As the 2015-16 NFL Regular Season moves into Week 12 and the Thanksgiving Weekend on Thursday the 26th of November 2015 we have the usual Turkey Day teams playing, and the early game and 1st of 3 games, brings together the 2 NFC teams in the 6-4 Eagles of Philadelphia (NFC-East) playing at the 3-7 Lions of Detroit (NFC-North) with the game being played at the Ford Field in Detroit, Michigan with the kick-off scheduled for 12:35 PM ET and seen on FOX TV.
If you like to Bet on the NFL the Vegas odds have the Eagles of Philadelphia at PK and with the Over/under at 46, and the Lions of Detroit also at a PK, and no early ML available.
For the Eagles their season has went from bad to worse and to add to that misery that got routed by the Buccaneers of Tampa Bay just before this big Thanksgiving day in Michigan. On the other side the Lions have not exactly had a good season either, but if they beat the Eagles that would be their 3rd consecutive win at home.
The fans of the 4-6 Eagles of Philadelphia were sure it has been a season you weren’t expecting, and now most wonder what part of their game is doing well. Against the Buccaneers it certainly was not there defense as they allowed the TB rookie QB Winston to pass for 5 TD’s and some 236 yards rushing to TB-RB D. Martin and that turned out to be the most rushing yards by one player in a game this 2015 season.
In appears the Eagles defense that had been their strength is slowing declining as apart from the loss to the Buccaneers, two weeks ago losing to the Cowboys who scored 27 points, then lost to the Dolphins 20-19 after they had been leading by some 13 points in that game.
Going into this season it was expected that the Eagles offense would be their strength, led by the brainstorming Coach C. Kelly. But they have struggled at QB as QB Bradford had some bad performances and now with QB Sanchez thinks have not improved. In the last 2 games with QB Sanchez the starter the Eagles have only scored 36 points while Sanchez in the 2 games was intercepted on 4 occasions.
The good news for the fans in this game is that as bad as your Eagles have been this season, the Lions have only scored 20 points just 2 times this season, thus it’s unlikely that they will be running away with the game or getting a big lead! If the Eagles can have a couple of breaks in the game, and their defense can step up their play a few notches, they just might win this game on the road.
For the fans of the 3-7 Lions of Detroit you know that this is the 1st time in almost 3 years that your team has an existing winning streak in place. Prior they were at 1 and 7 but in the last 2 weeks they won both games, one which was the excellent game and win against the Packers of Green Bay. That was their 1st home game victory this 2015 season and at home in 2015 they are 1 and 5!
Their offense in 2015 has been somewhat one sided as they lack a serious running game. In the last 2 victories they won both of the games by 18 points. However, their QB M. Stafford had a good performance as he passed for 284 yards against Oakland and also ran for their go ahead TD in the game. They seem to being playing better with their new OC Coach B. Cooter’s and is game schematics.
While on Eagles defensive secondary has had problems in the last 2 weeks defending against the pass that should make it easier for QB Stafford to move the ball and extend his passing statistics.
The biggest reason for their latest win surge has been some great play by their defense team which limited in the last 2 games, two very high powered QB’s to only 31 points in those games. The Lions cornerback D. Slay dominated the Packers receivers as well as the Raiders as he made them non-factors in the game. Also their run defense has played well only allowing a total of 98 yards rushing in those same games.
Detroit has a great opportunity in this game to win their 3rd game as a result of superior defensive performances out of their unit, as the Eagles have been performing poorly and their QB Sanchez have a tendency to accommodate with turnovers.
The prediction for this game is that the Lions defense gives another great performance and the Lions give the Eagles another loss while they extend their winning streak to 3 as the beat the Eagles 21-14!