NFL Betting Preview: Washington Redskins at Philadelphia Eagles

Added on Oct 02, 2010 by Jack Thurman in

NFL

NFL betting on Sunday brings us a very entertaining matchup with no shortage of storylines as the Washington Redskins head north to take on the Philadelphia Eagles. This will be Donovan McNabb’s first trip back to his old stomping grounds since being traded to the Redskins, and the reemergence of Michael Vick as the Eagles’ starting quarterback presents an even more intriguing matchup.

Washington Redskins at Philadelphia Eagles
October 3, 2010 1:15 PM Pacific

The Eagles have turned the starting job over to Michael Vick for the foreseeable future, and the public seems convinced that he’s the same quarterback–if not better–than he was before he ‘went away for awhile’. We’re not so sure about that. Credit to Vick for making plays, but he still hasn’t faced a quality NFL defense. Green Bay was tired, banged up and though they had the win ‘in the bag’ when he came in in relief of Kevin Kolb in the opening week. Detroit and Jacksonville are both horrible defenses and that–along with his mobility–has helped provide cosmetic cover for Philadelphia’s porous offensive line. As we’ve said in the past, with the deplorable state of the Eagles’ pass protection we think Vick is the best choice for starting quarterback as well–we don’t buy into the ‘miracle worker’ hype but his experience and mobility gives him the best chance to stay upright and healthy.

Strictly from a matchup standpoint, this is the best defense Vick has faced in his comeback. The Redskins can mount a decent pass rush and they’ve got talent in coverage with safeties LaRon Landry and Kareem Moore. Vick still hasn’t proven that he can read a quality NFL defense–he’s been succeeding at ‘playground ball’ so far which is effective against teams like Detroit and Jacksonville, but much more difficult against a quality stop unit. Mike Shanahan still has work to do in terms of upgrading the personnel in Washington, but make no mistake about it this is now a well coached team in all phases of the game. Even at his best, Vick was at his worst against teams that brought a cohesive gameplan to stop him to the table and we expect Washington to do just that.

Finally, much of NFL handicapping success is understanding the ebbs and flows of motivation and focus. Everyone has heard the cliche’ ‘on any given Sunday, one team can beat any other team’. That’s a function of focus–a team with superior focus and motivation can beat a team with less of these qualities. Football pundits often like to talk of teams ‘circling’ certain games but a lot of the time the games that the talking heads claim are ‘circled’ are just another day at the office for the teams involved. Obviously this isn’t the case for Donovan McNabb and the Redskins–this game has been ‘circled’ since the schedule was released. This has always been a spot where we expected a big performance from Washington, and Vick’s success has made it an even bigger ‘statement’ game for McNabb and company. With Kevin Kolb under center, the Eagles could take the line that they wanted to ‘get younger’ with a more traditional dropback quarterback. With Vick in the lineup, however, it becomes much more personal since the two men play a very similar game and are in a similar age range.

The Redskins have the emotional/subjective edge and we think they’ve got the better team. The public is still buying into the Vick hype, which gives us the opportunity to take Washington at a nice value price and expect the ‘skins to win outright.

Bet Washington +6 over Philadelphia