NFL Thursday night football: It’s Cam over Carson in battle of NFC wanna-be powers

GREG COTE'S NFL PICK

EAGLES (4-1) at PANTHERS (4-1)

Line: CAR by 3 ½.

Cote's pick: CAR 27-23.

TV: 8:25 p.m., CBS.

Two teams with pay-attention-to-us records meet in a pretty tasty Thursday matchup, but are either the Birds or Cats up to making a run at the NFC title game? Still doubting it. See Carolina and Philly as second-tier playoff conference contenders a good step below the Packers and Falcons, but maybe the winner here will stake a claim. I'm liking Cam Newton at home. He might not respect women sports writers, but Philly's defense better respect that Cam is fully over his offseason shoulder surgery and on a roll. Counterpart Carson Wentz has been really good so far (especially on third downs), but look for Carolina rush-ends Julius Peppers and Charles Johnson to dirty up his pocket pretty good.

This story was originally published October 11, 2017 at 11:40 AM with the headline "NFL Thursday night football: It’s Cam over Carson in battle of NFC wanna-be powers."