Philadelphia Eagles (7-6) at New York Giants (7-6) -5, o/u 43 1/2, 4:15 p.m. Eastern Sunday, December 17 Fox Network
by Ultimatecapper.com Staff
The Philadelphia Eagles and New York Giants meet up in a battle of NFC Eastern division teams. Both teams are at 7-6 and are tied for 2nd in the division and are tied for the wildcard playoff position. If the playoffs were held today the Giants would be seeded 5th and the Eagles would have the 6th and final playoff spot. This game is crucial to both teams playoff hopes as the leader will be in good shape and the loser will be on the outside looking in.
Philadelphia, winners of their last 2 games, are starting to play much better after struggling when they lost their star QB, Donovan McNabb. The Eagles are 2-1 with Jeff Garcia as the starting QB. They are coming off an impressive 21-19 road win against division rival Washington last week.
New York got off to a fast 6-2 start but has stumbled losing 4 of their last 5 games and during that stretch had a lot of controversy with players and coaches verbally attacking each other. They did pick themselves up off the mat last week to win an important game against Carolina by a score of 27-13.
The Eagles are 6-6-1 against the spread this season; they are 3-3 straight up and 3-3 ATS on the road.
The Giants are also 6-6-1 ATS this season, and they are 3-3 SU and 2-3-1 vs. the number at home.
Philadelphia's starting QB, Jeff Garcia, has thrown 10 touchdowns and only 1 interception during his brief stint so far. His QB rating is 93.8 with a 58.38% completion rate.
New York is led by Eli Manning who has been much criticized during the Giants recent slump. He has 23 TDs but has also thrown 16 interceptions on the year. His QB rating is 80.2 with a completion rate of 58.91%.
The Eagles are being outrushed by their opponents this season by a 121-142 yards-per-game average, while the Giants are outrushing their opponents by a 133-100 YPG margin.
Philadelphia is averaging an impressive 6.2 yards per play on the season while New York is averaging 5.4 yards per play. The Eagle defense has given up an average of 5.2 yards per play while the Giants have given up an average of 5.3 yards per play.
These two teams have played eight common opponents this season. In these games Philadelphia was 4-3 and averaged 22.0 points and gave up an average of 21.33 points. New York is also 4-3 and is averaging 20.56 points and giving up an average of 16.67 points against these 8 teams.
These two teams have already met this season with the Giants winning in Philadelphia in week 2 by a score of 30-24. The Eagles have won 6 out of the last 10 meetings between these division rivals. The last 3 games have seen an average of 49 points scored per game.
Philadelphia ranks 3rd in total offense averaging 377.1 yards per game. New York ranks 12th with 335.3 yards per game.
In scoring offense, the Eagles rank 7th averaging 24.2 points per game and the Giants rank 9th averaging 22.5 points per game.
On the defensive side of the ball the Eagles rank 16th in total defense giving up 331.6 yards per game while the Giants rank 20th giving up an average of 334.2 yards per game.
In scoring defense Philadelphia ranks 20th and New York ranks 17th giving up 21.7 and 20.6 points per game, respectively.
The Sagarin PREDICTOR ratings at USAToday.com ranks Philadelphia #16 at 20.62, New York is #10 at 22.79.
The Over/Under is 7-5 in Eagle games this season, 5-7 in Giant games.
New York opened up as a 6 point road favorite at most sportsbooks with a total of 44. The line has dropped a half point on both the spread and total to 5.5 and 43.5. At the time of this writing, the betting public was backing the Giants 56%-44%.
The Ultimatecapper Pick: We suggest a wager on the Eagle plus the points in this game as it should be a tough game that is won by a field goal no matter which team wins.
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