TipResumen

PREVIEW

The defending Super Bowl Champions upset the odds to win the Championship at the beginning of 2018 after seeing Carson Wentz go down with a season ending injury. No one had a lot of faith in Nick Foles to guide the Number 1 Seed in the NFC all the way, but Foles had two stunning performances against the Minnesota Vikings and New England Patriots to help the Eagles secure the Super Bowl and it is Foles who will get to make the start in Week 1 for Philadelphia. Foles plays as Wentz is not quite ready to go despite suffering no setback in his recovery from the ACL injury that ended his 2017 season prematurely. It wasn't the best pre-season for Foles, but I don't think that is a major worry for Philadelphia, although the overall injuries the team come into the new season with is more of a concern. Alshon Jeffrey is expected to miss out which means the Eagles miss their Number 1 Wide Out, while Foles was also banged up in pre-season before being named as the starter in Week 1. The absence of Jeffrey is a blow for Philadelphia and Foles whose struggles in the Play Off win over the Atlanta Falcons will not have been completely erased by how well he played against Minnesota and New England. The Eagles do have a strong Offensive Line who will protect Foles, but Atlanta are a team who look to have a Defensive unit that can limit what the home team are able to do in this one. There have been some losses from the Defense that held the Eagles to 15 points in their Play Off defeat, but the Falcons will believe they have not been significantly weakened and facing a banged up Philadelphia Offensive unit should be something Atlanta can have success against. Atlanta will be expecting to have some revenge from the Play Off defeat having come so close to winning that game at Lincoln Field when Julio Jones almost made a play in the End Zone on Fourth Down that would likely have won the game for the Falcons. Jones has been held out of pre-season so he should be healthy to compete and the Falcons continue to have one of the better Offensive units on paper. Matt Ryan may not be in the upper echelon of Quarter Backs, but he is surrounded by significant Offensive playmakers and Atlanta may have gotten even stronger this year. The Quarter Back is well protected by a very good Offensive Line and the likes of Jones, Muhammed Sanu and Calvin Ridley give Ryan plenty of passing options. Both Tevin Coleman and Devonta Freeman give Ryan strong Running Back options too and both of those players are also able to sneak out of the backfield and make plays as Receivers too. It does bode well for a team that know their Stadium will be hosting the Super Bowl next February and the Falcons do look strong enough on both sides of the ball to challenge, but Ryan will have to help the team score more than 10 points if they are going to win here. He will know the Philadelphia aggressive Defensive unit is going to pose some big problems for the whole Offensive unit and that could be a key to the outcome of this Week 1 game. Jim Schwartz has gotten plenty out of his Philadelphia Defense and this is one of the premier units in the NFL again which makes it a fascinating contest. Picking Schwartz to outmanoeuvre Steve Sarkisian won't be a big surprise to anyone who saw the latter Coaching at the end of the 2017 season and it does make this pick 'em game hard to call. You can make a real case for both Atlanta and Philadelphia in this opening game of the 2018 season and I think it will be a very close game like their Play Off game turned out to be. There is some surprise that the Falcons are the underdog having been the favourite to win on this field back in January, especially as Philadelphia look a little more banged up than the road team. That almost was enough to lean me towards backing the road team, but Schwartz versus Sarkisian in the Co-Ordinator battle put me off with the former considerably further along and likely to get the better of things overall. What does spring out is that points might be a struggle for both teams against quality Defensive units that will pursue the ball with aggression. Turnovers could quickly make a mockery of this pick, but it was a low-scoring affair when they met in the Play Off and that could be the case in Week 1 too. The line has been drifting down from the opening of 47 points, but I will still look for a low-scoring game thanks to strong Defensive performances preventing the surpassing of the current line.



PREDICTION

The two Defensive units may win the battle on the day again like they did in the Play Offs last January and I will back the total to finish under the line.