NFL Football
2010-11-15 - Philadelphia Eagles at Washington Redskins
A Sports Betting Pick by FirstDown
Football : United States : NFL : Week 10
Monday 15 November 2010 - Kickoff 8:30pm ET
1:30am (British Standard Time)
Washington Redskins (4-4)
The Washington Redskins come off their bye week with hope that the controversy surrounding their last games is behind them. The Redskins would have seen the New York Giants fall to a defeat on Sunday meaning a win here would put them just 1 game behind in the NFC East.
There is clearly something going on in Washington that is yet to be explained reasonably. Donovon McNabb was benched in their last game against the Detroit Lions when trailing by 6 and under 2 minutes to play. First, McNabb's ability to master the 2 minute Offense was questioned but then was changed to his conditioning. The story was further developed when it was revealed that McNabb knew he was going to be benched, something Donovon later denied himself.
The chances of McNabb staying in Washington beyond this season look slimmer all the time following this controversy, but the last time he was benced, Donovon played a superb follow up game.
Washington will look to the ground game as they did last month in Philadelphia. Ryan Torain had 70 yards on the ground that day as the Redskins got 169 yards as a team. Torain was injured last time out against the Lions but has returned to practice.
Philadelphia Eagles (5-3)
A solid win over the Indianapolis Colts was based around the superb play of returning QB Michael Vick. The Eagles are now just 0.5 games behind the Giants in the NFC East and will have a chance to tie for the lead here ahead of the meeting with New York next Sunday night.
Michael Vick has to be eternally grateful to Donovon McNabb. It was McNabb who persuaded the Eagles to take a chance on Vick after the latter's release from prison, and it was McNabb who instilled a new work ethic in Vick. Now it is Vick who gets to run the Eagles Offense that had belonged to McNabb for 10 years.
Vick has thrown 7 TD passes and is yet to have thrown an Interception and currently is holding the highest QB Rating of his career. He will be hoping for a longer game than last time when he exited the first meeting in the 1st Quarter and then missed 2 subsequent games.
The Eagles Defense is also picking up pace, even though it is a young unit. Last week they managed to sack Peyton Manning 3 times and Intercept him 2 times, both by Asante Samuel. The Defense will have picked up a lot of confidence from that performance and will need to replicate that more often down the stretch with a tough 2nd half of the season in front of them.
Head to Head
The Philadelphia Eagles have enjoyed their visits to Washington in recent years, winning 8 of their last 10 games to FedEx Field.
The road team is 6-1-1 in the last 8 games in the series.
Philadelphia are 3-8 against the spread in their last 11 games, while Washington are 5-12-1 against the spread in their last 18 home games.
The Eagles have scored at least 26 points in games that Michael Vick has started and finished this season.
Prediction
The problem for any team playing the Eagles this season with Michael Vick under Center is that the QB is mobile enough to make plays when the Defense is in man coverage and he is capable of picking teams apart when they play zone coverage.
The bye week would have given the Redskins time to work out a real game plan and perhaps to soothe some of the pain caused in the benching of McNabb 2 weeks ago. Washington have been hit and miss on both sides of the ball so far this season, but Mike Shanahan has had a tough time in the 2nd half of the season, especially in his later years in charge of the Denver Broncos.
I can see this being a very interesting game, but I do favour the Eagles to come out on top. In the first meeting, I felt McNabb would have had a better game against his former team than he did, and I also feel Michael Vick is more than capable of making the big plays more often to change the game tonight.
I think it will be intriguing for a while, but I will look for the Eagles to pull the win in the 2nd half on the legs and arm of Michael Vick. I'll take the Eagles win minus the points.
The Statistics :
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Pick :
Washington Redskins 17-27 Philadelphia Eagles
Gooner’s Statistical Value Bet
Take Philadelphia Eagles -3.5 Points
