There is an exciting Monday Night Football game between the Atlanta Falcons and Philadelphia Eagles. Here is how to bet on the game at DraftKings Sportsbook.
Falcons (+6.5) at Eagles o/u 47
Falcons Team Breakdown
The Falcons played a strange Week 1 game against the Steelers. They lost without allowing the Steelers to score a touchdown. Justin Fields had a good completion percentage but couldn’t really get anything downfield. The Falcons also contained RB Najee Harris pretty well but got beat a few times when Fields decided to use his legs. Overall, the Falcons finished ninth in defensive DVOA, but their matchup against the Steelers offense was much easier than it will be this week.
The Atlanta offense struggled in Week 1. Pittsburgh consistently has one of the best defenses in the NFL, but even by those standards, the Falcons looked bad. The offensive line was getting blown up and they couldn’t scheme anybody open. QB Kirk Cousins also looked very rusty after not playing a game for a long time and coming off of an Achilles injury. Ray-Ray McCloud was the Falcons’ leading receiver with 52 yards and their No. 1 WR Drake London was totally shut down with just one reception.
Eagles Team Breakdown
The Eagles picked up a great win in Week 1 against the Packers. Their defense took some shots from Jordan Love and the Packers’ passing offense, but that’s nothing to scoff at. They mostly kept the Green Bay offense in check and held Love to just a 50% completion percentage. It was a couple of deep shots from Green Bay that really hurt the Eagles’ defense. That may be a concern going forward, but not against this Falcons offense that couldn’t get anything going down the field last week.
The offense was the strong point for the Eagles. RB Saquon Barkley looked incredible in his Eagles debut, scoring three total touchdowns. The Eagles turned the ball over three times and still managed to put up 34 points. If they can limit those mistakes, this offense should be really good. Both DeVonta Smith and A.J. Brown were able to create a lot of separation and make big plays through the air. If they can keep that run/pass balance going all season, they will be really difficult to defend.
Pick and Prediction
There are a couple of notable trends to look at before betting on this game:
- Jalen Hurts has been great at home for the Eagles. He has a record of 17-9-1 (65.4%) ATS in home games as the Eagles starting QB.
- Kirk Cousins has always struggled in primetime. He is 16-25 (39%) ATS in primetime games in his career. Specifically on Monday Night Football, Cousins is 3-10 (23%) ATS in his career.
The Eagles are on extra rest after playing on Friday night last week, although they did have to travel back from Brazil, so those things cancel out to an extent. However, it did give the Eagles’ coaching staff extra time to prepare. The Eagles have been able to dissect what the new-look Falcons offense looks like and prepare for how to stop it. Frankly, the offense and Cousins did not look very good and the Eagles should be able to shut them down with their home crowd at their back.
On the other side, the Falcons proved they can effectively use the bend-don’t-break defense under head coach Raheem Morris. The Falcons have some good pieces on defense and even though the Steelers had a lot of good field position and picked up short chunk plays, the Falcons didn’t give up any explosive plays or let the Steelers in the end zone. If they do that against the Eagles, they should be able to hang around.
Both defensive coaching staffs get extra time to prepare for this game on Monday night. Primetime unders have been a great bet over the past few years and the under is the best bet for this game as well. Primetime unders are 180-124-3 (59%) since 2019. The Falcons offense should struggle to move the ball and the Falcons defense should limit big plays from the Eagles.
Best Bet: Eagles-Falcons u47
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