Monday Night Football Betting: Philadelphia Eagles at Washington Redskins

The focal point of Monday NFL betting will be a pair of games–the league always serves up a double header on Monday Night Football during the first week of the season. In the first of two games the Philadelphia Eagles will travel to Washington, DC to take on the Redskins. The Eagles have been a classic example of a team that is over hyped and under acheiving. Their many problems have been well documented in the sports media and ended up with former head coach Andy Reid being fired (he’s now the head coach of the Kansas City Chiefs). In his place, the Eagles hired former University of Oregon coach Chip Kelly. Despite the Eagles’ chronic problems in recent years the hope in Philadelphia is that the team will respond to Kelly’s ‘up tempo’ offense that was so effective at Oregon. The Redskins are coming off a solid season (10-6) and assuming that star quarterback Robert Griffin III can return to form after a late season knee injury hopes are high for an improvement upon that record.

For the Philadelphia Eagles it’s ‘deja vu all over again’. Despite no evidence to suggest that the team will be better this year there’s a fair amount of enthusiasm about this team. Unfortunately, it’s all misplaced. The reality in Philadelphia is that the team has a horrible defense, an overrated quarterback, and an assortment of head cases throughout the roster. They’ve also got a coach with zero NFL experience hoping to make a gimmick offense work at the pro level. The Oregon offense is predicated not so much on speed but on good decision making. And Michael Vick has year after year been one of the worst on field decision makers in football. Vick has never learned to play the position of NFL quarterback. He relied on his speed and athleticism earlier in his career but now thinks he’s the same player in his 30’s that he was then. Instead he’s a slower, less athletic head case with no durability or toughness that never assimilated the ‘mental game’ necessary for a NFL quarterback.

The Redskins have plenty of talent around RG III and a lot of continuity from last season–they return 21 of 22 starters. Their secondary is an issue but we doubt that Vick has the precision touch necessary to exploit this. The Redskins might need a few games to get on the same page but we look for them to win and cover this game.

BET WASHINGTON REDSKINS -3′ OVER PHILADELPHIA EAGLES