Philadelphia Eagles at Dallas Cowboys NFL Preview and Odds
The Philadelphia Eagles season is officially a train wreck. Coach Andy Reid is in his final days as Eagles coach ending what is arguably the greatest era in Eagles history. Under coach Reid, the Eagles have played in the Super Bowl and hosted four NFC Championship Games and played in five of them. But this season is likely the last for him as his team can do no right. Last week they lost to the woeful 2-8 Carolina Panthers while making Panthers quarterback Cam Newton look as good as the media makes him out to be.
History
The Cowboys are a tough team to figure out. Sometimes they look really good in beating the New York Giants and nearly doing it again. They go on the road and hang with the Baltimore Ravens (most say they should have won that game), beat the Tampa Bay Bucs, and beat these Eagles by 15 points. But then they look terrible for most of the game against the Washington Redskins, look awful against the Chicago Bears, barely beat a bad Cleveland Browns team at home in overtime and looked horrible against the Seattle Seahawks.
On paper, the Cowboys look like an easy winner in this game. But the Eagles now have nothing to play for other than being a spoiler. There are few teams the Eagles would rather spoil than the Dallas Cowboys. NFC East rivalries are heated. Maybe some of the most heated in sports. So the Eagles will be motivated.
The Cowboys lead the all-time series 57-46. Some of the most memorable games in the series include the NFC Championship Game during the 1980 season in Philadelphia. The Eagles had only beaten the Cowboys three times since 1969, so the Cowboys were definitely in the Eagles heads. The Eagles even elected to wear white jerseys in the game to make the Cowboys wear their blue jerseys because they were supposedly a "jinx". The Eagles did beat their nemesis 20-7 to advance to their first Super Bowl.
The Cowboys knocked the Eagles out of the playoffs twice in the 1990s on their way to Super Bowl wins. In this era there was bad blood between Cowboys coach Jimmy Johnson and Eagles coach Buddy Ryan for supposed bounties on Cowboys players and accusations of running the score up, followed by actual intentional running up the scores. All the stuff of bitter rivals. The teams don't like each other, the fans don't like each other. So throw out the records.
Our Pick
5Dimes has the Eagles +11 -125 or +425. The Cowboys are -11 +105 -550. Over/under is 43. 11 points is a lot in the NFL. It's especially a lot in a rivalry game. And it's a mountain if you're taking it from the mediocre Cowboys. So therefore we like the Eagles +11 and the over.
