Dr. Bob
Philadelphia (+7) 21 DALLAS 23
15-Sep-08 05:30 PM Pacific Time
Philadelphia appears to be an underrated team to start this season. My ratings favored the Eagles by 14 ½ points last week against the Rams (a 38-3 win) and my ratings favor Dallas by only 3 points in this game, as I have these teams rated the same. The Eagles have a great running back in Brian Westbrook and Donavan McNabb looks completely healthy after spending last season recovering from his knee surgery. The addition of rookie DeSean Jackson has been a bigger factor than most anticipated, as Jackson led the Eagles in receiving yards last week (6 catches for 106 yards) while also setting up a touchdown with a 60 yard punt return. Philly’s defense was pretty good last season (5.2 yards per play allowed to teams that would average 5.4 yppl against an average team) and they’ve added top cornerback Asante Samuel to make the pass defense even better. The Rams were limited to 166 total yards at 3.7 yppl last week and the Eagles are capable of slowing down an explosive Dallas attack. I actually rate Dallas as being slightly better than the Eagles offensively and 0.2 yppl better on defense, but McNabb is the current all-time leader in lowest interception percentage (2.1%) while Dallas quarterback Tony Romo is intercepted 3.7% of the time during his career, which is worse than the league average. Aside from the line value, I also like the fact that Eagles’ head coach Andy Reid is 41-21-2 ATS in his career as an underdog or pick. I’ll consider Philadelphia a Strong Opinion at +7 points or more
Philadelphia (+7) 21 DALLAS 23
15-Sep-08 05:30 PM Pacific Time
Philadelphia appears to be an underrated team to start this season. My ratings favored the Eagles by 14 ½ points last week against the Rams (a 38-3 win) and my ratings favor Dallas by only 3 points in this game, as I have these teams rated the same. The Eagles have a great running back in Brian Westbrook and Donavan McNabb looks completely healthy after spending last season recovering from his knee surgery. The addition of rookie DeSean Jackson has been a bigger factor than most anticipated, as Jackson led the Eagles in receiving yards last week (6 catches for 106 yards) while also setting up a touchdown with a 60 yard punt return. Philly’s defense was pretty good last season (5.2 yards per play allowed to teams that would average 5.4 yppl against an average team) and they’ve added top cornerback Asante Samuel to make the pass defense even better. The Rams were limited to 166 total yards at 3.7 yppl last week and the Eagles are capable of slowing down an explosive Dallas attack. I actually rate Dallas as being slightly better than the Eagles offensively and 0.2 yppl better on defense, but McNabb is the current all-time leader in lowest interception percentage (2.1%) while Dallas quarterback Tony Romo is intercepted 3.7% of the time during his career, which is worse than the league average. Aside from the line value, I also like the fact that Eagles’ head coach Andy Reid is 41-21-2 ATS in his career as an underdog or pick. I’ll consider Philadelphia a Strong Opinion at +7 points or more
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