NFL betting should be very competitive on the game between the Philadelphia Eagles and Carolina Panthers on Sunday. The game has the smallest pointspread of any of the NFL betting games for Week 1. The Eagles have drawn the most action from those making a football bet but that doesn’t mean they will win the game.
NFL betting has the Eagles as a 1.5 point favorite with a total of 43.5. The Panthers definitely have a chance in this NFL betting matchup as they are playing at home. If they can get quarterback Jake Delhomme to forget about his playoff fiasco and play well then they should win this game. The team returns all 11 starters from a team that finished third in the league in rushing and seventh in scoring last NFL betting season. DeAngelo Williams ran for a franchise-record 1,515 yards and 18 touchdowns while wide receiver Steve Smith averaged more than 100 yards receiving per game. “I think we’ve built on some of the things we did last year,” Delhomme said. “I try to tell people, the run game came on about Week 8 last year…. Our best running play, we didn’t get good at it until the later part of the season, after the bye week. So it’s a marathon. This is a long, long season and hopefully we can do some things like we did last year.”
The Eagles are a popular NFL bet but they have some issues of their own. Running back Brian Westbrook is coming off knee surgery and middle linebacker Shawn Bradley is out for the year. The offensive line hasn’t gelled yet and Pro Bowl guard Shawn Andrews didn’t even play in the preseason.
Both teams have solid NFL betting numbers for this matchup. The Eagles are 8-3 against the NFL bet number in their last 11 vs. the NFC and they are 12-5 against the NFL bet odds in their last 17 road games. The Panthers are 8-3-1 in NFL betting in their last 12 home games.
Looking at the NFL betting total we see that the Under is 4-1 in the Eagles last 5 games as a road favorite, and 4-0 in the Panthers last 4 games as a home underdog in NFL betting. The Over is 6-2 in NFL betting in the Panthers last 8 games overall and the Under is 22-8-2 in the Panthers last 32 NFL betting games in September.