Seattle Seahawks (8-2, 5-4-1 ATS) vs Philadelphia Eagles (5-5, 4-6 ATS)
Head Coach Pete Carroll and the Seahawks are headed East to Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia, PA to do battle with Doug Pederson’s Eagles.
The Eagles opened as -3 point favorites, but the line quickly dropped to -1-½ points as many bettors are banking on the Seahawks to take care of business fresh off a bye last week and an OT win over the previously undefeated 49ers two weeks ago.
The total opened at 49-½ but had dropped to 48 at the time of this article’s writing on Tuesday morning.
Watch for TE Jacob Hollister
Third year player Jacob Hollister is quickly becoming Russell Wilson’s favorite target.
Taking over the injured Will Dissly, Hollister had a team high eight catches for 62 yards and a TD in a 27-24 win over the 49ers when last seen.
One game prior, in a 40-34 OT win over the Buccaneers, Hollister had four catches for 37 yards and a pair of Touchdowns.
Eagles need to win
Memories of Super Bowl glory hit the City of Brotherly Love last week when the Patriots came to town, but those good thoughts quickly turned bad as Brady and company left town with a 17-10 win.
Prior to that game, the Eagles beat a very bad Bears team 22-14 and before that they defeated the Bills 31-13 in an explosive performance the week before that.
The Eagles are capable of scoring when things are going right and they are playing a beat-able defense, something this year’s edition of the Seahawks appear to be.
Trailing the Cowboy by one game, the Eagles are in a position where every game counts as only six of them are left.
The situation isn’t dire yet, but if they fall two games behind the Cowboys the hole risks becoming too big for them to dig themselves out.
QB Wentz is slumping
2016’s #2 overall draft pick and Super Bowl winner Carson Wentz is struggling to get points on the board.
Wentz has thrown for just a single TD pass in four consecutive games and was especially bad last week against the Patriots where he was only able to complete 50% of his passes, going 20 for 40.
Playing the Seahawks secondary could be just what the doctor ordered for Wentz.
Tale of two teams
The Seahawks have the fourth best offense in the NFL, largely due to the heroics of MVP favorite QB Russell Wilson.
They average 389.1 yards per game to go along with 27.5 PPG.
The Eagles, ranking 24th, produce only 337.7 yards per game and 23.4 PPG.
Defense is a bit of a different story with the Eagles ranking 9th overall and the Seahawks checking in just 24th.
Philadelphia will give up some points to Seattle’s explosive offense, but they shouldn’t get lit up.
If they can contain or limit Seattle then the question becomes becomes will their defense be able to slow down the Seahawks?
The answer to that question is the key to the game.