NFC East Week 9 Bettor’s Playbook: Is The Eagles Offense Running At Full Speed?

Some NFC East teams bring a swagger to their home turf in NFL Week 9. New Jersey sports bettors will keep a close eye on them, along with the division the Philadelphia Eagles play in.

The 3-5 Eagles, fresh off a 44-6 thumping of the Detroit Lions, try to get over the hump by hosting the 4-3 Los Angeles Chargers Sunday. The Birds still don’t have a home victory.

The New York Giants will host the Las Vegas Raiders in a game they will consider winnable. They closed out NFL Week 8 with a 20-17 road loss to the Kansas City Chiefs. 

The 6-1 Dallas Cowboys, who proved they can win without Dak Prescott Sunday against the Minnesota Vikings, take a six-game winning streak into their contest against the 4-4 Denver Broncos. They will get a hero’s welcome for obliterating the NFC East field and being 7-0 against the betting spread.

And the Washington Football Team, which hasn’t won since Oct. 3, will break their losing streak this weekend – with a bye. It can ponder the two missed field goals that contributed heavily to a frustrating 17-10 setback against the host Denver Broncos.

Bettors beware, three other teams have Week 9 byes. That’s the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Seattle Seahawks, and the Lions, who looked like they were in one when they played the Eagles.

Let’s take a look at an interesting NFC East.

 

NFC East by the betting numbers

Here are the current NFC East team records on the moneyline, spread, and over-under (using DraftKings Sportsbook figures at kickoff).

Dallas:

• 6-1  vs moneyline
• 7-0  vs the spread
• 5-2  on the over

Philadelphia:

• 3-5 on the moneyline
• 4-4 vs spread
• 4-4 on the over

New York: 

• 2-6 on the moneyline
• 4-4 vs spread
• 3-4-1 on the over

Washington:

• 2-6 on the moneyline
• 1-7 vs the spread
• 4-4 on the over

Eagles vs. Chargers odds at NJ sportsbooks

Eagles: Did they reel their fans back in?

The Eagles will try to remove the “yeah but” from their 44-6 thrashing of the Detroit Lions on Sunday.

Skeptics will say “yeah but” the Lions are winless, while optimists place the Eagles back where they were before Week 2.

You remember the scenario. The Eagles had plastered the Atlanta Falcons 31-6 in their opener and faced the San Francisco 49ers as a three-point home dog. They should have won the game but lost 17-11 after leaving perhaps 14 first-half points on the board.

Now they have another chance to climb over a good team at home. As they do, we report a number you may not believe.

The Eagles are outrushing the Chargers by more than 20 yards a game. Philadelphia averages 116, while Los Angeles has 94.

Gamblers will want to consider passing yardage on Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert, all-purpose passing yardage by Austin Ekeler and receiving totals of Keenan Allen when they go up later in the week.

Herbert is an excellent pocket quarterback capable of notching huge passing totals. Ekeler and Allen are anytime scoring threats.

NFC East outlook: Eagles look to parlay ground game excellence

Yes, they heard the critics.

Run the ball.

So, it was Boston Scott and Jordan Howard getting a pair of touchdowns rather than Miles Sanders and Kenneth Gainwell. Scott and Howard ran hard and had gaping holes to run through against the Lions. 

Can they keep it going? They won’t be expected to rush for four touchdowns again, but the template has at least been established for the Birds.

The Eagles ran the ball for, get this, 46 times. And only seven carries belonged to Hurts.

Sure, the Lions are winless. “Yeah butt” the Eagles delivered the highest point total against them all year. More than the Baltimore Ravens. More than the Rams, who notched 28 last week and had a dogfight to the end.

There was no dogfight here. If this had been a fight, they would have stopped it.

The Eagles actually toyed with another NFL team. Gardner Minshew relieved Hurts because the game had gotten out of hand, in a good way.

Did the Eagles really rush the passer?

The team that had no sacks put six of them up on Detroit.  They knocked the Lions out of field-goal range on one occasion. Defensive pressure on a receiver also led to a score.

Who were these guys?

The Eagles, expected to win six or seven games at DraftKings, are 3-5. Right where the books figured them to be before the season.

So what should bettors look for against the Chargers?

Scott, Howard, Gainwell and Sanders give the Eagles four respectable running backs, provided the offense can open some holes. They did against Detroit. Can they do it twice in a row?

The Eagles had only two penalties for 15 yards against the Lions, which they’ll try to repeat. And they won the time of possession battle. They would love to do that again.

Broncos vs. Cowboys odds at NJ sportsbooks

Dallas: Still the class of the NFC East

Eagles fans hate to do it, but the Cowboys deserve a tip of the hat for not only winning without Prescott but launching a game-winning drive in the final three minutes with Cooper Rush.

This team blocks for its quarterbacks, has plenty of weapons, and now has captured a game it probably had no business taking.

Remember how bad this defense was last year? This team is much better now. The Cowboys can win even when they hit the under.

Betting props on them won’t be easy, however. The Cowboys won’t rush Prescott back, but they won’t rush an announcement either. He wasn’t ruled out of Sunday’s game until going through warmups. That may be the case again.

Prescott was worth six points to the betting line against the Vikings. Dallas went from -3 to +3, a dramatic swing. 

Giants vs. Raiders odds at NJ sportsbooks

 

G-Men covered Monday night versus Chiefs

As they prepare to host the Las Vegas Raiders, the Giants are reminiscent of last year, in that they are playing harder in mid-season after a woeful start.

But there’s one big difference. The Dallas Cowboys are not letting up. The Giants will never catch the Cowboys in the NFC East race, but at least they are showing up.

Bettors like that.

The G-Men played a strong game in covering 10.5 across the books in a 20-17 Monday Night Football setback to the Kansas City Chiefs.

Now they are slight home dogs in a winnable game against the Raiders, who enter at 5-2 and off of the bye.

It is not likely the Giants will let quarterback Derek Carr go 31-for-34, as he did against the Eagles in a 33-22 Raiders victory two weeks ago.

The Giants are playing much better defensively.

They will have to play that well to contain a Raiders team that has exceeded 30 points in its last two outings.

Hunter Renfrow and Henry Ruggs give the Raiders two of the better receivers in the league. Josh Jacobs and Kenyan Drake are a reliable backfield split. Jacobs is usually a better bet to score.

Ruggs has an unusual connection to MetLife Stadium and it should be considered, even played. He tallied that final-play bomb against the New York Jets here last year, leading to an ugly Jets loss and a change in the coaching staff.

Players who have memories of game-winning plays in stadiums like to ramp up their games there.

Offensively, Daniel Jones is trying to succeed with mirrors.

The Giants, who already have a litany of injuries, lost Sterling Shepard and Dante Pettis in the game against the Chiefs.

Somebody will step up. Maybe it’s John Ross. Maybe it‘s Evan Engram, who scored a TD against Kansas City.

The Giants have the mindset to come out on top in this one. But the injuries continue to hurt.

Around the league

Washinton, the defending NFC East winner, has played well enough to win two weeks in a row. But they self-destruct inside the opponents’ 10-yard line about as the Eagles have been this year.

The dogs were 10-5 through Sunday in Week, eight coming from road clubs.

One of the more impressive teams recently is the New England Patriots. 

We have been touting them ever since they nearly beat Dallas two weeks ago. After then torching the Jets and then defeating the Chargers on the road, they have the look of a playoff team that is under the radar. 

They have a manageable number on the road against the Panthers.

This is a team on the rise.

AP Photo/Paul Sancya