Eagles Emerge As Favorite For Both NFC Championship, Super Bowl

Oddsmakers like Philly's chances against the 49ers and to hoist Lombardi Trophy
devonta smith
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While the Philadelphia Eagles have yet to reach the Super Bowl, they have reached the pinnacle of their season in the eyes of oddsmakers: They have become the favorite to handle the Lombardi Trophy the night of Feb. 12.

It took a dominant divisional round win over the New York Giants — and, probably, an ankle sprain by Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes — to do it, but Pennsylvania’s online sportsbooks now give the Eagles a slight edge over the Chiefs, Cincinnati Bengals, and San Francisco 49ers to win the Super Bowl.

The best return for a bettor backing Philly to win the Super Bowl is the +260 offered by Caesars Sportsbook, with +250 available at PointsBet and at sites with Kambi odds such as BetRivers and Barstool Sportsbook.

Of course, Philadelphia must first get past the 49ers Sunday afternoon in the NFC Championship Game at Lincoln Financial Field, and they are only a small favorite to do so. The sportsbooks universally made the Eagles a 2.5-point favorite as of Tuesday morning, a bit wider than their initial line.

That more or less amounts to the line for home field advantage, awarded to Philadelphia as the NFC’s No. 1 seed after whipping the New York Giants 38-7 over the weekend. San Francisco, meanwhile, struggled Sunday as the No. 2 seed to get past the Dallas Cowboys 19-12.

PointsBet was offering the best moneyline to an Eagles bettor Tuesday, at -140, trailed by FanDuel at -144. The over/under was 45.5 by consensus of all the books.

The best possible matchup in NFC

The Eagles and 49ers did not meet during the regular season, but they clearly emerged as the NFC’s top two teams. Philadelphia lost only one game when Jalen Hurts was on the field, and San Francisco has won 12 straight games — the last seven of them led by rookie quarterback Brock Purdy.

They are the only two teams to rank in the top five in the NFL on both offense (Eagles third, 49ers fifth) and defense (49ers first, Eagles second).

The Eagles defense held opponents to the fewest passing yards, the 49ers held foes to the lowest rushing yards per carry. Those defenses showed up strong in the divisional round. Neither the Giants nor Cowboys were able to amass more than 300 yards of offense or more than 15 first downs.

But it’s the offensive stars of the two teams who get most of the attention, with plenty of good reason.

Healthy Hurts makes a difference

The big question for the Eagles entering the playoffs was whether Hurts’ shoulder sprain suffered last month had healed, and he answered that quickly against the Giants. The third-year quarterback led Philly to a 28-0 halftime lead and ended up with two TD passes thrown and a scoring run.

Hurts ran for just 34 yards on nine carries, but Kenneth Gainwell ran for 112 and Miles Sanders 90 as the Eagles amassed 268 yards on the ground.

While A.J. Brown had a slow day, with only 22 yards on three catches, DeVonta Smith caught six balls, one for a TD, and Dallas Goedert had five catches, including a TD.

The 49ers only had one touchdown of their own, a scoring run by Christian McCaffrey, but they have plenty of weapons in the versatile running back and Deebo Samuel, George Kittle, and Brandon Aiyuk. San Francisco hasn’t lost since acquiring McCaffrey from Carolina in a late October trade.

The 49ers also haven’t lost with third-stringer Purdy, the last player chosen in the 2022 draft, who became their quarterback due to injuries to Trey Lance and Jimmy Garoppolo. Against Dallas, he completed 19 of 29 passes for 214 yards, and as has been generally the case, had no turnovers. He doesn’t run — he did so for just 13 yards during the regular season — but he doesn’t make mistakes either.

As the game gets closer to the 3 p.m. Sunday start, the sportsbooks will be offering their player props and any number of bet boosts and special offers. Savvy Eagles fans will be searching multiple sportsbooks to find the best of those, and they can only hope they’ll have reason to do so two weeks from now as well.

Photo: Bill Streicher/USA TODAY

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