NFL: EAGLES ARE BETTOR’S CHOICE
The Philadelphia Eagles and Minnesota Vikings came dangerously close to missing the playoffs, but that’s ancient history as they meet on Sunday afternoon.
Philadelphia is a three-point road favorite and the Over/Under is 41.5. In addition to the game and Total wagering, we also have our Primetime Prop for this contest. Pick the ‘First Scoring Play’ prop for this game and if it hits, and the same scoring play occurs again any time in the third quarter, your winnings will be doubled, up to $100.00 for this specific prop.
The Eagles (9-6-1) are at NFC North champ Minnesota (10-6). Coach Andy Reid’s team certainly boasts playoff caliber stats, outscoring opponents by a healthy 7.9 PPG, while yielding just 4.6 yards per play.
In Reid’s tenure, the Eagles are 8-6 straight-up and 9-5 ATS in the playoffs.
The Vikings were 6-2 straight-up at the Metrodome this year, but are just 1-8 ATS under coach Brad Childress versus teams outscoring opponents by 6.0+ PPG. This is their first playoff game since January 2005, ironically a 27-14 loss in Philly.
In this head-to-head series, Philadelphia owns a 5-1 straight-up and ATS edge including a 23-16 win in Minnesota last October. Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good. Philadelphia is still alive because Oakland upset Tampa Bay as a double digit underdog and Chicago fell in Houston.
The Eagles took advantage of the playoff door opening and beat visiting Dallas to earn the conference’s final postseason berth.
Benched in the second half of a blowout loss at Baltimore in Week 12, quarterback Donovan McNabb has come back with a vengeance to help lead the Eagles to four wins in their last five games, including the stunning 44-6 decision over Dallas.
McNabb passed for two touchdowns and ran for another, and his touchdown-to-interception ratio since Thanksgiving night is 9-to-1.
McNabb doesn’t have a favorable matchup against a Minnesota defense that allowed only 15 passing scores during the regular season and picked up 45 sacks, but contending with Brian Westbrook alone will make it no picnic for the Vikings.
Minnesota reached 10 wins after beating the visiting Giants, 20-19 last week. Adrian Peterson had 103 yards rushing and finished atop the league with 1,760 yards on the ground. He can be expected to take at least 20 handoffs from quarterback Tarvaris Jackson, who is beaming with confidence after throwing for seven touchdowns while starting the last three games in place of Gus Frerotte.
The Eagles allowed the fewest rushing scores (seven) of any NFC team and ranked fourth against the run, so Peterson and Chester Taylor have their work cut out. So do Philly’s Westbrook and Correll Buckhalter, as the Vikings led the league in run defense (76.8 yards per game) for a third straight year.
The Eagles allowed just 57 points over the last five games and will throw the kitchen sink at Jackson, who has to hope he can hit a deep route or two to Bernard Berrian and at the same time watch Peterson grind out yards. The way McNabb and company played last week, it’s tough to go against them.
