NFL Football Betting: Arizona Cardinals at Philadelphia Eagles

The NFC East has been the most disappointing division in football this season but the Dallas Cowboys and Philadelphia Eagles have started to pull away from the rest of the disappointing pack. The Eagles can move into a tie with the first place Cowboys (who played and won on Thanksgiving Day) with a victory on Sunday over the visiting Arizona Cardinals. The Eagles began the season with plenty of hope under new head coach Rich Kelly but the perpetually overrated Michael Vick struggled to run the high octane offensive schemes that made the University of Oregon a powerhouse under his watch. They appear to have finally found their quarterback with the recent solid play of Nick Foles and barring anything unforeseen he’ll have the starting job for the rest of the season.

Philadelphia faces a tough test against an Arizona Cardinals team that is playing their best football of the year. The Cardinals have improved to 7-4 SU/ATS thanks to decent play from quarterback Carson Palmer and a nasty, underrated defense. Arizona has won four straight games and five of their last seven and is coming off perhaps their most impressive win of the season, a blowout victory over the Indianapolis Colts. Arizona has been marginally profitable on the road this year (3-2 ATS) and dating back to 2011 (11-10 ATS).

In the past our strategy relative to the Eagles has been to bet ‘on’ them with Foles at quarterback and ‘against’ them when Vick is under center. We’re going to deviate from that plan here. Philly has won 3 straight both SU/ATS but they’ve not been a good investment on their home field for the past several seasons. They got their first home win of the year a couple weeks back against the bumbling Washington Redskins but they’re stepping way up in class in this game. The Eagles have only covered one of their last 15 home games going 1-13-1 ATS. Arizona is getting healthy on the defensive side of the ball and quarterback Palmer has been a good fit in head coach Bruce Arian’s offensive schemes. At this price they just need to win the game to cash the bet and we think they’ll do it.

BET ARIZONA CARDINALS +2′ OVER PHILADELPHIA EAGLES