The Philadelphia Eagles hope to continue their quest to defend their Super Bowl title as they head to the Big Easy to take on the NFC’s #1 seed and NFC South Champions New Orleans Saints.
The Eagles won a nail-biter over the Chicago Bears in their wild card game. Chicago’s Cody Parkey missed the potential game winning field goal from 43 yards out, enabling the defending Super Bowl Champions to escape with a 16-15 victory to advance to the divisional round of the playoffs where they will face the waiting 13-3 New Orleans Saints who repeated as NFC South champions.
Nick Foles, who began the season as the Eagles’ starter, took over from Carson Wentz again as the latter’s season ended prematurely again due to injury. Foles struggled at the start of the season but worked his magic again to enable the Eagles to crawl their way to the playoffs. Foles threw for 1,413 yards with seven touchdowns and four interceptions during the season. Josh Adams rushed for 511 yards with three touchdowns while Zach Ertz had 1,163 receiving yards and eight touchdowns.
The New Orleans Saints repeated as NFC South winners and are the top-seed in the NFC after an impressive 13-3 season. The Saints have unfinished business in the playoffs after they were eliminated by the Minnesota Vikings in last year’s divisional round on the final play of the game. The defeat was a tough pill to swallow and the Saints went on a mission for redemption. That mission begins by doing what the Bears could not: take out the defending champions.
Drew Brees had a sensational season, throwing for 3,992 yards with 32 touchdowns and only 5 interceptions. Alvin Kamara rushed for 883 yards and scored 14 touchdowns while also adding 709 receiving yards and four touchdown catches. Michael Thomas led the New Orleans receiving corps with 1,405 receiving yards and 9 scores.
Philadelphia is 6-1 SU in their last seven games played. The Eagles are 5-2 SU in their last seven games on the road. New Orleans is 13-2 SU in their last 15 games played. The Saints are 14-2 SU in their last 16 games at home. Head to head, the Saints are 4-1 SU in their last five games against the Eagles. Likewise, New Orleans is 4-1 in their last five home games against Philadelphia.
The Eagles were down and almost out of playoff contention then Nick Foles took over again and it looks like history is starting to repeat itself. With the way he resurrected the Eagles’ season, impossible is nothing for the Eagles right now who may be peaking at the right time. But in as much as we love Foles’ story last season and how much we think that he’s going to do the same thing all over again, let’s be honest and call the Eagles lucky for being here. Credit them for their hard work and effort but more than good, they are lucky because the Bears’ game winning field goal hit the goal post and missed.
No question here that the Saints had the better season, have the better team this season and are playing more consistent this season. The Saints have a much better offense than the Bears who were more of a defensive team. New Orleans beat this team 48-7 last November 18th and although you can say that this is Eagles team is playing at a very different level right now, I don’t think the result is going to change. The Saints are better than the Eagles and they will win this game outright. We’re picking the New Orleans Saints to beat the Philadelphia Eagles on 1/13/19.
The Eagles are 4-1-1 ATS in their last six games played. Philadelphia is 5-2 ATS in their last seven road games played. The Saints are 10-4 ATS in their last 14 games played. New Orleans is 4-2 ATS in their last six home games played. Head to head, the Saints are 4-1 ATS in their last five meetings against the Eagles and also 4-1 ATS in their last five home games versus Philadelphia.
The Saints sputtered to the finish line against the spread, going 1-4 ATS (3-2 SU) in their last five games overall. The Eagles meanwhile, finished strong, going 4-1 ATS in their last five games against teams with winning records and 4-0 ATS in their last four games overall. Add the fact that Philadelphia is 4-0 ATS in their last four playoff games. I’m not sure if the Eagles are going to win outright as I’m picking the Saints. But I don’t think New Orleans is going to win by more than a touchdown.The Saints’ last three wins came by an average winning margin of 6.67 points with two of those games decided by a field goal each. I’ll take the plus points and roll with the underdogs here. Prediction: Eagles +8
The under is 10-6-1 in the Eagles’ games this season. Philadelphia has seen the total hit the under in four of their last six road games. The under is 5-2 in the Saints’ last seven games played. The total has gone over in 9 of New Orleans’ last 13 home games. The total has gone over in in six out of the last nine games between these two teams.
The total has gone over in 22 out of the last 30 road games played by the Eagles. The over is also 7-3 in the Saints’ last 10 playoff games and also over in each of their last 10 home playoff games played. These two teams have combined to score an average of 51.6 points in their last 10 meetings including 53.66 in their last three head to head encounters. Prediction: Over 51
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