Take a week off.
That’s what the Philadelphia Eagles apparently said to their complaint department in NFL Week 1.
That consensus emerged in Why Eagles Why, Episode 2, which I host along with Pete Amato and Bill Gelman. In Philadelphia and South Jersey, the delirious afterglow of Philadelphia’s 32-6 romp over the Atlanta Falcons put second-guessing on hold, at least for a week.
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The Birds did WHAT? Inflicted the second-biggest rout in the league?
Why Eagles Why Iggles fans wonder, has this team suddenly raised expectations from last year’s 4-11-1 disaster. Now they’d better deliver.
Eagles vs 49ers – Ep.2 Recap
The Eagles will try as slight dogs Sunday against the San Francisco 49ers at the Linc. They opened at +3.5 across the major books, but big-money gamblers at DraftKings are laying heavy dollars into the moneyline of +140 for the Eagles.
Does it “Hurts” to bet against this team?
The quarterback naturally surfaced as a major topic in Episode 2.
Excerpt from Pete:
“Jalen Hurts was able to run and to scramble with his head downfield,” Amato said. “That really impressed me. So far Hurts has made me eat my words about being a franchise quarterback,” he laughed. “I hope he continues to do that. If he keeps doing what he did against the Falcons, he will be our franchise quarterback.”’
Against Atlanta, Hurts threw for 264 yards, three touchdowns and no picks. He also delivered a back-breaking touchdown toss with two seconds left in the first half to tight-end Dallas Goedert.
Throughout the game, Hurts also scrambled away from rushers, enabled receivers to break off their routes and the Eagles offense thrived on the fly.
On the show, we wondered whether that will end the Hurts debate, which raged in chat rooms and on social media for the past year. The topic of Hurts at QB led to the benching of Carson Wentz late last year, his subsequent off-season trade to the Indianapolis Colts and an unspoken declaration that this would be Hurts’ team.
But when the Eagles acquired Joe Flacco in the off-season and Gardner (Minshew Mania) Minshew in the pre-season, there’s been talk that Hurts will be on a short leash.
It just got longer.
Pete noted the balanced attack featuring touchdowns from Goedert, Jalen Reagor and running back Kenneth Gainwell was one of the best he’s seen in a long time.
How about this week’s opponent?
Eagles vs 49ers – Week 2 Showdown
Excerpt from Bill:
“During the Eagles game, when I saw that 49ers score going across the screen, it looked like the game was easily won for them,” he said regarding the Niners, who once led the Detroit Lions 38-10 before sweating out a 41-33 triumph.
“The Niners were outscored 23-10 in the second half,” Bill added. “They gave up more than 400 yards. The 49ers are a talented team, but they have flaws too.”
Why Eagles Why is broken up into four quarters, with overtime segments when applicable.
The episodes will run approximately 30 minutes and appear during the week. They preview the Eagles’ upcoming opponent, review takeaways from the previous game and look at issues surrounding the NFC East and the entire league. Betting options, side notes and anecdotes are also on the table.
The NFC East segment became more interesting because of Week 1 developments. The heralded return of Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott delivered as advertised last week. Dak threw for more than 400 yards in Dallas’ pulsating season-opening loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Opening Night.
What about other teams?
Bill reported that Washington quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick will be lost for several weeks after a Week 1 injury. Taylor Heinicke is a pretty good backup, but Washington could be in some trouble at this position long term.
Recollection nugget: three years ago, Fitzpatrick and Jameis Winston led Tampa Bay to notch the highest-scoring pass-yardage total in the league. And yet each was benched, a couple different times, for ineffective play. It seems impossible for those facts to exist in the same space, but they do.
Betting considerations. We talk about some during each episode. For a comprehensive list of Eagles-Niners wagering options, check out Iggles.com, where I have compiled a few.
GAMES WE LIKE THIS WEEK
Pete touts the Cincinnati Bengals and Chicago Bears game. He was on the Bengals last week and he hit his pick when they nipped the Minnesota Vikings 27-24 in overtime. The Bengals (or “Bungles”) also earned Dunce Cap Play of the Week by risking a 21-7 third-quarter lead with a 4th-and-1 run up the middle from their own 29. Twitter erupted. Nonetheless, Cincy survived.
Bill has his eyes on the two Week 2 finales. On Sunday night, The Kansas City Chiefs and Baltimore Ravens should be a terrific clash of potent offenses and artists like Patrick Mahomes of the Chiefs and Lamar Jackson of the Ravens.
He’s also curious about the Monday Night matchup between the Green Bay Packers and the Lions. Green Bay was pulverized 38-3 by the New Orleans Saints in the league’s biggest blowout last week. Aaron Rodgers of the Packers says it’s only one game, don’t worry about it. We’ll see.
I love the Pittsburgh Steelers-Las Vegas Raiders tilt. These franchises own an NFL record by facing each other in five straight post-seasons from 1972-76. They both won as underdogs last week. And this one should be fun.
What will the show theme be next week? Will it be Why Eagles Why did you string us along before losing to the Niners? Or will it be the bettors saying “Why Eagles Why” didn’t you warn us in August, so that we could have loaded up on futures.?
We shall soon see. Either way, we invite you to check it out.
