Franklin60

They could have put in Ben for a victory celebration PAT. I would have done that.

Ryan Kerrigan got within about a yard of an opposing quarterback on one pass play late in the Eagles/Washington game yesterday. That's about as close as he's come all season to actually getting a sack. The practice squad player who replaced him when he missed the Giants game last week because of Covid made more tackles/plays in that single game than Kerrigan did the entire season. I'm not kidding.

Depends on the Saints. In a three way tie, I believe the Niners are out because of conference record.

Eagles 23 Washington 16

I've been a Notre Dame fan for over fifty years. When I watched Ian Book, my impression was always "he's not an NFL quarterback." Yeah, sure, I thought he might be drafted in the seventh round or something like that. But I never thought a team would actually invest a mid-round pick in a guy like him. I was beyond disbelief when the Saints drafted him where they did.

There are some Eagles fans who are absolutely devastated by what's happened over the past couple of months. For awhile it looked like they were positioned to have three Top Ten picks. But with the Dolphins going 7-0, the Colts going 6-1, and the Eagles going 5-2, they might not even get a single pick in the Top Twenty.

Darnold was the starting quarterback when they beat the Panthers. He was their starter going into the year. Goff was the starting quarterback when they beat the Lions. He's been the starter the entire year. Bridgewater was the starting quarterback when they beat the Broncos. He's been the Broncos starter all year, at least until he got hurt.

Okay, I've been playing around with the scenarios where the Eagles would win the tiebreak against the Cowboys at 10-7, which can only happen if the Eagles win their final three games and the Cowboys lose their final three. I had said earlier that this is impossible, but technically it isn't. But it is so implausible as to be completely ignored as a possibility. As I said, it comes down to strength of victory, and it involves these eight teams. Chargers, Patriots, Vikings, Giants, Broncos, WFT, Lions, and Jets. What would need to happen is that the Chargers, Patriots, Vikings, and Giants [teams the Cowboys beat] would need to lose out, while the Broncos, WFT (with the exception of their game against the Eagles of course), Lions, and Jets [teams the Eagles beat] would need to win out. I believe there could be one of these games that could go "wrong" and the Eagles would win the tiebreak, but basically about 23 out of 24 games would have to go right, and they include absurdities like the Lions winning out when one of the games is against the Packers, the Jets winning out which includes games against the Bucs and Bills, and the Chargers losing to the Texans. So I think it's beyond 99% that Dallas wins the division, and is more like 99.99%.

If they both finish 10-7, it would come down to the teams strength-of-victory since head-to-head, division, and common opponents would still be tied. The Cowboys currently have a massive lead over the Eagles (for example, they beat the Patriots while the Eagles beat the Lions...that sort of thing. There are other teams involved like the Broncos, Chargers, Vikings, and Jets, but that's the gist of it). I don't even think it's statistically possible for the teams the Eagles have beaten to make up the deficit in only three weeks. But I guess the league won't officially declare it clinched until they count the votes, so to speak. Basically, the Eagles beat crappy teams like the Lions and Jets while the Cowboys beat good teams like the Chargers and Patriots. It's really a done deal.

As an Eagles fan, that was probably the most depressing loss I ever experienced. Because driving home from that game afterwards, I knew he was going to get fired and that the team would go into a downward spiral. It was clear as day. And I was proven right. The funny thing about Ryan is that Eagles fans nowadays seem to revere him in hindsight, yet at the time you couldn't find an Eagles fan who didn't want him fired. But our fans are mostly stupid anyway, so what can you do?

I also forgot to mention that Buddy Ryan also got another head coaching gig (Arizona), though it wasn't immediate. And he wasn't successful either.

Something that's amazing is that every Eagles head coach from the mid '70s on, with the exception of one interim coach who filled in for the season finale in '85, has gotten another head coaching gig...except for Pederson, the only Eagles coach to ever lead them to a Super Bowl victory. Crappy coaches like Mike McCormack (Seattle), Marion Campbell (Atlanta), Rich Kotite (Jets), and Ray Rhodes (Green Bay) got another chance. Ditto for Chip Kelly (San Francisco). Even Pat Shurmur, who was an interim coach for a week when Kelly was fired, was hired by the Giants. And of course the two great Eagles head coaches of the past fifty years -- Vermeil and Reid -- not only were hired elsewhere but won Super Bowls for other teams.

Yes, that happened. But it's hardly unprecedented for a team to have ten days before a game against a team with a full seven days. That happens a lot and isn't anything anyone gets worked up about. Heck, fourteen vs seven happens plenty. It's the five days vs seven days that's an issue.

I think you're kind of missing the point here. It's not that they're getting short rest, it's that their future opponent (in this case the Giants) is on full rest. When teams routinely play on four day's rest for a Thursday game, their opponent in that game is in the same situation so there is no advantage or disadvantage attached. That's what the Eagles fans are annoyed with.

I just hope that they move next week's Cowboys-Washington and Eagles/Giants game to Monday. That way the Eagles and WFT aren't forced to play a game with only five days rest against a team that's had seven full days. An extra day makes the two day disparity (six vs eight) more palatable. And then both teams would play the following week with the same six days rest. But I highly doubt that'll happen.

The Eagles hired Dick Vermeil directly from UCLA. That turned out pretty well.

The NFC actually has a better record than the AFC this year. The distribution of good teams is a bit weird but I don't think it's the weaker conference.

Since the Giants own the Bears first round pick next year, I sure as heck don't want them to get another high pick. So I'll be rooting for the Bears all the way. Green Bay losing doesn't really change things.

As an Eagles fan, I look at playoff possibilities with their interest in mind. And the problem for the Eagles -- and the advantage for WFT -- is that in all likelihood, a tiebreak between the two teams will go Washington's way. Let's for a moment disregard the scenarios with either team sweeping the other. Because in that case the tiebreak is irrelevant in that it doesn't even need to be calculated. But furthermore, whichever team wins the sweep would have a two game edge, meaning the losing team would have to make up the two game deficit in their other games, which is highly unlikely (and would probably put them at 8-9 which probably won't be good enough to make the playoffs anyway). So you really only need to look at scenarios where the two teams split their games with each other. And that's where the Eagles will end up losing. WFT is already 1-0 in their division games while the Eagles are 0-2. The best the Eagles can do is 2-2 (beating the Giants and Cowboys), which if you include the split with Washington puts their final record at 9-8. If Washington were to go 1-2 in their games against those two division rivals while splitting with the Eagles (which is what the Eagles would need them to do so that they wouldn't lose the tiebreak based on divisional record), they would finish 8-9. So the Eagles would finish in second place with WFT in third. In that case there wouldn't even be a tiebreak needed. But that's precisely the point. The only way the Eagles can finish ahead of Washington if the teams split their two games is by having a better record. All "tiebreaks" go to Washington. I suppose I should point out the obvious just to be clear. If Washington were to go 2-1 in those games with Dallas and NYG and split with the Eagles, they'd go 9-8 and would win the tiebreak because of their better divisional record. So all Washington needs to do is split with the Eagles and finish with at least as many total victories and they'll finish ahead of them. Whether that will be good enough to earn a wild card spot is another matter altogether, although I suspect it would. (I think the Vikings are still very much in the hunt though.) This puts me in the very disgusting position this week of having to root for the Cowboys, something I rarely ever do and always find very distasteful. I'm sure y'all can relate to that dilemma.

As far as I can tell, you're either missing Nick Foles or Carson Wentz from this list, depending on your interpretation of winning quarterback.

Was it the Redskins medical staff that advised him to jump up and down in an attempt to fire up the adoring crowd at the team's draft festivities a couple of months after he had his knee surgery? I wouldn't think so. I always considered that to be egotistical and irresponsible behavior. I'm not a fan of the team and I only observed him from afar, but I take it that that's just the way he was.

Yeah, but it was a lot more exciting when the Dolphins were 1-7 and looked like they might be headed for a top five pick. Now it's looking like they might be a 7 or 8 win team with their pick being between ten and twelve. I figure the Eagles own pick will probably be somewhere between ten and fifteen. The Colts pick probably won't be better than sixteenth and could be somewhere in the twenties. I have little doubt that they'll go defense almost exclusively. I still want to enjoy the rest of the season before turning my attention to the draft.

I don't think this is a good take. I'm not saying the Eagles are a playoff team, and I don't think their depth on defense is especially good. Their linebackers are pretty bad across the board and they really have only one guy in the secondary (Slay) who is legitimately good. But the one place where they are deep is the offensive line. It's the position they continually address in the draft. And because they were ravaged by injuries last year along the offensive line (at one point early in the season, they were starting games with only one of their original top eight), they went into camp this year with about a dozen guys with starting experience. It's probably their deepest unit.

Another invisible game for Kerrigan this past Sunday. I heard the other day that he actually has only one official tackle all year. Based on what I have seen, it sounds quite possible. The Eagles have started using their sixth round rookie a little bit more in their rotation because Kerrigan has been so bad.

He's been practically invisible. The Eagles dress 8 DLs per game and substitute a backup unit in for a series every once in a while. Kerrigan plays left end in that backup unit. I think he's made about two tackles this year (okay, maybe more than that officially but I'm talking about plays where you would actually notice him and say, "Oh, that was Kerrigan who made the play") and hasn't come close to the quarterback. He's really been a massive disappointment. I forget if he signed a one or two year deal, but either way, I'm pretty sure he won't be on the team next year. Short answer -- you guys got rid of him at just the right time.