December 10, 2017
With the Philadelphia Eagles still strong contenders to land home-field advantage throughout the playoffs, it makes sense to re-calibrate their chances of ending up with the No. 1 seed in the playoffs each week, along with taking an early look at ideal playoff matchups.
Obviously, their season may have been turned on its head pending the injury diagnosis on Carson Wentz.
Still, here's what went right and wrong for the Eagles on Sunday (and Thursday).
• The Panthers beat the Vikings: Carolina snapped Minny's eight-game win streak and made them look human for one week. With the Vikings' loss, the Eagles once again took a stronghold of the NFC, holding a full game advantage as well as tiebreaker advantages (if need be) on the strength of a better record against common opponents.
• The Falcons beat the Saints: At 9-4 with a 7-3 conference record, it's going to take an Eagles collapse down the stretch for the Saints to earn a higher playoff seed than Philly. That means, of course, that the Eagles won't have to play in the Superdome, where the Saints have historically had a major advantage, especially late in the season.
• The Jaguars beat the Seahawks: Russell Wilson clearly seems to own the Eagles, so I'm sure the Eagles wouldn't mind if Seattle was out of it in the playoffs.
• The Lions beat the Buccaneers: The Lions aren't good, but they're 7-6. If they were to get in the playoffs over, say, the aforementioned Seahawks, that would be ideal.
• The Cowboys beat the Giants: The NFC East is wrapped up, so the Cowboys' win doesn't matter much, but the more the Giants lose the better it is for the long-term health of that organization, as they'll get a better draft pick.
• The Packers beat the Browns: The Browns were up 14 in this game, but the Packers crawled back in and won. Green Bay's dream of an Aaron Rodgers return survives another week.
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