Week 4 of the NFL season gets started on Thursday night with an NFC battle between the Philadelphia Eagles and Green Bay Packers. The Eagles will invade Lambeau Field as five-point underdogs, with an over/under of 45.5 points.
Green Bay is one of the eight NFL teams that remain undefeated three weeks into the season. Most importantly for the Packers, two of those wins have come against the Vikings and Bears, two of Green Bay’s NFC North rivals. It’s a good thing the Packers won those games because both Minnesota and Chicago sit at 2-1, making it vital for Green Bay to keep winning games in order to stay on top of the division.
Meanwhile, the Eagles are desperate to get a win for different reasons. Philadelphia was able to come from behind against Washington in Week 1, but they’ve not been so fortunate the last two weeks against the Falcons and Lions. Both losses were close, but they have put the Eagles two games behind the Cowboys in the NFC East early in the season. Falling three games behind could all but take Philadelphia out of contention before the end of September, practically making this a must-win game for the Eagles.
Unable to Fly
Despite scoring at least 20 points in each of their first three games, the Philadelphia offense is a little limited these days. Both DeSean Jackson and Alshon Jeffery missed last week’s game due to injury, depriving the Eagles of any kind of deep threat. Meanwhile, Nelson Agholor has had a rough start to the season, and Zach Ertz hasn’t quite regained the form he had last year when he was arguably the best tight end in the NFL. That’s made things a little more difficult for Carson Wentz during the early part of the season.
The good news is that Jeffery is poised to return to the lineup on Thursday. But Jackson is still out, depriving the Eagles of their best deep threat. Also, Philadelphia isn’t getting quite enough from their three-headed backfield. Without more of a deep threat or a better running game, there’s only so much Wentz can do, especially against a strong Green Bay defense.
Fair and Balanced
It wasn’t pretty in Week 1 when the Packers were limited to 10 points. But the Green Bay offense seems to get better every week under new head coach Matt LaFleur. Last week, the Pack was able to put 27 points on the board against a solid Denver defense. Aaron Jones and the running game finally got going a little in Week 3, helping take the pressure off Aaron Rodgers.
Meanwhile, Marquez Valdes-Scantling is starting to grow into the team’s No. 2 receiver. He and Davante Adams have the same number of targets this season, so Rodgers is showing plenty of faith in him. The Packers haven’t even gotten a big game out of Adams this year, and yet they’re 3-0.
Not Desperate Enough
The Eagles need a win in this game, but that doesn’t mean they’re going to get it. The Green Bay defense has been good all season while the offense is coming around. At home on a short week, that should translate to a comfortable win. Bet on the Packers to win and cover on Thursday.
