Philadelphia Eagles: Saints offer toughest test yet in 2018
By Carl Naimoli
The Philadelphia Eagles are facing off against the 8-1 Saints in Week 11. They’ll need to have their best performance of the year to pull off a huge upset.
Week 11 is here, and for the Philadelphia Eagles, they’ll be facing the class of the NFC in the New Orleans Saints. This will be their toughest opponent yet in the 2018 season. The Saints are 8-1 as they’ve reeled off eight consecutive wins since a Week 1 loss. For the Eagles, if they have any hope of playoffs in 2018, they’ll have to pull off their biggest upset in quite some time.
Oddsmakers in Las Vegas aren’t giving the Eagles much of a chance. They are currently nine-point underdogs for this matchup in New Orleans. This will be the first game of the season that the Eagles are not favored to win. Maybe they can revive the “underdog” mantra that they took on last season for their run to the Super Bowl.
The last time the Eagles were this big an underdog was back in 2015 against the Patriots. That game marked the final highlight of the Chip Kelly era. The Eagles were also nine-point underdogs in that game in New England. They shocked everyone when the Sam Bradford-led Eagles defeated Tom Brady and the Patriots, 35-28.
Even though the point spread is the same this week as it was back in 2015 against the Patriots, this game doesn’t seem like it would be as big of an upset. Of course, the Saints have been the hottest team in the NFL, but the Eagles head to the Superdome with almost nothing to lose.
The Eagles defense will be facing it’s hardest test all season. New Orleans has scored 30 points or more in seven of nine games. Drew Brees is in MVP form and Michael Thomas and Alvin Kamara have been nearly impossible to stop all year.
On the other hand, the Eagles have only scored more than 30 points once this season against the lowly Giants. Wentz and the offense are going to need to have their best game of the season just to keep up with the Saints offensive machine.
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All signs are pointing to the Saints winning an easy game at home. But the Eagles players haven’t given up on their season yet. If they remember to bring their underdog masks, maybe they can remind us of how this team plays when they are counted out.