There were lofty expectations installed for both the Philadelphia Eagles and the Baltimore Ravens coming into the season. And an early Week 2 matchup has some thinking that this could possibly be a super Bowl XLVII preview.
The Ravens looked great in Week 1, brushing off the colossal disappointment from last season’s AFC championship game.
The Eagles did not look like a Super Bowl team in Week 1, but they got the win and that is the most important thing.
In spite of the performance, oddsmakers are still siding with Philadelphia, mostly because they get this matchup at home. It’s only a three-point line.
But we expect to see a great game on Sunday afternoon.
Michael Vick will need to improve his decision making, after throwing four interceptions to the Cleveland Browns last Sunday. Baltimore’s defense you can bet has been looking at that tape to see what their AFC North rivals did to force those bad throws.
How Philadelphia wins The Game
The Eagles will win this Week 2 NFL matchup if they can do a couple of key things. The first is to keep vick off of his back, with the offensive line needing to limit the hits he takes. Part of that is on him though, because he likes to exit the pocket and make plays on the run. The second thing is getting running back LeSean McCoy more involved. McCoy has the potential to be the best runningback in the NFL, and more touches for him keeps Vick from taking hits.
Defensively, it just comes down to forcing Joe Flacco into making bad decisions, as he looked great against Cincinnati in Week 1. Getting after him early and often will be critical.
How Baltimore wins the Game
The script was written for Baltimore last week by Cleveland. Now it’s about going out and duplicating that. Forcing Vick to make bad throws will be a key factor.
On offense, they just need to keep doing what they did against the Bengals in the secodn half. But it will start with establishing Ray Rice against the Eagles defense front. From there, the play action can be created with a deep ball to speedster Torrey Smith. Look for that to happen.