The Philadelphia Eagles have abandoned the title \u201cDream Team,\u201d and for good reason. The Eagles\u2019 season has been closer to a nightmare than a dream come true. With loads of talent on both sides of the ball, Philly hasn\u2019t been able to put things together. They\u2019ll look to get on track this Sunday when they travel to the nation\u2019s capital to take on the surprising Washington Redskins.<\/p>\n
The Eagles opened as 1 \u00bd point favorites, but slowly over the course of the week the line started to get larger. Currently books are listing the game at either 2 \u00bd or 3 points with 3 being the popular number. The sharps have seen something they like in this matchup, so for this week\u2019s wiseguys free pick, consider siding with the road favorites.<\/p>\n
Injuries could become a factor in this game, and the Redskins seem to be in worse shape. Starting running back Tim Hightower is listed as questionable though he\u2019s expected to play. Nevertheless, he won\u2019t be 100% so it\u2019ll be interesting to see how his shoulder responds to contact. Chris Cooley is also listed as questionable with a bum knee. And Anthony Armstrong\u2019s hamstring is still giving him trouble so he\u2019s listed as questionable as well. Considering the Redskins\u2019 offense isn\u2019t particularly explosive, they need guys like Hightower and Cooley to be healthy and contributing. For the Eagles, tackle Jason Peters is out for the game. But Steve Smith recently came back from injury and should be a solid option for Michael Vick.<\/p>\n
The technical numbers don\u2019t tell much, though this season the Redskins have clearly been better against the spread; Philadelphia is 1-4 while Washington is 3-1. Over the past three seasons, the Eagles are 5-3 ats as a road favorite of 3 points or less, 10-10 on the road, and 7-7 against division opponents. The Redskins are 3-3 as a home underdog of 3 points or less, 6-9 at home, 8-6 versus division opponents and 0-2 after a bye.<\/p>\n
I find Washington\u2019s bye to be interesting. They haven\u2019t played well out of the bye in recent years and they have to play a hungry Eagles team. Also, I\u2019m wondering how the Redskins will handle the press they\u2019ve gotten. Coming into the season, the Eagles were seen as the clear cut favorite to win the NFC East, while Washington was expected to be in the cellar. Now that the opposite scenario has come to be and the \u2018Skins have had an extra week to think about it, how will that affect their mentality? Will they still play with a chip on their shoulder?<\/p>\n
One reason for liking the Eagles is the \u201cthey\u2019re due\u201d factor. Philly is due for a big win. There is simply too much talent for this team to continually lose close ball games. LeSean McCoy and Ronnie Brown are good running backs. DeSean Jackson and Steve Smith are dangerous options on the outside. And of course Michael Vick is still the most explosive player in the League. Defensively, guys like Jason Babin, Nnamdi Asomugha, and Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie need to be more assertive. But again, overall, this is one of the most talented teams in the NFL, and Andy Reid is a great coach.<\/p>\n
The Redskins have been one of the year\u2019s biggest surprises, along with Detroit and San Francisco. But perhaps \u201cthey\u2019re due\u201d for a letdown. Look for the Eagles to bring Washington back down to Earth in this one. Consider siding with the wiseguys and laying a field goal on the road. Good luck!<\/p>\n
We cleaned up yesterday and are currently on a 75% pick run, visit the winning NFL picks page for more winners from the nations best handicapping team.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Philadelphia Eagles have abandoned the title \u201cDream Team,\u201d and for good reason. The Eagles\u2019 season has been closer to a nightmare than a dream come true. With loads of talent on both sides of the ball, Philly hasn\u2019t been able to put things together. They\u2019ll look to get on track this Sunday when they […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":203,"featured_media":17241,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444,132],"tags":[3091,1976,31,1772,344,345,3254,2524],"class_list":["post-18658","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","category-nfl-handicapping","tag-free-football-picks","tag-free-picks","tag-nfl","tag-nfl-betting","tag-philadelphia-eagles","tag-washington-redskins","tag-week-6","tag-wiseguys"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18658","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/203"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18658"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18658\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18672,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18658\/revisions\/18672"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17241"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}