Jacob Lintner picks The Eagles

It’s big. It’s back. It’s Monday Night Football. Last week wasn’t too much of a contest between the Detroit Lions and the New York Giants, as the Lions rolled in their 35-14 victory. Back to the present, the Philadelphia Eagles will square off against the Indianapolis Colts in the Week 2 edition of Monday Night Football. The Eagles will, of course, win this week. While Andrew Luck is a decent QB on the upswing, he doesn’t play defense. Therefore, he cannot win this game for his team. As inferred above, the Colts’ defense will be the key to this game. The Colts have lost many of their key pieces on defense since they last made it to the Super Bowl in 2010. This is disregarding that Peyton Manning hopped a different horse in 2012. The Colts have lost defensive starters such as Robert Mathis, Dwight Freeney, Antoine Bethea, and Gary Brackett in the past four years. This has resulted in the Colts allowing an increased number of rushing yards per game, peaking last season when they allowed 125.1 rushing yards per game. They allowed 102 yards on the ground in Week 1 against the Broncos and their less-than-stellar running back committee. It’s almost frightening to think about how Lesean McCoy is going to tear up the weak and depleted Indianapolis defense.

That brings us to Lesean McCoy. Lesean McCoy is the consensus best running back in the league, and it is no surprise as to why. Over the past four seasons, since he won the starting job in 2010, he has has more rushing yards per game than almost half of the league. He has accumulated a total of 83.4 rushing yards per game since then, and he is not looking back. He gobbled up another 74 yards against the improving Jacksonville defense, so this week should be no problem for the “holey as Swiss cheese” group of men that Chuck Pagano sends out each week.

My one hope is that Chip Kelly doesn’t forget about his young stud at quarterback. Nick Foles is on his way to rivaling Peyton Manning as the greatest regular season quarterback that just can’t win in the spotlight of the postseason, especially in the second half. Now, I know there’s a lot of hype surrounding Andrew Luck as the best comeback quarterback since Tom Brady, but he’s on an even playing ground with Nick Foles. Their stat lines from the second half of each of their first games reads as follows: Luck- 252 yards, two touchdowns, one interception, 66⅔ completion percentage, and one sack; Foles- 192 yards, two touchdowns, 0 interceptions, 71½ completion percentage, and 0 sacks. While Luck threw for more yards, Foles was much more efficient, and, more importantly, his team won. Both the Eagles and the Colts were losing by 17 points at halftime, but only Foles was able to bring his team back, and that’s what being a quarterback is all about. You have to win no matter what. That is why the Philadelphia Eagles will march into Indianapolis as challengers, but soar out as victors.

Alex Connell picks the Colts

It’s pretty obvious to me that the Indianapolis Colts are going to dominate this monday night against the Philadelphia Eagles. The Colts are coming off a loss to the Denver Broncos last week they were down at half and really came back, almost to win the game. It was a close game but they just didn’t have enough to put them ahead against the Broncos.

Andrew Luck is the best clutch quarterback in the NFL today, period. Out of his 370 passing yards 252 of them have been in the second half. This shows that he does well under pressure, when it matters. The Eagles defence let up 266 passing yards last week which shows that Andrew Luck may have a better chance to put up some good numbers and score against the Eagles secondary.

One aspect of the Colts that wasn’t a strong influence in the game last week was Trent Richardson. He had high yards per carry but only ran the ball 6 times total all game. The Eagles allowed 65 yards to 25 carries which shows that he may have a tough time rushing against the eagles defence. But I believe running back Trent Richardson is a stronger running back than Toby Gerhart and will be more successful against the Eagles defence.

The young quarterback for the Eagles, Nick Foles will not be able to best the Colt’s secondary. The secondary that was able to put up 17 points in the second half against the Broncos, a team who went to the Super Bowl last season, and held the broncos to only 3 points in the second half. This shows that they do have the ability to best the Eagles passing game if they play well.

One trick that the Colts do have up their sleeve is their special teams in particular their kicker. Pat McAffee last week they were down by two scores and sent out the onside field unit his kick was perfect and gave the Colts the chance they needed to get back into the game. I feel that this will be a factor in the game because its a great tool to have. Their field goal kicker the 40 year old Adam Vinatiari is a very good kicker with a career long 53 yard field goal. He’s consistently good and is great when the pressure is on him.

The Colts have been very hit and miss the last few seasons. Losing some games they should’ve won and having some astonishing second half comebacks. I think coming off a week one loss to the Broncos they will come back and beat the Eagles.

Records for pics this season

Jacob Lintner – (0-0)

Alex Connell – (0-0)