed Kracz is the publisher of SI.com’s Eagle Maven and co-host of the Eagles Unfiltered Podcast. Check out the latest Eagles news at www.SI.com/NFL/Eagles or www.eaglemaven.com and please follow him on Twitter: @kracze.
