Philadelphia are flying high in the NFC East but without their starting QB, could be shot down by hungry Carolina
“The Buttfumble”, a play so ingrained in NFL culture so quickly that it’s the first thing you think of when you think of Mark Sanchez. A player who ran into his own offensive lineman’s behind, lost the football and gave up a touchdown has now been entrusted with running the fast-paced Philadelphia Eagles offence. That should only spell trouble.
The Eagles are 6-2 and won last week in part thanks to Sanchez but he had a lot of help. LeSean “Shady” McCoy ran for 117 yards and star receiver in-the-making Jeremy Maclin caught six passes for 158 yards and two TD’s whilst the Sanchize managed to throw two picks in the process. Against a stronger offence than the Texans, they’ll be punished for those kinds of errors.
The Carolina Panthers haven’t quite been the force they were last season but they have the weapons to hurt the Eagles. Kelvin Benjamin is an offensive rookie of the year candidate, they have a good-yet-can-be-great quarterback in Cam Newton and if they can get the offence running, they can really cause the Eagles problems. Still in with a chance of winning their division, you have to go with “Riverboat” Ron Rivera’s side at an attractive 47/20.
However, the Eagles are a fast-paced offence so expect them to come out strong. Usually when they are in full flow, at the very start of the game, they can blow teams away and Sanchez has to give you hope before he crushes your dreams. Take the first score of the game to be a Philly TD and go one further with Maclin scoring it. They like starting quickly but will fade dramatically in the second half.
Going back to last season, the Carolina Panthers had a sturdy defence but it’s not quite got going in the same way this season. With the chance of disrupting a trigger-happy QB on prime-time television on Monday night, they’ll be hungry to hunt him down and help their team grind out a win. It’ll be a little ugly, but Carolina will win by 1-6 points, so the value is there to take a well-fought win for the Panthers.
47/20 – Carolina Panthers to win
