Philadelphia Eagles at Seattle Seahawks Thursday Night Football Game

What a difference a year makes! A season ago, the Seattle Seahawks became the NFC West kings and would go on to pull off one of the most improbable shockers in the history of the National Football League. For the Philadelphia Eagles, life was similar, as they would win the NFC East division and just fell short in their attempt to stun the eventual Super Bowl champion Green Bay Packers.

Today, neither of these teams has any chance to win their division, nor get into the postseason. But there’s one more thing both of these clubs have in common other than their identical 4-7 record: they both crumbled under pressure and high expectations of the 2011 NFL season. When they meet Thursday night at the newly named CenturyLink Field, the Eagles will be playing to save Andy Reid’s job and the Seahawks will simply be playing for pride.

According to Thursday Night Football Game Odds makers, the Eagles have been listed as the betting favorites by a field goal despite not having Michael Vick in the lineup. This means that Vince Young will be making his fourth start of the season, as Vick continues to heal from broken ribs. As bad as the Eagles have been this season, there are some interesting stats to consider against the spread.

For one, Philly is undefeated in their last 4 Thursday games, with a 4-0 record. The Eagles have also been a historically good team in Week 13, as they come in with a record of 13-3 in their last 16 games played in “Lucky 13”. After double-digit losses at home like we saw last week, Philadelphia is 7-2 in its last 9.

As their 24-11 record indicates, this team has also been very resilient after allowing more than 30 points in their previous 35 games. However and NFL Odds makers must LOVE Philly for this, especially this season: in the last 7 games that this team has gone in as the favorites by anywhere between ½ up to 3 points, the Eagles are just 2-5. Speaking of 2-5, that’s also their record in the last 7 games in which they’ve allowed over 350 total yards the previous week.

It’s not surprising that Philly is just: 4-10 in its last 15 games overall against the spread, 3-10 in the last 13 games in which it was listed as the favorites, 1-4 in the last 5 games after accumulating more than 250 yards passing in their previous game, 1-5 ATS in its last 6 road games versus teams with losing home records, 1-8 for its last 9 games after accumulating more than 350 total yards in their previous game, and 0-5 vs. a team with a losing record.

Can the Eagles pull off this victory for coach Reid?