NFL Sunday Night Football Betting Picks: Philadelphia Eagles at Atlanta Falcons
Added on Sep 18, 2011 by Jack Thurman in
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The reprehensible Michael Vick returns to Atlanta as the Philadelphia Eagles travel to the Georgia Dome to take on the Falcons. The Eagles took advantage of the St. Louis Ram’s attrition rate due to injury to take a Week 1 victory. The Falcons were embarrassed in a lopsided loss at Chicago.
Philadelphia Eagles at Atlanta Falcons
September 18, 2011 5:25 PM Pacific
The public is still in love with this Philadelphia Eagles and ESPN and their ilk in the mainstream sports media continues to shove the laughable concept that Michael Vick is a ‘changed man’ down our collective throats. In terms of Vick, you don’t just get ‘rehabilitated’ when you enjoy butchering and torturing helpless creatures for your entertainment. That’s the sign of someone with a profound mental disorder and not the kind of guy that I want living on my street, let alone leading my football team. But that’s the Philadelphia Eagles’ problem and not mine.
As far as the Eagles’ team goes, we remain unconvinced that the media hype of them being a ‘dream team’ is valid. We’ll believe it when we see it. For now, we can get some line value based on the disparate results of Week 1. One of the better pieces of handicapping wisdom I’ve received in my life is that ‘no team is as good as they look at their best, nor as bad as they look at their worst’. This Atlanta Falcons team is going to be pretty good, and the Eagles benefited as much from the Rams’ injuries as anything they did themselves. More significantly, some cracks have started to appear in Michael Vick’s game–the same sort of issues that limited his upside in Atlanta. He’s overthrowing open receivers more, throwing bad passes into double coverage more–that sort of thing. So far his sycophants in the media have overlooked it since they’re in the business of rah rah cheerleading and not serious analysis, but we’ve noticed it.
Less than a year ago, the Eagles won at home as -2 point favorites. Now they’ve been bet up to -2′ point favorites on the road. This implies that they’re nearly a touchdown better than Atlanta on a neutral field and we sure don’t see that. Keep in mind that Atlanta has been one of the best home teams in the NFL since Mike Smith took over as coach–they’re 8-1 SU/6-3 ATS in their last 9 home games. The line was ‘shaded’ toward the public backed Eagles when it opened and now its been bet out of whack even further. Falcons win outright.
Bet Atlanta Falcons +2′ over Philadelphia Eagles
