Eagles-Chargers tale of the tape: Where do the Birds have the edge for Monday night?

The Eagles and Chargers will face off Monday night as two very different 8-4 teams.

By Nick Tricome
PhillyVoice Staff

Bill Streicher/Imagn Images

DeVonta Smith and the Eagles haven't faced the Chargers since Week 9 of 2021 at the Linc.

The Eagles and Chargers will arrive to their Monday night matchup in LA with both of their seasons at a pivotal point. 

The Eagles are coming in as an offensively dysfunctional and defensively crumbling mess looking to stave off the lingering fear of another 2023-esque collapse after dropping two straight games in devastating fashion to the Cowboys and then the Bears.

The Chargers are showing up with wins in four of their last five, and looking to keep up with the Broncos in the AFC West while trying to fully bury a Chiefs team that had dominated the division for so long. They have some decent-looking stats on paper, too, but their star QB Justin Herbert will be managing a broken left (non-throwing) hand as he plays. 

It's a battle of two 8-4 teams, but very different ones, each with much on the line for Week 14.

Here's a look at how they compare by the numbers, with advantages bolded...

Offense

Defense

Leaders

Series history and previous matchup

The Chargers, dating back to the San Diego days, have only played the Eagles 13 times all-time, but they lead the matchup with an 8-5-0 record.

When these two previously faced one another, it was Week 9 of the 2021 season at Lincoln Financial Field. A young Justin Herbert and the Chargers beat a then-unsteady Jalen Hurts and the Eagles, 27-24, on a last-second field goal, and with Herbert going 32-for-38 passing for an absurd 84.2 completion percentage.

The Eagles dropped to 3-6, but the notorious Nick Sirianni flower analogy and the 44-6 thrashing of the Lions preceded that game, then the 30-13 walloping of the Broncos came right after to get the Eagles on course and, eventually, to the playoffs. 

Hurts, Sirianni, and the Eagles were rapidly figuring out their identity by the time the Chargers came around to beat them, and while getting dropped to three games under .500 was a tough hole to climb out of, that week only ended up a minor setback in the grand scheme of things.

This Monday night, though, more than four years later, is looking likely to be crucial to the final trajectory of the 2025 Eagles' season.

https://www.phillyvoice.com/eagles-chargers-tale-of-the-tape-stat-comparison-series-history-jalen-hurts-justin-herbert/

Right now we don’t really stack up well against any team. We don’t play complementary football, the offense is a mess and the defense has been showing signs of wear and tear.

Hopefully though the team used the mini bye week well and managed to get on the right track. I’m not expecting it but we can only hope that they have sorted some things out. If not? They are going to get demolished by the Chargers who have a pretty good defense and an offense that can put up points.