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There’s so much of a beating any one team can take before it becomes clear that they ought to shake it off and react. That is true for pretty much every squad, but is even truer for the Philadelphia Eagles.
The Super Bowl defending champs have not performed up to expectations this season and lost 3 times out of 5 thus far. Philly is now forced to make a strong statement and secure a win in order to save face and make an improvement on their seasonal record. They will get such opportunity when they go to Metlife Stadium to meet the New York Giants for Thursday Night Football.
Giants’ head coach Pat Shurmur has seen some positive developments in his team, having finally gone past their perennial 30-max points scored limit when they succumbed before the Carolina Panthers by a short margin last week (33-31). Nevertheless, New York’s record against Philadelphia is pretty bad, going down 7 times in their last 8 encounters with the Eagles. Philly is the pundits’ favorite, as shown in the available betting odds by expert betting market YOUWAGER.eu: Eagles are on top at -3 spread, and the total is hanging around 44 total points.
Desperate Measures
Philadelphia is under a lot of pressure, having failed to get better results throughout the 2018 season up to this point. Just last week, they were defeated by the Minnesota Vikings 23 to 21, and despite Carson Wentz’ timely return after recovering from a leg ligament injury, the Eagles are not producing the necessary numbers to get to a more respectable position in the league. The one comfort they can rely on is their historical record with New York: Philly has achieved a remarkable 8-3 ATS score on their last 11 appointments at their rival’s turf.
It’s perfectly ok for a Super Bowl winner to falter a bit in the early season; some of the keys may be off, and often times the extra confidence eats away at their sense of reality, but the Eagles need to wake up right about now. They’ve already packed the same number of losses that they took during the entire 2017 season. Meanwhile, at the other NFC East camp, some heavy bricks have fallen on top of Shurmur and Eli Manning, courtesy of wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr, who sat with ESPN to clear his chest and speak his truths about recent Giants deficiencies.
A Mandatory Win for the Eagles
The time’s come for Philadelphia to stand up-right and start putting their mouth filled with past glories at the same primetime position of better performing teams. Carson Wentz has certainly improved since his week 3 return and is completing nearly 68% of his passes. Stemming from the tech card, Eagles are averaging 23 points and allowing 20.8 pts./343.2 yards per game. On the other side, Manning is succeeding at 71.7% of his pass attempts and has taken 6 touchdowns under his belt. New York is allowing a few more points from their adversaries (about 23.8 pts. per game); they’ve failed to keep a strong home front, standing at 3-7 ATS in their last 10 home matches.
My prediction: A single field goal won’t get in the way of a fuller Eagles victory, no matter how much better the Giants may have gotten over the last few weeks. This is a matter of team pride and it is highly inconceivable that Philly will allow this unique chance against a lesser rival to slip away. Philly will cover, and that they will do! End of story.
