Eagles host Cowboys in crucial NFC East struggle
The Giants' recent three-game losing skid has opened the NFC East race up and made it a three-team battle with the Eagles and Cowboys tied for the lead, presently just a half-game ahead of New York. That tie will be broken on Sunday night when Philadelphia hosts Dallas in a prime time contest with the spotlights squarely on the shoulders of the two quarterbacks, Donovan McNabb and Tony Romo.
The NFC East never fails to deliver quality football – in the long run. You just never know what you’re going to get from week to week.
The Week 9 Sunday Night Football matchup between the Philadelphia Eagles (5-2 SU and ATS) and the Dallas Cowboys (5-2 SU, 4-3 ATS) figures to be the must-see game of the week. The winner will stand alone atop the NFC East heading into the second half of the season.
And to think that only two weeks ago, the Eagles and Cowboys were 3-2 and the New York Giants were running away with the division.
The knives always seem to be out for both Tony Romo and Donovan McNabb. These are two of the premier quarterbacks in the league, but they’re also “crafty” types who take their chances and occasionally come up snake eyes.
Romo is especially prone to having the occasional bad game. He’s anything but your prototypical quarterback, going undrafted out of Division I-AA Eastern Illinois in 2003, but his natural athletic gifts have carried him to this point.
The main complaint with Romo (12 TDs, four INTs, 96.8 passer rating) is his preference toward certain receivers and not others. Every quarterback has this attribute, but in Romo’s case, the two wideouts he’s failed to appease are Terrell Owens and Roy Williams. Coincidence? Hardly. Both are downfield threats, and Romo has an average arm, preferring to dial up tight end Jason Witten (37 catches) at an unsexy 9.4 yards per catch.
McNabb’s prospects were a lot brighter coming out of Syracuse in 1999, when the Eagles made him the No. 2 overall pick in the draft – between Tim Couch (Browns) and Akili Smith (Bengals), which just goes to show. McNabb (nine TDs, one INT, 103.2 passer rating) has a stronger arm than Romo, and before the injuries took their toll was even more of an improvisational scrambler.
But like Romo, McNabb is a smart player who’s perfectly willing to dump the ball off to his tight end, this year’s beneficiary being Brent Celek (37 catches, same as Witten). Once again, Terrell Owens was not pleased.
As long as the betting public refuses to fall in love with either quarterback the way they have for Tom Brady and Peyton Manning, handicappers will be able to take advantage – more so with the Eagles. There are plenty of people out there who will never embrace McNabb no matter how well he plays. Rush Limbaugh springs to mind.
While Romo and McNabb have their similarities, everything changes on the other side of the ball. Philadelphia is one of the best defensive teams in the league; heading into Week 8, the Eagles were ranked No. 3 against the pass and No. 8 against the rush by the statheads at Football Outsiders. Then the Eagles thumped the Giants (-1) 40-17 and picked off Eli Manning twice in the process.
Dallas has gotten by with a defense ranked No. 23 against the pass and No. 20 against the run. The Cowboys (-10) beat the Seahawks 38-17 without the benefit of an interception off Matt Hasselbeck; they limited Seattle’s offense by controlling the ball for over 35 minutes.
Our first chance to see Romo vs. McNabb was in 2007. The two teams have traded victories at 2-2, but the Eagles have bagged the cash in each of the last three games. The betting odds for their first encounter of 2009 opened with the Eagles as 3-point favorites with a total of 47.5. That looks like a conservative total for two teams with a combined over record of 11-3 on the season. Three of the four Romo-McNabb contests went over and hit the 50-point mark in doing so.
And it’s too early in the season to be calling this a cold-weather game. The long-range forecast for Sunday night is clear skies and temperatures around 50 degrees. The leather should be flying back and forth in this one.
The Giants' recent three-game losing skid has opened the NFC East race up and made it a three-team battle with the Eagles and Cowboys tied for the lead, presently just a half-game ahead of New York. That tie will be broken on Sunday night when Philadelphia hosts Dallas in a prime time contest with the spotlights squarely on the shoulders of the two quarterbacks, Donovan McNabb and Tony Romo.
The NFC East never fails to deliver quality football – in the long run. You just never know what you’re going to get from week to week.
The Week 9 Sunday Night Football matchup between the Philadelphia Eagles (5-2 SU and ATS) and the Dallas Cowboys (5-2 SU, 4-3 ATS) figures to be the must-see game of the week. The winner will stand alone atop the NFC East heading into the second half of the season.
And to think that only two weeks ago, the Eagles and Cowboys were 3-2 and the New York Giants were running away with the division.
The knives always seem to be out for both Tony Romo and Donovan McNabb. These are two of the premier quarterbacks in the league, but they’re also “crafty” types who take their chances and occasionally come up snake eyes.
Romo is especially prone to having the occasional bad game. He’s anything but your prototypical quarterback, going undrafted out of Division I-AA Eastern Illinois in 2003, but his natural athletic gifts have carried him to this point.
The main complaint with Romo (12 TDs, four INTs, 96.8 passer rating) is his preference toward certain receivers and not others. Every quarterback has this attribute, but in Romo’s case, the two wideouts he’s failed to appease are Terrell Owens and Roy Williams. Coincidence? Hardly. Both are downfield threats, and Romo has an average arm, preferring to dial up tight end Jason Witten (37 catches) at an unsexy 9.4 yards per catch.
McNabb’s prospects were a lot brighter coming out of Syracuse in 1999, when the Eagles made him the No. 2 overall pick in the draft – between Tim Couch (Browns) and Akili Smith (Bengals), which just goes to show. McNabb (nine TDs, one INT, 103.2 passer rating) has a stronger arm than Romo, and before the injuries took their toll was even more of an improvisational scrambler.
But like Romo, McNabb is a smart player who’s perfectly willing to dump the ball off to his tight end, this year’s beneficiary being Brent Celek (37 catches, same as Witten). Once again, Terrell Owens was not pleased.
As long as the betting public refuses to fall in love with either quarterback the way they have for Tom Brady and Peyton Manning, handicappers will be able to take advantage – more so with the Eagles. There are plenty of people out there who will never embrace McNabb no matter how well he plays. Rush Limbaugh springs to mind.
While Romo and McNabb have their similarities, everything changes on the other side of the ball. Philadelphia is one of the best defensive teams in the league; heading into Week 8, the Eagles were ranked No. 3 against the pass and No. 8 against the rush by the statheads at Football Outsiders. Then the Eagles thumped the Giants (-1) 40-17 and picked off Eli Manning twice in the process.
Dallas has gotten by with a defense ranked No. 23 against the pass and No. 20 against the run. The Cowboys (-10) beat the Seahawks 38-17 without the benefit of an interception off Matt Hasselbeck; they limited Seattle’s offense by controlling the ball for over 35 minutes.
Our first chance to see Romo vs. McNabb was in 2007. The two teams have traded victories at 2-2, but the Eagles have bagged the cash in each of the last three games. The betting odds for their first encounter of 2009 opened with the Eagles as 3-point favorites with a total of 47.5. That looks like a conservative total for two teams with a combined over record of 11-3 on the season. Three of the four Romo-McNabb contests went over and hit the 50-point mark in doing so.
And it’s too early in the season to be calling this a cold-weather game. The long-range forecast for Sunday night is clear skies and temperatures around 50 degrees. The leather should be flying back and forth in this one.
