November 18, 2024
Gary A. Vasquez/Imagn Images
Jalen Hurts and the Eagles beat the Rams in L.A. last season.
The Eagles are flying high and headed West this week, looking to make it seven wins in a row with a primetime matchup against the Rams on Sunday Night Football out in LA.
The Birds have been playing some league-best football since returning from their early-October bye week, and the numbers back that up, but the Rams are fighting within a competitive NFC West right now, and have won four of their last five after beating New England on Sunday.
Still, the Eagles are playing like a powerhouse. They beat the Cowboys and then the Commanders back-to-back to take a clear hold of the NFC East, Saquon Barkley has easily been the best running back in the conference, A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith can make a game-breaking play at any second, Zack Baun has been a breakout star at linebacker, and rookies Quinyon Mitchell and Cooper DeJean have transformed the secondary into a lockdown unit, all while Jalen Hurts has taken increasingly better care of the football.
So going into Week 12, the sportsbooks are leaning Eagles. Here's a look at the odds and money lines across several:
| Sportsbook | Spread | Money Line | Total O/U |
| DraftKings | PHI -3 | PHI -162 LAR +136 | 48.5 |
| FanDuel | PHI -3 | PHI -162 LAR +136 | 47.5 |
| BetRivers | PHI -3 | PHI -159 LAR +132 | 48 |
| BetMGM | PHI -3 | PHI -160 LAR +130 | 48 |
| bet365 | PHI -3 | PHI -150 LAR +125 | 48 |
On the Rams' end, Matt Stafford is a veteran quarterback who has seen just about everything to this point in his career and is always a threat to rally his team out of any tight situation, especially when he has his top receivers Puka Nacua and Cooper Kupp at his disposal.
Running back Kyren Williams has also been a steady rusher for LA, and racked up 86 yards on 15 carries this past week against the Patriots.
The Eagles' defense, however, has been excellent at shutting its opposition down over the past six games, holding Dallas to just 146 yards of total offense two weeks ago and then an upstart Washington team led by rookie star Jayden Daniels to 264 on Thursday night. On average, the Eagles are holding teams to an NFL-best 273.1 yards per game, and only seem to be getting stronger as they go as Vic Fangio's system continues to click.
The defense might have one more advantage, too, even on the road.
The Eagles traveled to LA to face the Rams last October and won, 23-14, with their fans showing up to SoFi Stadium in heavy numbers.
It made a difference.
Stafford was getting the ball out quickly that game, which left the Eagles' pass rush struggling to get to him in time unless they found a way to get faster on the fly.
Then Jalen Carter picked up on all the green in the stands and the noise that was barreling down. That was working against the Rams, despite it being their home field.
"We learned their snap," Carter, who went on to collect two sacks, said afterward. "We had a lot of fans out there so it was loud. So [the Rams] had the little hand movement on the snap, and it was really like the second time they threw [the hand movement] is when they were gonna snap it. I used that as a point to get off faster."
And the Eagles took off for that day from there.
They'll be looking to the stands for that extra boost again on Sunday night.
All of us Eagles fans at home were going crazy during this crowd shot
— Life of a Philly Fan (@PhillyFanLife) October 8, 2023
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