Playoff Picture: How the Eagles can win the NFC East
It looks like December is starting early for the Dallas Cowboys this year.
After a 6-1 start to the season, Dallas has dropped two of their last three games and the injuries are starting to pile up:
Amari Cooper
— Marcus Mosher (@Marcus_Mosher) November 21, 2021
CeeDee Lamb
Tyron Smith
Blake Jarwin
Demarcus Lawrence
Randy Gregory
Neville Gallimore
Brent Urban
Jabril Cox
Kelvin Joseph
On the contrary, the Eagles are getting hot at the right time. They just ran all over the #1 rush defense in the NFL and now sit second in the league in rushing offense only behind Cleveland.
Jalen Hurts’ intangible qualities are beginning to turn into tangible ones. His leadership is palpable and Nick Siranni’s redesigned scheme has him more confident by the week.
JALEN HURTS OWNS CARL GRANDERSON’S ANKLES. pic.twitter.com/t5Jw2Ii75c
— Victor Williams (@ThePhillyPod) November 21, 2021
Per FiveThirtyEight, the Eagles currently have a 38% chance to make the postseason sitting at 5-6. Those odds jump up to over 60% with wins over the Giants and Jets before the bye week.
But why stop at the Wild Card? The Eagles are 2.5 games behind Dallas with six games remaining and have the easiest strength of schedule in the league:
Remaining schedule:
| Philadelphia Eagles (5-6) | Dallas Cowboys (7-3) | |
| Week 12 | @ Giants (3-6) | vs. Raiders (5-5) |
| Week 13 | @ Jets (2-8) | @ Saints (5-5) |
| Week 14 | BYE WEEK | @ Washington (4-6) |
| Week 15 | vs. Washington (4-6) | @ Giants (3-6) |
| Week 16 | vs. Giants (3-6) | vs. Washington (4-6) |
| Week 17 | @ Washington (4-6) | vs. Cardinals (9-2) |
| Week 18 | vs. Cowboys (7-3) | @ Eagles (5-6) |
So how exactly can the Eagles win the division? The short answer — they would need to run the table.
In addition, the Cowboys would have to lose at least two more games before the final week of the season. In this scenario, Dallas would be 11-5 and Philly would be 10-6 heading into their Week 18 matchup.
An Eagles win would have both teams finish with 11-6 records, but Philadelphia would own the tiebreaker in most scenarios — effectively making that last game a winner-take-all matchup for the NFC East crown.
Obviously, there are many moving parts here and we should just be enjoying the progression of Jalen Hurts. With the way the season started, however, you can’t help but get excited at the thought of winning the division — and sticking it to Dallas fans in the process.
If you want to get crazy, Parx Sportsbook has the Eagles at +800 odds to win the division. You can sign up for a new Parx Sportsbook account with promo code LIBERTYLINE to get your first bet RISK-FREE up to $500.
I’ll be sprinkling a few bucks on it myself. #FlyEaglesFly
The Saints have given up 200+ rushing yards just twice since 2016:
— Victor Williams (@ThePhillyPod) November 22, 2021
• Week 14 last season vs. Eagles
• Today vs. Eagles
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Mandatory Credit: AP Photo | Matt Rourke
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[…] To conclude, I just want to say this is too much fun. Regardless of how you feel about Hurts, at least we have a drama-free football team that is all of a sudden in the playoff hunt. […]
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