Like it or Not, the Eagles Are in the Thick of a Playoff Race
Like it or not, the Eagles are in the thick of a playoff race.
With their impressive win on Sunday in Denver, the Eagles improved to 4-6, just one game behind the No. 7 seed in the NFC behind Carolina and 1.5 behind New Orleans for the No. 6 spot.
Remember the Eagles own the tiebreaker over both Atlanta and Carolina, since they beat them head-to-head this season. They play the Saints this week, which makes this a very important game, if the Eagles want to make the playoffs.
I wrote an article that the Eagles are in the playoff mix, and many people keep responding by sending me Jim Mora's famous GIF of him saying "playoffs".
Well people, the GIF's are cute, but this Eagles team all the sudden is anything but.
They run the ball, behind a very good offensive line, going for 214 yards against the Broncos, making it the third-straight game in which they have gone over 175+ yards rushing.
By going over 200 yards, they have now gone over 200 yards rushing in two of their last three games (236 yards in Week 8 at Detroit).
If they stick to that script, they just might find themselves not only in the playoff mix, but in the actual playoffs.
The Eagles upcoming schedule features two winning teams, next week against New Orleans and Dallas in Week 18, which could be resting a lot of players with the NFC East locked up by then. In between they will face the Giants and Jets before their bye week. After the bye, they will face Washington, the Giants, and Washington again.
The Eagles have the easiest remaining schedule, while Carolina, the current No. 7 seed as the most difficult.
The schedule is favorable, they won't have to board a plane the rest of the season and these are the quarterbacks they will face the rest of the way: Trevor Siemian, Daniel Jones, Mike White or Zach Wilson/Joe Flacco, Taylor Heinicke, Daniel Jones, Taylor Heinicke, Dak Prescott.
I know many want the Eagles to lose, and get a better draft pick, but if the team makes the playoffs, doesn't that mean Jalen Hurts might be the right guy, and you still have potentially three first-round picks to focus on improving other deficient areas.
Like it or not, the playoffs are in sight.