After grabbing a moment to gather our emotions and regain some composure following the abrupt end to Aaron Rodgers’ season – did it even really get started? – let’s take stock and assess a couple of teams not named the Jets following Week 1 of the NFL season.
Jay Croucher and Drew Dinsick talked Stock Up! Stock Down! on today’s edition of Bet the EDGE.
Two that expect to battle throughout the season are the Dallas Cowboys and the Philadelphia Eagles.
Dallas Cowboys
“I can’t believe you can still get plus money on these guys (+115 at DraftKings to win the NFC East),” said Dinsick.
Croucher is equally impressed with Mike McCarthy’s squad.
“The Cowboys look like an absolute force…I think there is a thought that they could just be the best team in the NFC…I don’t want to overreact after one week, but…”
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Dinsick continued.
“They showed you that they are not just one of the more complete teams in terms of roster build, but they actually have some pretty nice redundancy. They went into that game with a number of their players on the offensive line not 100% and yet they still were able to absolutely stack up and manhandle in fact a defensive line that absolutely has some blue chip players on it.”
Philadelphia Eagles
Most experts agree the Eagles are at worst a Top 3 team in the NFC. However, their narrow win on the road over New England has lowered their odds.
“They are paying a little bit of price (odds to win the NFC East down to -110) for facing a very, very good defense. Some of that is what the market is telling you about the way they’re expecting them to perform against a weak defense in Minnesota. Maybe there’s a little bit of a buy low opportunity on this Eagles’ team to score in the 30s for the next handful of weeks because they’re still very, very good.”
That said, Dinsick does see that Eagles’ defense as vulnerable.
“I think the Eagles’ defense showed you they are vulnerable over the middle of the field…The Patriots showed you that they were able to make some hay against the interior of that Eagles’ defense…If you can take that defensive line out of the equation when you face this Eagles’ team you will be able to score on them.”
Croucher and Dinsick do expect Dallas and Philadelphia to battle throughout the season, but right now they lean to Dallas as the better team primarily because of that stout defense.
This weekend, Dallas is at home against Zach Wilson and the New York Jets while the Eagles play Thursday night in Minnesota.
Enjoy the games and enjoy the sweat.