NFC Wild Card Preview


Philadelphia Eagles (11-5) vs. Dallas Cowboys (11-5)

ATS Records: Philadelphia Eagles (9-7) vs. Dallas Cowboys (9-7)

Saturday, Jan. 9th 2010 @ 8:05 PM E.

Current Line: Dallas -4 O/U: 45

The Cowboys and Eagles hook up for the second straight week, but this time it's win or go home. We had Dallas as a nice 5* best bet winner last Sunday while most of the betting public had the Eagles. The Eagles lost their starting Center two weeks ago and that's always tough when the new center starts his first game. No team is playing as well as the Dallas Cowboys. On offense, defense, and Special Teams, they have it dialed in. The Cowboys defense has recorded back-to-back shutouts and that bodes well if you like Dallas in this game. More on that later.

Cowboys 2-0 vs. Eagles 0-2

You will hear it's very tough for a team to defeat the same team 3 times in a single season. This has happened 19 times in NFL history and 12 of them went on to win the third game.

Better Offense

The Cowboys average 399 yards per game while Philly averages 358. The Eagles average 26.8 ppg while Dallas is at 22.6 ppg.

Better Defense

The Cowboys allow 316 yards per game while the Eagles allow 321. The Cowboys allow 15.6 points per game while the Eagles allow 21.1 ppg.

Better Special Teams

Even

Better coaching staff

Even

Bad Match-up?

For most of the season the Eagles winning formula has been simple: Get turnovers on interceptions and score on big plays. Philly has 25 interceptions which ranks them among the top three ball-hawking defenses in the conference. Their 76 “big plays” on offense, plays that go for 20 yards or more, have them in the top five in that category for the entire league. More than one-third of their offensive touchdowns this season (16 of 41) have been the result of a big play.

Unfortunately for the Eagles, those strengths are counterbalanced by the Cowboys, and that’s why Dallas is such a difficult match-up.

When Romo isn’t facing a consistent pass rush, as he wasn’t on Sunday, he’s even better. The Eagles had to respect the Dallas running game and didn’t blitz as much as they might have liked. That’s been another part of the winning formula for the Eagles this season — they played teams ranked in the bottom half of the league in rushing offense in 10 of their 16 games. The Cowboys will look to change-up some formations on offense and try to confuse the Eagles blitzing defense.

As for the other side of the match-up, the Cowboys’ philosophy this season has been to essentially ignore the Eagles’ running game and concentrate on preventing the big passes down the field. That worked like a charm last Sunday and you can expect more of the same. The Eagles must be able to run the ball if they want to win this game but HC Andy Reid loves the pass.

Shut-Out

There have been five teams that enter this first round of the NFL Playoffs with back-to-back shutouts. All five teams won its first playoff game.

Eagle Trend

The Eagles are 20-13 ATS as 3.5 to 6.5 point road underdogs.

JEFF H www.10starpicks.com
 

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