Saints vs Eagles: Week 9 Monday Nighter

Rarely does a matchup of two teams with a combined record of 5-9 deserve as much attention as Monday night's matchup between the 2-5 New Orleans Saints and 3-4 Philadelphia Eagles at the Superdome (8:30 pm ET, ESPN).

On one side we have a team in the Saints still suffering from the after-affects of a murky scandal involving hits for money, playing without its suspended head coach and unable to stop anybody on defense.

On the other side we have a supposed “Dream Team” in the Eagles that's played its head coach onto a hot seat.

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The Saints, with HC Sean Payton watching their games from an undisclosed location, started off this losing by losing their first four games. They could have been at least 2-2, but coughed up a lead and lost at home to lowly Kansas City.

Then they botched a game-winning field-goal situation in Green Bay and lost by one point to the Packers.

TIP: The Eagles are 11-2 ATS in their past 13 Monday Nighters when they are away from home.

New Orleans then came from behind to beat both Tampa and San Diego, but last week the Saints got drilled in Denver 34-14, allowing the Broncos to run roughshod for 530 yards of offense.

So New Orleans, at 2-5, is not going to win the NFC South, and trails every other team in the NFC except one in the battle for Wild-Card spots. [ Bet MNF props on Drew Brees and Michael Vick, see the full list here ]

Over across on the other sidelines Philly started 3-1 this season, but you could tell they were living dangerously, winning despite turning the ball over a dozen times.

The Eagles got a late score to beat the Browns, another late score to beat Baltimore, and two weeks later, after getting bombed in Arizona, they nipped the Giants on a late field goal.

But karma has since caught up to the Eagles, who lost a close game at Pittsburgh, blew a late lead and lost at home in overtime to the Lions, and last week got thoroughly outplayed by Atlanta and lost 30-17.

So Philly, at 3-4, trails the 6-3 Giants in the NFC East and the 5-4 Seahawks in the battle for the second NFC Wild-Card spot.

However, Eagles fans might take some solace in the fact that Philly finished last season with a four-game winning streak that darn-near got them into the playoffs.

As for the betting on Monday's game New Orleans opened as a 3.5-point favorite over Philly, with a total of 53. But since then the spread has been cut to -3 at most NFL betting shops, and to -2.5 at some, while the total has dropped a point to 52.

In a personnel note that's likely to affect the Saints' ability to score points Monday night scatback Darren Sproles is out of action with a broken bone in his hand.

So far this season Monday night home teams are only 4-5 both straight-up and vs. the point spreads.