Football is officially back. With Week 1 in the books, let’s look ahead to the first game of Week 2 on Thursday Night.
The Minnesota Vikings travel to Lincoln Financial Field fresh off their loss to the Bucs at home in their opening game. The Philadelphia Eagles host this one off of an ugly victory over the Patriots and find themselves as seven-point favorites with a total of 48.
Line Movement for Minnesota at Philadelphia
The lookahead line for this one was the same at -7. We gave out the Buccaneers at +6 here on EatWatchBet as the Vikings lost outright as 4.5 point favorites on the closing line. On Monday morning the line opened back up at 7.5 but was quickly taken back down to 7.
The Vikings Week 1 performance was quite the mixed bag. As expected, the offense was churning as Cousins threw for 344 yards on a decent Tampa Bay secondary, connecting with Justin Jefferson and rookie Jordan Addison for 42 and 39 yard completions, respectively.
However, the Vikings only amassed 17 points after Kirk Cousins fumbled twice and threw two interceptions. The Buccaneers only generated two pressures but converted on both of them, sacking Cousins twice. I think the offense will be better going forward and the team should benefit from some regression towards the mean in the turnover department.
However, on the defensive side of things, I have much bigger concerns. Baker Mayfield’s passer rating of 94.4 isn’t blowing anyone away, but the Vikings allowed Mike Evans and Chris Godwin to run all over them. Both starting quarterbacks rated poorly in coverage. If the Buccaneers had more competent Quarterback play, we could have easily seen a blowout in Minnesota given the turnover disparity.
Best Bet: Eagles -7 (-105) (DraftKings)
Enter Jalen Hurts and the Eagles. The Eagles started their game off hot against the Patriots, with a pick six on their first defensive possession, followed by a forced fumble and Jalen Hurts to DeVonta Smith touchdown with a short field.
The Eagles played very poorly for the next three quarters of the game, only scoring three field goals the rest of the way. After giving up a touchdown to make it 25-20, Jalen Hurts fumbled on the ensuing play, giving the Patriots an opportunity to take the lead in Philly territory.
The Philly defense got two huge fourth down stops to end the game in what could have been a sour opening to the season for a team with sky high expectations.
With all this being said, I think we learned a lot more about the Patriots than we did about the Eagles in this matchup. The Patriots are well on their way to being a top ten or even top five defensive unit in this league and they showed it against a rusty Jalen Hurts.
The Eagles starters didn’t play a snap in the preseason, and it showed against New England. I think they’ll take full advantage of their next opportunity against an extremely poor secondary to get right and remind the league of their status amongst the top.
With this defense the Vikings are only going to stay in games that the offense can keep up with their opposition and the Philadelphia Eagles do not fit the bill.
I’m playing the Eagles -7 at -110 for a 1% play. To get some added exposure to Philly, I’ll be playing a 6 point teaser paired with the San Francisco 49ers.
Philly -1 / San Fran -2 for 1% as well. Remember to shop around on teasers and do not play them if you are getting worse than -120 for a two team, six point teaser.
