Eagles vs. Giants: Andy Reid Talks Matchups

On Sunday, the Eagles will not have WR Hakeem Nicks to deal with, but even without him the Giants passing game still has some serious weapons.

First and foremost among them is Victor Cruz, who absolutely torched the Eagles with 9 catches 238 yards & 3 TDs over 2 games last season. The Giants like to move Cruz into the slot, which he could get matched up on rookie Brandon Boykin. Any Reid says the Eagles are prepared.

"That's what they do. They do that against everybody so we understand that. He's one of the best slot players in the league and so you honor that and you get yourself ready to play against that."

The question is whether they leave Boykin in the slot to cover Cruz, as they did with Fitzgerald last week, or try something different? Eliot delved in to that very subject earlier this week, so we won't here.

We will discuss another big matchup further... Martellus Bennett vs Mychal Kendricks.

The Giants signed Bennett away from the Cowboys this offseason and so far he's been a revelation with 15 catches for 185 yards and 3 TDs in 3 games. Andy Reid recognizes that the 6-6 TE poses a serious matchup problem

"You can't grow any taller on our side of it so you just compete," he told reporters this week. "That's what you do and make sure you use proper leverage and technique and so on."

The primary responsibility for covering Bennett will probably fall on 5-11 rookie LB Mychal Kendricks.

"Well Mychal is a good athlete. He runs well," said Reid. "He understands leverage and it'll be a nice challenge for him when he has the opportunity to cover [Bennett]."

While its true that Bennett isn't ever going to outrun Kendricks, the danger really comes in the red zone, where size starts to become more important than speed. However, we've seen Kendricks deal pretty well with other big TEs this season. Most notably, he even went up and knocked a pass away from 6-4 Dennis Pitta in the Baltimore game.

Plus, Kendricks isn't the only option. We've seen the Eagles use Nnamdi Asomugha on TEs in the past and at 6-2 he can at least compete with Bennett size-wise. With Hakeem Nicks out, the Eagles might actually be able to spare Asomugha on a TE in the red zone.

Of course, then someone else has to deal with 6-6 WR Ramses Barden... Yeah, the Giants are pretty giant.