Eagles Must Worry About Themselves, Not the Rest of the NFC East

by Marc Narducci | Oct 14, 2020

The Eagles continue to be aided by playing in what is the weakest division in the NFL, the NFC East. As we wrote a few weeks ago, being in this division will help the Eagles

In fact it isn’t out of the realm of possibility that the division will be won by a team with a losing record.

So even at 1-3-1 the Eagles are just a half game out of first place. Dallas is 2-3 after a comeback 37-34 win over the New York Giants.

Washington, which opened the season with a 27-17 win over the Eagles, hasn’t won since and is 1-4 and the Giants are now 0-5.

Dallas also lost quarterback Dak Prescott for the year after he suffered a gruesome ankle injury in the win over Dallas.

Eagles fans shouldn’t think that will lead to an automatic division title. That’s because the Cowboys have one of the NFL’s best backup quarterbacks in Andy Dalton, who came in and completed 9 of 11 for 111 yards in the win over the Giants.

Dalton, who turns 33 later this month, led the Cincinnati Bengals to four consecutive playoff berths from 2001 through 2014.

Without Prescott, the Cowboys may be more of a running team, which actually is a better style for them because it takes advantage of Ezekiel Elliott, who rushed for 91 yards and two touchdowns on 18 carries.

A ball control type offense will keep the Dallas defense off the field which is a good thing since the Cowboys’ D is among the worst in the NFL.

So in this imperfect season, even without Prescott, expect the Cowboys to contend.

As for the Eagles, they will have another tough matchup this week when Lamar Jackson and the Baltimore Ravens visit Philadelphia.

The Eagles have had trouble with quality quarterbacks this season. Against Jared Goff and the Rams, they lost 37-19. (For those who don’t feel Goff is a quality quarterback, he at least fits into the top half of NFL passers and might even be better than that).

The Eagles tied Joe Burrow and the Cincinnati Bengals. As Burrow showed during Sunday’s 27-3 loss to the Ravens, both he and his team have a long way to go, but anybody who has seen him has to be impressed by his talent and poise. What hurts Burrow is an offensive line that allow him to be sacked seven times against the Ravens.

The Eagles also struggled with Ben Roethlisberger in Sunday’s 38-29 loss at Pittsburgh. Roethlisberger was 27 for 34 for 239 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions and a 125.4 passer rating.

Now they have to face Jackson, last season’s NFL MVP in only his second year with the Ravens. The Eagles can’t get caught up with what Dallas or the rest of the NFC East is doing but has to be more consistent and cut down the mistakes.

With two more interceptions, Carson Wentz has already thrown nine, already two more than all of last season.

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So even though the task will be tough this week, the Eagles just have to get to playing consistent football as they will be an underdog for the third straight week.

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Author: Marc Narducci

Eagles Must Worry About Themselves, Not the Rest of the NFC East

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