Our Week Six of NFL tomfoolery begins with two teams that seem to be on the path to the playoffs. The Philadelphia Eagles (4-1) travel to Bank of America Stadium to take on the Carolina Panthers (4-1) on Thursday Night Football.
The game will be brought to you by various beers and chip brands on your local CBS station as well as the NFL Network at 8:25 p.m. EST. I’ll be live blogging it here at Get More Sports, so point your computer or mobile device this direction and follow along.
The Game: Philadelphia Eagles at Carolina Panthers (-3.5)
O/U: 45.5
The History
The Panthers and Eagles have met just 10 times since 1996, with Philadelphia holding a 6-4 advantage.
Two years ago in their last meeting, Carolina beat the Eagles 27-16 in Charlotte, with the Panthers overcoming three Cam Newton interceptions.
PHILADELPHIA EAGLES (4-1)
The Eagles are a good team that’s also been blessed with a cakewalk schedule over the first five weeks of the season. With the exception of their opening week 30-17 victory over the Washington Redskins, two of Philadelphia’s four wins have come against the Los Angeles Chargers and New York Giants. Both those teams were winless when they showed up on the Eagles’ Schedule.
Last week, Philly delivered a beat down on the Arizona Cardinals. A team that is an overtime pass and a field goal away from being 0-5 themselves. The Eagles have a good record, but they’ve bot faced a quality opponent since they lost, 27-20, to the Kansas City Chiefs in Week Two.
Carson Wentz, in his second season, is showing why he was worth all the draft picks the Eagles gave up to get him. He’s completed 62.1 percent of his passes for 1,362 yards, 10 touchdowns and three interceptions. He’s added 108 yards on the ground. Last week, against a solid Cardinals pass defense, Wentz finished 21 of 30 for 304 yards, four touchdowns and a pick.
Philadelphia didn’t do a great job pressuring Carson Palmer last week, just picking up two sacks and six tackles for a loss against Arizona’s piddling running game. They’ll need a much better performance to reign in Cam Newton, who has been on fire the last two weeks.
The Eagles will be without Lane Johnson, who is in the concussion protocol. All their other injuries suffered last week are listed as questionable, but everybody’s practiced this week.
CAROLINA PANTHERS (4-1)
After a plodding start to the season while Newton knocked the rust off, the Panthers’ quarterback has been a well oiled machine for the last two weeks. In consecutive games, Newton has thrown for more than 300 yards and three touchdowns. And while you can point at one of those wins, a 33-30 victory over the New England Patriots, and blame the defense he was facing, the Detroit Lions last week have a solid unit. Newton carved them to pieces.
What didn’t show up last week was the Panthers’ run game. They amassed a total of 28 yards on the ground, with Jonathan Stewart rushing 18 times for 21 yards. Christian McCaffrey only got three carries for seven yards, though he did get in the end zone with five catches for 31 yards.
The Panthers, if they really do want to make a run at the NFC South, will need to up their production on the ground and keep the pressure off Newton to deliver these lights out performance. It can’t happen every week, no matter how good he is.
Wentz is elusive, so Carolina will need to be careful on their pass rush. Last week they sacked Tom Brady three times and got six stops in the backfield. The defense will be without safeties Kurt Coleman and Demtrious Cox who are both listed as out. Newton will be missing starting center Ryan Kalil, who is dealing with a neck injury.
The Pick
With the exception of the Rams-49ers game, these Thursday nighters are usually ugly slugfests. I see that happening in this one, with Carolina coming out on top at home. Panthers 24, Eagles 20
Last week
Straight up: 6-8
Against the spread: 6-8
Season
Straight up: 43-34
Against the spread: 38-39
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