Posted:
#1
I had a feeling this would come down to 3, especially with the hook coming into play on MNF, no one wants the hook. Interesting though that it opened at 3.5.
The Panthers are the play here, people. 2 units -3 even money. I was telling anyone who would listen that the Panthers would have a comeback year this year after the SB loss hangover year, and then I didn't play on them at all the first 5 weeks, I was going to play on them week 1 but got concerned about Cam's shoulder and the line looked low considering it was a 49er team they had already whooped last year.
The Eagles have also looked very good recently and Wentz certainly looks to be progressing well, but if you look at the defenses he's played against, they are all in the bottom half, most in the bottom 3rd of pass defenses.
Carolina is 5th in the leauge in passing yards allowed and 4th in yards per play, this will be the best defense they've played by far.
Carolina's offense has looked very good, and Philadelphia's defense is 29th in passing yards allowed and 29th in yards per play. Their pass rush should get a nice boost if Fletcher Cox comes back tonight and I think he will, but the Eagles are banged up at other positions.
Ronald Darby is out, and he was brought in to help the secondary which is very suspect and I think will get torched tonight.
Lane Johnson is out, when he was suspended for PEDs the Eagles offense really took a step back. Not a great spot for a backup lineman to come in considering Carolina has the third most sacks in the league.
Sproles is done for the year and Smallwood hasn't practiced this week. They have Blount who has been playing really well, but I think not having the shifty 3rd down pass catching backs is going to hurt the Eagles against Carolina because they have such fast LBs and Blount is more of a power runner I think the D matches up good against his style. Carolina in contrast will have Stewart and McCaffrey healthy and with their secondary I don't think they will be able to stack up against the run.
So you have the better run game, better defense, playing at home with the other team banged up and on a short week having to travel. And while Philly has improved a lot, the Panthers are an established contender who nearly ran the table 2 years ago and were practically unbeatable even without any WRs. Now they have a WR core and a great young RB to go with their defense which is getting back to where it was.
Philly lost at Kansas City and could have lost vs SD, and they gave up a ton of points in the 4th qrtr to the Giants and nearly lost to them. Carolina has wins over NE and Detroit recently, and the only reason the Detroit game was so close is they kept getting penalties, probably because the refs felt bad after taking the game away from them the week before vs the Falcons. Outside of that the Panthers have been very good at avoiding flags and this road game on a short week will be a tough challenge for this young Eagles team.
you will bounce back this game.
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