NFC East Coming Off Bad First Half; Teams Hope to Bounce Back
The NFC East has long been considered the best division in the NFL. And why not? The Dallas Cowboys have won five Super Bowls and played in three others. The New York Giants have won four Super Bowls and played in one other. The Washington Redskins have won three Super Bowls and played in two others. And the Philadelphia Eagles have played in two Super Bowls as well. So that’s 12 Super Bowl wins and 20 Super Bowl appearances in less than fifty Super Bowls. If you do the math, there are eight divisions in the league, so by SB 48 each division would have six if they were equally divided. So the NFC East is doing quite well.
But this season, the East has only one team over.500 and that is the defending Super Bowl Champion New York Giants at 5-3. Everyone else is either 3-5 (Cowboys and Eagles) or 3-6 (Redskins). The division leaders are coming off a week where they gave up a 10 point lead in the fourth quarter at home to the Pittsburgh Steelers and were called “soft” by their head coach Tom Coughlin. The Eagles and Cowboys are in total disarray and have many calling for firings, benchings, or both. Some are even suggesting that Cowboys owner Jerry Jones should fire himself. A poll question asking if the Cowboys could ever again be a serious contender with Jones as the GM came back an emphatic 3-1 against.
Many in Philly want quarterback Michael Vick to be benched in favor of rookie Nick Foles. Other rookie QBs that are finding success is probably not aiding in Vick’s cause. But it is probably too soon to pull the plug on Vick just yet. After all, the Eagles are still only two games behind the Giants and should they beat them again, would own tie breaker advantage over them.
The Redskins are falling fast. But with a rookie quarterback in Robert Griffin III who is looking like the Rookie of the Year, things shouldn’t be that bad in D.C. But watching Andrew Luck lead the Indianapolis Colts toward the playoffs is making life a bit more difficult for RGIII. But Redskin fans need to remember that Luck was picked ahead of Griffin, so it’s not like you could have had him anyway. Just be patient.
This week the Giants will visit the Cincinnati Bengals. The Bengals are coming off a tough loss to the Denver Broncos last week at home. TopBet has the Giants -4.5 -105 or -210. The Bengals are +4.5 -115 or +175. Over/under is 48.5. We like the Bengals +4.5 at home and the under.
Also The Cowboys and Eagles meet in Philadelphia this week. The Cowboys are -1-110 while the Eagles are +1 -110. Over/under is 45. We like the Cowboys -1 in this one and we like the over.
