Eagles-Rams film preview: Handling pre-snap motion, potential for a Saquon Barkley breakout, and more

Two of the game’s best will go head-to-head on Sunday at Lincoln Financial Field. One of the NFL’s top playcallers, Los Angeles Rams coach Sean McVay, will try to pick up his first win against Eagles defensive coordinator Vic Fangio in his career.

The Rams’ offense is one of the most prolific passing attacks through two games, strengthened by the addition of wide receiver Davante Adams and the continued emergence of Puka Nacua, and led by quarterback Matthew Stafford.

In their Week 12 matchup last season in Los Angeles, Fangio’s defense held the Rams to 20 points and sacked Stafford five times. In the NFC divisional round matchup, though, Stafford threw for more than 300 yards and had the Eagles on the brink before Jalen Carter’s late-game heroics.

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How will this matchup (1 p.m., Fox29) go in a third meeting over the last 10 months between the 2-0 teams? Here’s what the film told us about the matchup:

After the 2024 season, McVay told reporters he wanted to be more versatile on offense in 2025. One look at the Rams’ formation usage showed a stark change: in 2024, they were a heavy 11 personnel (one running back, one tight end) team. According to Sumer Sports, they utilized the formation at an 82.4% clip, second highest in the NFL. This season, they still use 11 personnel often (62.52%), but 12 personnel (one running back, two tight ends) increased from 15.58% in 2024 to 32.76% through two games.

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The Rams, who pass about 56% of the time, are running the ball much more effectively this year than in 2024, especially in 12 personnel. The emergence of tight end Davis Allen as a blocker has opened up running lanes (4.4 rushing yards per play in 2025 compared to 3.9 in 2024), coupled with their receiver duo of Nacua and Adams.

The first thing that jumps out watching the Rams offense is the frequency with which they utilize pre-snap motion. Across 116 offensive snaps this year, 87 have featured pre-snap motion, according to Next Gen Stats, with a near even split between passes (45) and runs (42).

Nacua is often in motion, with nearly half his offensive snaps featuring him on the move. Locating him pre- and post-snap will be important for the Eagles secondary, considering the Rams used him on two jet sweep runs across each week and as an extra blocker in duo and zone run concepts. He has played a near even distribution of snaps between the slot (40) and on the outside (37) through two weeks.

The Eagles defense communicating clearly before the ball is snapped is especially important because of Stafford’s effectiveness passing off play-action. Stafford has the third most play-action passing yards (275) in the NFL, according to Pro Football Focus, and has completed 21 of 26 on those attempts.

The action forces linebackers to step up, vacating space over the middle of the field, where Stafford has completed 11 of 17 passes between 10-19 air yards, according toNext Gen Stats.

Expect the Rams to utilize motion to create advantages in the passing game, particularly against Eagles cornerback Adoree’ Jackson, though he looked much better in Week 2 compared to Week 1. Adams, who had more than 100 yards receiving and his first touchdown catch for the Rams last week in Tennessee, will likely be an early target of Stafford’s, especially if Jackson and the Eagles corners give 8-10 yards of space off the ball in zone coverage.

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Cooper DeJean and linebackers Zack Baun and Jihaad Campbell will also be tested over the middle of the field when Nacua is in their zone. But the key to slowing down the offense will be stuffing the Rams’ running game on early downs, and defensive tackle Jordan Davis should be key in doing that for the Eagles.

Nearly 70% of the Rams’ snaps featured some type of zone coverage, according to Fantasy Points Data, with Los Angeles majoring in Cover 3, which has both outside corners responsible for one-third of the field and one-high safety. Defensive coordinator Chris Shula only called man coverage on 27% of their defensive snaps, typically bringing a blitz when that coverage is employed to get the ball out of the quarterback’s hand quicker.

Even when Ahkello Witherspoon, the Rams’ best cover corner, left the Titans game with a broken clavicle (and is now on injured reserve), Shula still called man coverages at times with some combination of Emmanuel Forbes, Cobie Durant, and Darious Williams at corner.

It’s worth noting that outside of Houston’s Nico Collins, neither the Texans nor the Titans have the Eagles’ receiving talent, which could make Sunday’s game a prime opportunity to attack that weak point of the secondary. Tennessee hit two outside fades against the Rams last week, and it’s not a stretch to see the Eagles do the same with A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith.

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The other area of vulnerability for the Rams is over the middle of the field, especially when they play Cover 1 man coverage. That would be a perfect opportunity to hit Brown or Smith on in-breaking routes, or to find tight end Dallas Goedert (should he play) matched up with a nickel or safety. Houston generated some explosive pass plays by doing so against the Rams, as did the Titans with play-action crossing routes.

Jalen Hurts this season has not attempted an intermediate pass, defined as passes in the 10- to 19-yard range, according to PFF. Sunday seems like a good opportunity to do so.

When the Eagles pass, they’ll need to be mindful of Los Angeles’ pass-rushing front. Jared Verse, the reigning NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year, hasn’t recorded a sack, but the defensive line still ranks in the top 10 in quarterback pressures (31) and pressure rate (43.8%), according to Next Gen Stats.

They have capable pass rushers off the edge and in the interior. Of the eight sacks they have this season, which ranks third in the NFL through two weeks, four came on four-man pressures. The defensive line picked up where it left off when the Rams brought Hurts down seven times in the divisional playoff matchup.

Outside of Verse, Byron Young (three sacks), Kobie Turner, and rookie Josaiah Stewart have all made their presence felt this season. The Eagles’ offensive line and Hurts will also need to be prepared for the Rams’ blitzes, along with sorting out pre-snap pressure looks that turn into seven or eight defenders dropping into coverage.

Eagles offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo said on Tuesday two Saquon Barkley runs from Sunday’s game against the Chiefs “were super close” to breaking for big runs, a signal that the run game is closer to returning to form.

Instead of running into the strength of the Eagles’ heavy personnel against Dallas, the Chiefs opted to run to the opposite side of the formation’s strength, and it yielded big results for the Eagles. It led to Barkley’s 13-yard touchdown run and other big gains, especially on outside zone runs.

Barkley had two monster performances against the Rams last season, rushing for a franchise record 255 yards in Week 12, then another 205 yards in the divisional playoff matchup. Both games featured Barkley breaking through big runs out of 11 and 12 personnel.

The Rams’ defense is below average in expected points added against the rush vs. those formations. Their stuff rate, defined as the percentage of rushing plays that a defense stops at or behind the line of scrimmage, is the worst in the NFL, according to Next Gen Stats, at 5.7%. The Rams also rarely stacked the box in their first two games (11.3%) but that will likely change against the Eagles.

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The Titans and Texans primarily called downhill runs through the middle of the Rams’ defense. While the Eagles have relied heavily on outside runs early in the season, with 62.5% of their rushes coming outside the tackles, according to Next Gen Stats, utilizing power and inside zone run concepts could attack the Rams’ relatively light interior defensive line.