There’s really no good reason why the Philadelphia Eagles shouldn’t beat the New York Giants at MetLife Stadium today.
The Eagles are rolling. They’ve won three of their last four. They have one of the most efficient offenses in all of football; they rank second in EPA per play since Week 8. Their rushing attack is about to face a Giants run defense that ranks 30th in DVOA.
Philly’s defense has made a habit of shutting down lesser quarterbacks all season long. Daniel Jones might get a boost from Jason Garrett’s departure but he’s still playing behind a bad offensive line and injury issues are limiting the weapons available to him.
If this all seems too straightforward and easy, well, it’s hard to blame you. Things don’t always go as expected in the NFL. And there are some reasons to believe the Giants can pull off an upset. I offered some of those over to our enemies at Big Blue View:
The Eagles take a lesser opponent too lightly and come out flat. They fall behind early and can’t merely rely on their run game to get them back into it.
The Giants sell out to stop the run and force Hurts to move the ball with his arm.
The Eagles struggle to run the ball with Jordan Howard out. Miles Sanders puts the ball on the ground at least once (he has fumbling issues) and/or he’s guilty of dancing too much in the backfield and getting Philly’s offense off schedule.
The Giants benefit from firing Jason Garrett, who was a terrible offensive coordinator. Basically any replacement has the chance to be better.
The Eagles go back to playing their soft Cover 2 defense that allowed five quarterbacks to complete over 80% of their passes against them this year.
The Giants treat this game like their Super Bowl after Joe Judge and some players whined about the Eagles tanking in Week 17 last year, which prevented New York from making the playoffs.
That being said, there are stronger reasons to believe the Eagles are going to beat the team that they’ve consistently owned for years now. The Birds have a number of matchups working in their favor and they’re going to pull off this win in front of a lot of Eagles fans traveling to North Jersey to see this game in person.
For more, check out BGN’s weekly NFL game predictions. For the latest odds, check out our partners at DraftKings Sportsbook.
Suggested format:
Score prediction:
Bold prediction:
My predictions:
Score prediction: 30 to 20, Eagles win.
Bold prediction: DeVonta Smith scores three touchdowns.
Your predictions:
Leave your own score predictions in the comments.
