Philadelphia Eagles at Cincinnati Bengals Line
The Philadelphia Eagles will look to get back on track following a narrow defeat to division rival New York on Sunday Night Football while the Bengals will look to build off of their first win of the season. Philly is now 1-9 in games decided by less that a touchdowns the last two season, including 0-4 in 2008. During that same stretch, it is 12-3 in games decided by seven points or more. So it should be good news for the Eagles that they are 9-point favorites with the total set at 41 this week.
Let’s look at just how close the Eagles are to being one of the elite teams in all of football this season. Losing to Chicago by four in Week 4, the Eagles were denied three times from the one-yard line with 5:03 left in the game. The next week, the Eagles had a second-and-one at the Redskins two yard line and had to settle for a field goal. A score would have pulled them to within two points with 9:00 left in the game. You get the idea. Philly will lhave to pull out the close ones in the second half of the season to move itself up the division standings. All four teams in the NFC East division have winning records, and Philadelphia’s struggles in winnable games have dropped it into a last-place tie with Dallas.
The Eagles have to be disappointed with the lack of production they’ve been getting from their All-Pro running back Brian Westbrook. Westbrook has had a tough time staying on the field because of injuries and ranks 33rd in the NFL with 655 yards from scrimmage after leading the league in that category a season ago. Philly was eighth in the league in rushing last season (123.4 ypg) and finds itself ranked just 22nd (98.3 ypg) this year. Philly should have a good opportunity to revitalize its running attack this week against a porous Cincinnati defense.
The Bengals finally broke through with a win following an 0-8 start over Jacksonville on November 2nd. They took that win into their bye week and will be looking to combine momentum with rest, extra preparation, and home field to come up with another win. QB Ryan Fitzpatrick earned his first win as a starter two weeks ago, completing 21 of 31 passes for 162 yards and two touchdowns and found himself in the good graces of Chad Johnson as hooked up with the All Pro for two touchdown passes. It was a breakthrough game for Fitzpatrick who totaled two touchdowns and five picks through his first four starts. The Bengals also got 104 rushing yards from former Bears running back Cedric Benson for their first 100-yard rushing performance of the season. Benson, a first-round draft pick in 2005 whose career was at a crossroads when he was cut by Chicago over the summer, will likely get more opportunities as Cincinnati’s new featured back. There’s no doubt that Benson is a talented back. We saw his talents on full display down the stretch of the 2006 season, but off-the-field issues have held back the development of his career. The real question this week is if a Bengals defense which is allowing 26.2 ppg can stop the high-powered offense of the Eagles and the answer is no.