NFL Week 16: Clash of the NFC East titans

This week’s NFL fixtures hold some real excitement in the NFC East division where the Dallas Cowboys welcome the Philadelphia Eagles, while elsewhere the New York Giants will head to the U.S. Bank Stadium to face the Minnesota Vikings.

Philadelphia Eagles @ Dallas Cowboys

This is a massive matchup in the NFC East division between the first ranked Philadelphia Eagles and the second ranked Dallas Cowboys. Both sides have already clinched the wild card so at this point in the season neither side will be losing sleep over a loss.

That doesn’t mean for a second however that both sides won’t throw everything at this game. The Eagles come into this game 13-1 after beating the New York Giants two weeks ago in a high scoring 48-22 game which extended their winning streak to five games. Nick Sirianni’s side will kick off as the 19/10 underdogs despite their clean record. The Eagles may however be without their star quarterback Jalen Hurts after he sustained a minor shoulder injury, somewhat explaining the odds discrepancy.

Although Hurts is not ruled out of the squad just yet, replacement quarterback Gardner Minshew is an NFL veteran and would pose a threat himself, like last year when he was called in for the New York Jets game and threw 20 successful passes for a total 242-yards gained and two touchdowns, narrowly stealing the victory.

The Dallas Cowboys come into this matchup off the back of a 40-34 road defeat to the Jacksonville Jaguars. That loss brings their record to 10-4 this season and they will no doubt want to bounce back into the win column as the 5/11 favourites.

When the pair last met in week six the Cowboys narrowly lost, however given the misfortunes of the Eagles starting quarterback, they will definitely fancy their chances at this point in the season. This home game will hopefully be a chance to display their true offensive potential, especially with players like running back Tony Pollard who can rip through defences when he’s given just an inch to breathe.

Injuries aside this will be a spectacular game between an in-form Eagles team and a motivated Cowboys side, with a high scoring affair expected by the bookmakers at 5/9 for both teams to score at least two touchdowns and over 46 points at 10/11.

Check out the latest betting odds at William Hill

New York Giants @ Minnesota Vikings

This is another tight clash between two top-class teams, although the Minnesota Vikings will fancy themselves as the 20/37 favourites at home. They currently lead the NFC North division with a record of 11-3 this season.

The Vikings come into this matchup following the largest comeback in NFL history last weekend when they came back from 33-0 down to win 39-36 against the Indianapolis Colts, truly unbelievable.

Their Achilles’ heel however appears to be NFC East teams, and the New York Giants will know this, with the Vikings going 1-2 against NFC East teams while 10-1 against everyone else. Regardless of this apparent weakness, the Vikings will take some stopping as their season so far has proven, with wide receiver Justin Jefferson alone gaining a whopping 1623 yards thus far.

The New York Giants may have it tough in their division, but that hasn’t stopped them from going 8-5 this season and winning last weekend against the Washington Commanders by an eight-point margin. Giants quarterback Taylor Heinicke threw 249 yards for one touchdown during the game and will only hope to improve on that this weekend.

They will kick off on the road as the 33/20 underdogs, but can possibly outplay their odds, especially considering the game means more to them than it does for the already division clinched Vikings. The question for the Giants is how bad do they want it?

Overall, this looks to be an interesting and hard to predict matchup, with William Hill expecting an even higher scoring game with odds of 10/11 for over 48.5 points and 7/4 for both teams to score three touchdowns.

Check out all the latest NFL betting odds at William Hill