Eagles vs. Patriots Point Spread: NFL Week 1 Odds, Prediction
Week 1 of the NFL regular season is officially here and one of the highlights of the Sunday games features the Philadelphia Eagles heading to New England to face the Patriots.
New England will be looking to avoid missing the playoffs for a second straight year after they finished the regular season with an 8-9 record in 2022. Philadelphia finished last year’s regular season with a 14-3 record en route to an appearance in Super Bowl LVII, although they lost to Kansas City.
The Eagles are 4.0-point favourites to win on the NFL odds, with the total sitting at 45.0.
NFL Point Spread and Betting Analysis
These teams haven’t met in the regular season since the Tom Brady era in New England. The Patriots dumped Philadelphia 17-10 on the road in 2019. Brady threw for 216 yards, but didn’t throw a TD pass. Carson Wentz finished with 214 passing yards and a touchdown. Brady has since retired (twice), while Wentz has bounced around the league and is now a free agent.
New England has won three of five regular season meetings against the Eagles since 2007, with the Over hitting four times during that stretch. Of course, the most memorable meeting between the teams was in Super Bowl LII during the 2017 season. The Eagles came out on top 41-33 in one of the more memorable Super Bowls in recent years.
The Patriots 2023 win total is set at 7.5 and they are listed at -343 to miss the playoffs. They are +5930 long shots to win the Super Bowl, +4980 to win the AFC outright and they have the longest odds to win the AFC East at +819.
Philadelphia’s season win total is listed at 11.5. They are -500 to make the playoffs and they currently have the second-best Super Bowl odds at +707. The Eagles are favoured to win both the NFC East at -135 and the NFC outright at +280.
Philadelphia Eagles
After last year’s Super Bowl run, there a high expectations for quarterback Jalen Hurts and the Philadelphia Eagles in 2023. Hurts is expected to be an MVP candidate this season after finishing last year with 3,701 passing yards and 22 touchdowns. His real value, however, comes as a dual threat. Hurts is the best rushing quarterback in the league and his 13 rushing touchdowns last year was tied with Austin Ekeler and Derrick Henry for second-most in the league.
Philadelphia’s offence as a whole is expected to be among the best in the NFL in 2023. The mobile Hurts will be protected by a stacked offensive line and he has elite receiving weapons in A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith. Brown ranked fourth in the NFL with 1,496 receiving yards last year and third with 11 receiving touchdowns. Smith wracked up 1,196 yards and seven TDs. Those numbers were career-highs for both players.
New England Patriots
Like most teams, New England’s season will be heavily dictated on the growth or lack of growth in their quarterback. Mac Jones is entering his third season in the league and has yet to show any real consistency in his game. Jones put up decent, but not great numbers in 2022, finishing the year with 2,997 receiving yards with a 14-11 TD-INT ration. New offensive coordinator Bill O’Brien is seen as a quarterback guru, but with rumours head coach Bill Belichick might be ready to move on from his quarterback, this is a make-it-or-break-it season for Jones.
Defensively, the Patriots took a hit in the off-season with the retirement of safety Devin McCourty. The good news is they are still expected to be a strong defensive team, particularly against the run, with veterans like defensive end Lawrence Guy Sr. and defensive tackle Davon Godchaux leading the way.
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