The picture in defensive end Trent Cole's locker says it all.
It's a small picture of Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers with a circle around it. If the Eagles want to slow down the league's fifth-best passing offense, they have to get to Rodgers. And Cole, who was tied for 10th in the NFC with 10.0 sacks this season, has to lead the charge.
"A big key to this game is getting pressure on the quarterback. The only way we're going to get pressure is everybody's got to be executing on their plays. Everybody's got to beat the man across from you," Cole said on Friday. "We can beat this team. We know we can go out there and beat this team. We had the previous showdown with them. I think we should have won that game. We said we were going to get another shot at them down the road and here it is. We got it. It's going to be this Sunday, so Eagles fans be ready because we're coming.
Cole referred to the season opener where the Packers beat the Eagles 27-20. In that game, the Eagles got a good amount of pressure on Rodgers and sacked him three times - Juqua Parker had 2.0 and Cole had the other. Rodgers threw for just 188 yards and had a pair of interceptions. In fact, it was the only game where the Eagles lost after winning the turnover battle.
The Eagles finished the season with 39 sacks, but only had 13 in the first seven games following the bye week. Cole had one sack in the final four games in which he played in.
"It starts up front. As a D-line, we take full responsibility in starting this thing off," Cole said. "What happens to us starts up front, everything else will take care of itself."
The ironman of the defensive line enjoyed the rest in the Dallas game and is licking his chops at the chance to exact a little revenge for what happened in the season opener.
"We look forward to getting another shot at going against this team," Cole said. "It was a bad situation knowing that you can beat this team and then watching this team do so good against other teams."
-- Posted by Chris McPherson, 3:30 p.m., January 7
