Eagles Brace For Noisy Seattle
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- The Seattle Seahawks have arguably the loudest home field advantage in the NFL. The Eagles' eardrums will have a chance to experience the noise on Sunday.
The Eagles are already faced with the challenge of doing battle with a talented Seattle squad which came away with a victory in New England last weekend. The Seahawks are 4-0 at home this season and this may be the Eagles' toughest test over their final seven games. Head coach Doug Pederson knows the crowd in Seattle has the ability to make a difference in every Seahawks' home game.
"This 12th Man is real," said Pederson. "It's a loud place. Those things are the things that keep your offense from executing and staying out on the field. This team definitely feeds off of that and tries to get you into second and long and third and long situations."
Quarterback Carson Wentz has already passed several tests in his NFL rookie season. Wentz won his first NFL road game on a Monday night and has had his share of impressive moments during the team's defeats away from home. Wentz is trying to take the same approach to playing on the road in noisy Seattle this weekend.
"You need to communicate a lot," Wentz said. "You need to over-communicate and you need to work on hand signals both with the [offensive] lineman and the receivers. You have to work on a lot of those things, but those are things we've done already. We've done them in Chicago and we've done them in Washington."
The Eagles have struggled on the road this season with a record of 1-4 away from South Philadelphia. Pederson has seen his squad play out of character in several road contests this season and knows his team cannot afford to make the same mistakes in Seattle.
"You try to press just a little bit," said Pederson. "You try to get that quick early lead and get the crowd out of it. You maybe do some things that are uncharacteristic from what you do at home. We just can't do that."
Sunday would be the perfect time for the Eagles to figure out a cure for their road woes. At 5-4, the Eagles are in the hunt for a playoff berth in the NFC and linebacker Jordan Hicks believes every game is an important one at this stage of the season.
"Every game from here on out is huge for us," Hicks said. "It's a one-game mentality. I know you've probably heard that a lot, but it's the truth especially on the road. This is, for us, a must win."
