Eagles-Dolphins odds have shifted in Miami’s favor

Hurts vs. Tua

Despite losing to the New York Jets, the Philadelphia Eagles are still favored to beat the Miami Dolphins at Lincoln Financial Field in Week 7.

Well, sort of.

The Birds opened as 2.5-point home favorites, according to DraftKings Sportsbook. But a game between two evenly-matched teams would have the Eagles favored by the standard three points. And the line has actually shifted down to Philly only being favored by two.

If this game was happening on a neutral field, the Dolphins would be favored by one point. If it was happening in Miami, they would be four-point favorites.

There’s every reason to believe this Dolphins team will challenge the Eagles during this week’s edition of Sunday Night Football.

Mike McDaniel is overseeing an offense that nearly broke the NFL record for points scored in a single-game earlier this season. The Dolphins are averaging 37.2 points per game and 498.7 yards per game.

Not only are those league-leading numbers … they rank first by a wide margin. The San Francisco 49ers are second in points per game with 30.7. The difference between first and second there is about the difference between second and 10th. The Eagles are second in yards per game with 395. The difference between first and second there is about the difference between second and 25th. Insane.

Those are troubling numbers even if the Eagles were healthy … which they are not! And especially in the secondary. On paper, this seems like a really bad matchup.

Then again, the Eagles’ defensive line is capable of generating pressure to help cover up concerns on the back end. The problem is that Tua Tagovailoa is very good at making quick decisions to get the ball out fast; he has the quickest average time-to-throw at 2.32 seconds. (Jalen Hurts, meanwhile, has the NFL’s second slowest release time only ahead of notorious ball-holder Justin Fields.) Accordingly, the Dolphins are tied for allowing the fewest sacks this year.

So, yeah, the Dolphins are a really good team. But they are not unbeatable. They just suffered a 28-point road loss to the Buffalo Bills a few weeks ago. The same Bills team that nearly lost to the New York Giants at home.

There’s no denying that the Eagles are in a tough spot right now with their injury situation. But to suggest that they’re hopeless just because they lost to the Jets is over-reactionary. This Eagles team is flawed but they are good and they’ve been tough to beat for a long stretch of time now. They’re not going down without a fight, especially at home for the Kelly Green debut game.

The more people think the Dolphins are going to win this one, the more confidence I have in the Eagles bouncing back after an uncharacteristic loss.

What say you?