The Philadelphia Eagles are heading to London to face the Jacksonville Jaguars this Sunday, but their travel plan has everyone raising an eyebrow. Head coach Nick Sirianni revealed Monday that the team won’t be flying out until Friday, opting for a last-minute dash across the Atlantic instead of getting there early to adjust. It feels like they’re playing with fire, especially with what went down with Sean McVay’s Rams earlier this season.
Sirianni’s “In and Out” Plan Is a Major Gamble
Sirianni is sticking to a game plan where the Eagles practice at home all week, then jet off on Friday. He said it “felt like the best thing for our team, taking everything into account , jet lag, included.” Here’s the kicker: it’s a roughly seven-hour flight, and London is five hours ahead. So, they land Friday night, get all day Saturday to adjust, then it’s game time Sunday at 2:30 p.m. local time at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Seriously, that is not a lot of time to adjust your body clock for a game of this magnitude.
We’ve seen this movie before, right? McVay and the Los Angeles Rams tried a similar “last possible second” travel move for their season opener against the San Francisco 49ers, flying all the way down to Australia. The Rams spent about 30 hours in the country between flights, even after working on the plan for over a year. How did that turn out? The 49ers, who had the good sense to land several days in advance, absolutely rolled them 27-7 in Melbourne. That’s a pretty clear warning sign if you ask me.
Eagles Limp Into London While Jags Are Hot
It’s not like the Eagles are cruising into this game either. They’re sitting at a shaky 2-2 record, coming off back-to-back losses. To make matters worse, they just blew a 10-point fourth-quarter lead to the Rams on Sunday. And to top it all off, they’re likely going to be without both running backs Saquon Barkley and Tank Bigsby.
Meanwhile, the Jaguars are on a roll, having won two straight games. They’re also prepping for back-to-back games in London over the next two weeks, so they’re already getting settled. Beating these Jaguars, on their turf basically, is not going to be an easy task, no matter how the Eagles decide to get there. If things go sideways for the Eagles with this travel strategy, you gotta wonder how many more coaches will risk pushing this “in and out” approach for international games.
This article was created with AI assistance and published under Seattle On Tap’s editorial standards. See our Editorial Policy.
Originally reported by Yahoo Sports.
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