Monday Night Football: Philadelphia Eagles at Washington Redskins

Added on Nov 12, 2010 by Jack Thurman in

NFL

Monday Night Football features a couple of NFC East teams trying to keep pace with the red hot New York Giants as the Philadelphia Eagles head to FedEx Field to face the Washington Redskins. Washington won the first matchup this season as Donovan McNabb made his first appearance against his old team since joining the Redskins. Philly is off a hard fought home win over Indianapolis while Washington lost to Detroit heading into their bye week.

Philadelphia Eagles at Washington Redskins
November 15, 2010 5:30 PM Pacific

Lots of subplots to this game not the least of which is the ‘feud’ between Redskins’ head coach Mike Shanahan and quarterback Donovan McNabb. Shanahan pulled McNabb late in the loss to Detroit and inserted Rex Grossman. The original rationale was that Grossman was more familiar with the two minute offense, but that story soon changed with Shanahan questioning McNabb’s conditioning. McNabb obviously took offense and ever since they’ve been sniping back and forth in the media. It’ll be interesting to see how McNabb responds–Shanahan is likely hoping to ‘light a fire’ under his quarterback but there’s no shortage of potential downside scenarios as well. On the other side of the field, Michael Vick is back at quarterback for the Eagles and many Philly fans suggested that had he not left with an injury that they would have beaten the Redskins in the first meeting. Since Washington had a double digit lead when Vick went out that’s a bit of a stretch, but it does set up a compelling scenario for this game.

The Eagles have overachieved somewhat based on the personnel on hand and enter this contest with a 5-3 record. Ever since they put Vick back in the lineup, however, they’ve been badly overvalued by the betting public which is partially why they’re only 3-5 ATS. Washington, on the other hand, has been a solid pointspread play despite a 4-4 SU record going 4-2-2 against the number. They’re 2-0-2 at home and 4-0 on natural grass. They haven’t performed well on Monday Night Football dating back a number of years–since 2008 they’re 0-3 SU/ATS in this spot and going back to 1992 they’re 6-14 SU/7-13 ATS on Mondays. They have been solid underdogs going 3-1 this year and 13-10 ATS since 2008. They’ve underachieved at home going 9-11 SU/7-11-2 ATS since 2008. The Eagles have been strong on MNF with a 3-0 ATS/2-1 SU mark since 2008 and 19-11 since ’92. Philly has been a solid road favorite going 5-2 ATS since 2008.

Ultimately, we’re still of the opinion that the public is overvaluing this Eagles’ team. Both sides have liabilities and it’s hard to justify the Eagles as -3 road favorites given the relative parity between these teams. Washington has covered four of the last five head to head and we’ll cross our fingers that McNabb doesn’t have a negative response to Shanahan’s questioning of his conditioning. We look for a close game with the Redskins taking a hard fought SU win.

Bet Washington Redskins +3 over Philadelphia Eagles