The Los Angeles Rams didn’t find any success traveling to Australia right before their Week 1 game and were questioned in the aftermathbut that isn’t stopping the Philadelphia Eagles from playing things close ahead of Sunday’s game in London against the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Head coach Nick Sirianni told reporters Monday the plan is to leave for London on Friday following a full week of practice in Philadelphia.
He explained the Eagles studied the situation and “felt like this is the best thing for our team, taking everything into account—jet lag included.”
Zach Berman of The Athletic highlighted Philadelphia’s past travel plans and some of the differences between this situation and that of the Rams:
Still, Los Angeles opened itself up for criticism in the aftermath of its 27-7 loss to the San Francisco 49ers in Australia. The 49ers arrived well in advance and were the better team throughout the game.
Head coach Sean McVay even seemed to acknowledge he made a mistake approximately two weeks later when he joked, “Sometimes you win, sometimes you learn and sometimes you have a dumbass coach that makes travel plans that puts you in bad spots.”
Traveling to London is a shorter flight than Australia, although fans will surely make the comparisons.
Philadelphia is also coming into the game in need of a win after losing its previous two games to the Chicago Bears and Rams. What’s more, star running back Saquon Barkley suffered a hamstring injury in the loss to Los Angeles.
Syrians said he would have an update on Barkley by Wednesday.
Jacksonville, by comparison, is coming into Sunday’s game with far more momentum after a Week 4 win over the Cincinnati Bengals improved its record to 3-1.
Source: bleacherreport.com
