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The Seattle Seahawks and Philadelphia Eagles meet at CenturyLink Field in a battle of two of the best defences in the NFL today. Join The Roar from 8:30am AEDT for live scores and commentary.
The Seahawks have now won their last two games, including last week’s classic against New England. Meanwhile, the Eagles have cooled after a hot start. Winners of their first three games, they now sit at 5-4, in last place in the very competitive NFC East. They, are, however, only one game behind the second-placed New York Giants, so their playoff hopes are still very much alive.
This should be a battle between two elite defences. Both teams come into this game boasting defences in the top ten of yards allowed, and allowing opposition an average of under 18 points per game.
While Seattle has long featured a fearsome defensive unit, the Eagles improvement has come as more of a surprise. The leaky unit under Chip Kelly’s guidance last year has improved so much it now sits at No.1 in Football Outsiders Defensive DVOA rankings, by a considerable margin.
On offence, both teams fortunes have somewhat mirrored that of their quarterbacks. For Seattle, superstar QB Russell Wilson had an indifferent start to the year as he battled with injuries and inconsistent play from his offensive line. He looks fully healed now though, putting on a masterclass in Foxborough last week to lead the Seahawks to an incredible win.
For the Eagles, they traded their presumed starter Sam Bradford to the Vikings before Week 1, handing the reigns of the team to the overall No.2 pick in the 2016 NFL draft Carson Wentz. He started the season in blazing form, leading the Eagles to three straight wins and enough hope amongst the supporter base to be labelled the Franchise saviour. He has cooled somewhat since then. After throwing five touchdowns without an interception in those wins, he has since thrown just four more TD passes, to go with five interceptions, and the Eagles have won just two of their last six.
Wentz has not been offered much assistance by his wide receiving corps though, which could be the worst in the league. Among receivers with 45 or more receptions throughout the season, none have dropped a higher percentage (5.8 per cent) of their passes than Jordan Matthews, the Eagles No.1 receiver. Dorial Green-Beckham meanwhile has been even worse, hauling in just 18 of his 36 targets and dropping a huge 8.3 per cent of them.
Because of this, Seattles secondary, featuring superstars Richard Sherman, Kam Chancellor and Earl Thomas could have a field day, and make it very difficult for the Eagles to score. This, along with the massive benefit they get from playing at home in front of the ’12th Man’, has me predicting a Seattle win.
Tip: Seattle by 12
Join The Roar from 8:30am AEDT for live scores and commentary.
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