Eagles vs. Ravens Spread

Written by Jason Lowry

The Baltimore Ravens will look to bounce back from a bad loss to the Giants last week, when they host the Philadelphia Eagles this Sunday. The Ravens 30-10 loss to the Giants pushed their record to 6-4 and they again trail the Pittsburgh Steelers for 1st place in the AFC North, as for the Eagles they got stunned by the Bengals last week and wound up with first tie in the NFL since 2002. The tie was almost the same as a loss for the Eagles, as they now sit all alone in last place in the NFC East, but the season is not over for these guys as they still get to face each division opponent one more time. If you are looking to do some NFL betting this weekend, the oddsmakers have the Ravens 1 point favorites over the Eagles.

The Eagles offense was just plain awful last week, as Donovan McNabb threw 3 interceptions and had a fumble to go along with it. Now McNabb did have 339 yards passing in this one, but was just 28 of 58 passing. Now the reason for McNabb having to air it out so much, was running back Brian Westbrook was not having a ton of success on the ground, as Westbrook ran 14 times for 60 yards. The Eagles only touchdown game on a 4 yard pass to tight end LJ Smith in the 3rd quarter. If McNabb plays like this the rest of the way, there is little doubt he will be in an Eagles uniform for much longer, but for now we think this guy has too much talent to play that poorly in back to back weeks. The only concern we have is the Ravens defense is playing lights out this season, and could very easily cause a lot of problems for McNabb and company.

The Eagles defense definitely played well enough to win this football game. If you hold the opposing team to just 13 points you will win the majority of those football games. The Eagles were all over Bengals quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick as they sacked him 8 times through a game and overtime of play. The Eagles also made big plays forcing two turnovers, and allowed the Bengals just 56 yards rushing the whole game. It could be up to this unit to again keep this team in the game this weekend, and more importantly keep their playoff chances alive.

There was so much hype going into the Raven and Giants game last week, as many thought the Ravens had the talent to make this a football game, but they wound up getting man handled by the defending Super Bowl Champs. Joe Flacco actually looked like a rookie last week throwing for just 164 yards and 2 interceptions, while the usual dominant running game of the Ravens was no where to be found, as Flacco actually led the team with 57 yards thanks to a 30 yard scamper. If this team can’t find a way to run the football against the Eagles this week, we have a hard time believing they can win this football game, but if the ground game is going its likely going to be the Ravens game to lose.

The Ravens defense was suppose to have the defensive talent to shut down the Giants rushing attack, but all that happened was the trio of Giant running backs combined for over 200 yards and 2 scores, and had multiple big runs in this one, including a 77 yard run by Ahmad Bradshaw. Now the key to stopping the Eagles is taking the football out of Westbrook’s hands, as he is the Eagles playmaker in both the running and passing game. Last week the Ravens weren’t able to get much pressure on Eli Manning as they had just one sack, but linebacker Ray Lewis was able to grab his 3rd interception of the season. We look for this defense to bounce back at home this week, and at least play well enough to win this football game.

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