The New Orleans Saints and Philadelphia Eagles are two of the most prolific and explosive offensive teams in the NFL, but only one team can advance to the divisional round.
Drew Brees and the Saints will have to solve their on-going road woes against Nick Foles and the upstart Eagles, who can’t seem to do much wrong at the moment.
NFL Football Betting Preview: Saints vs. Eagles in the NFC Wild Card Round
Game Details:
When: Saturday, January 4, 2014, 8:10 PM ET [sc:NFL240banner ]
Where: Lincoln Financial Field, Philadelphia, PA
Odds:
*As of December 31
Money: Saints (+125) vs. Eagles (-145)
Spread: Saints (+2.5) vs. Eagles (-2.5)
Totals: 54.5
Betting on the New Orleans Saints:
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The New Orleans Saints were looking good for a fourth division title under head coach Sean Payton, until a disastrous December came and dashed those dreams. The main culprit for the Saints’ swoon has undoubtedly been their atrocious road form.
Mind you, their 3-5 SU road mark is awful only in contrast to their perfect 8-0 SU home record. Three of those five losses did come to division winners New England, Seattle and Carolina, two by a combined 7 points.
Nevertheless, New Orleans has been undependable away from the Superdome this season, going 0-6 ATS in its last 6 road games. It gets scarier for Saints fans when they realize that their team has never won a road playoff game under Coach Payton, losing on all three tries so far.
But the Saints still have Drew Brees (5,162 yards, 39 TDs this season) and the most prolific non-Peyton Manning passing offense in the NFL (307.4 yards/game). And they just so happen to be facing Philadelphia’s dead-last pass defense (289.8 yards/game).
Since Payton’s arrival in 2006, New Orleans is 4-1 SU in its last 5 games versus the Eagles (although four of those games came at home).
It took exactly half a season, but Chip Kelly has certainly lived up to the hype in his first year in-charge in Philadelphia. The Eagles will enter the playoffs as one of the hottest teams in the NFL, going 7-1 SU in the latter half of the season. [sc:NFL240banner ]
Kelly has transformed the Eagles’ offense into the most prolific running team in the NFL (160.4 yards/game) and LeSean McCoy (1,607 yards) into by far its most prolific rusher. That running attack has exploded for over 200 yards three times in the last seven contests.
But without a doubt the Eagles’ breakout star this season has been quarterback Nick Foles. Not surprisingly, Philly’s amazing second half surge coincided with the terrific Foles being established as the starter. The sophomore has an uncanny 27:2 TD-to-INT ratio, which was aided greatly by his record-tying 7 TDs against the Raiders.
And while the defense gives up the 29th most total yards (394.2 yards/game), Philadelphia has held opponents to 22 points or below in 11 of its last 12 games.
In contrast to the Saints, who’ve lost four of their last five on the road, Philadelphia is 4-1 SU in its last 5 home games.
