The Eagles and Vikings each won their season opener and clash in the City of Brotherly Love in the second of two Monday Night games.
The Eagles are a 2.5-point favorite in this game with the total sitting at 50.5. The public has slightly backed the Vikings in this game, as the Eagles opened as a 3-point favorite but are a 2.5-point favorite as of Friday.
In their season opening games the Vikings were at home at beat the Green Bay Packers 23-7 and the Eagles were on the road and beat the Detroit Lions in a 38-35 shootout. After Week 1 the Vikings are 1-0 ATS with an O/U record of 0-1 and the Eagles are 0-1 ATS with an O/U record of 1-0.
Defense and Jefferson Does the Trick
In the win over the Packers the Minnesota defense played great and WR Justin Jefferson had a huge game.
The Vikings held Aaron Rodgers and the Packers to 338 yards and they played great D in the red zone. That D will be tested again in this game facing an Eagles team that racked up 455 yards in their opener.
Kirk Cousins passed for 227 yards with two TD and no INT. Jefferson was, by far, his main target with 184 yards, hauling in both TD, and the next leading receiver only had 36 yards. Dalvin Cook rushed for 90 yards averaging 4.5 yards per carry.
Green Bay continued to give Jefferson space and that, obviously, backfired. The Eagles will not make that mistake, so Cousins will, likely, have to spread the wealth more in this game.
Cousins is 6-3 all time facing the Eagles and he had lost nine straight Monday Night games before winning the last two.
Hurts Puts the Hurt on the Lions
In the 38-35 win over the Lions in Week 1 Jalen Hurts had a big game passing for 243 yards with no TD and no INT and also rushed for 90 yards and a TD. Miles Sanders led the way with 96 rushing yards and a TD and A.J. Brown had a great debut for the Eagles with 155 receiving yards.
Philadelphia looked like they would win easily in the Lions win but only won by three points after being outscored 14-0 in the fourth quarter. Philly gave up a lot of big plays in the air and they cannot allow that to happen facing Cousins and Jefferson. Still, they came into the season with issues in the secondary and that will continue in Minnesota Monday night.
The Eagles only had one sack last week and pressuring Cousins will be key for them. However, it does not help that pass rusher Derek Bennett was lost for the season with a torn ACL. On the other side of the coin the Vikings had four sacks last week and they will come after Hurts early and often.
Key Betting Trends
Minnesota is:
- 4-1 ATS in their last 5 games in September
Philadelphia is:
- 0-4 ATS in their last 4 games overall
- 1-3-1 ATS in their last 5 games following a straight up win
- 0-5-1 ATS in their last 6 games after scoring more than 30 points in their previous game
- 3-14 ATS in their last 17 games in September
The Prediction
While the Eagles are 5-2 ATS in their last seven games facing the Vikings do not look for that trend to continue. Ok, so the Eagles won their opener on the road but they only won by three points and allowed 35 points to a Detroit team that had the second worst record in the NFL last season. Conversely, Minnesota crushed a Green Bay team that made the playoffs last season and won 13 games. The Vikings will play well on both sides of the ball and even on the road and they will not only cover the 2.5-point spread but I look for them to get the W as well.
PICK: Vikings +2.5