Don’t worry about your Christmas Eve plans…Eagles will breathe easy

by John Kincade

I’ve been lobbying my pastor to change the early Christmas Eve vigil from 4pm to 3pm so as to not conflict with the Eagles battle with Dallas. I’ve done the math, I’ve been wasting my time. I can assure you that the NFC East will be well in hand by then.

The Eagles at (8-0) are sitting pretty in the NFC East. Honestly, they are sitting pretty in the NFC. It’s way too early to claim victory, but it seems just as likely that they will grab the top seed in the NFC as they will win the division. The Cowboys and Giants are currently both in playoff position. If the season ended today the Cowboys would be the top wild card as the 5th seed and the Giants would be the second wild card as the 6th seed. It’s pretty incredible. Again, the NFC East has the best collective winning percentage of any division through 9 weeks in NFL history. I didn’t see that coming and I doubt you did. That makes the next few weeks critical. If the Eagles don’t trip up and the others kick in a few more losses it will guarantee a very happy Christmas holiday.

NFC East

The Eagles are currently 2 games up on the Giants and 2.5 games up on the Cowboys because of their victory in the SNF matchup from earlier in October. They won’t face the Giants until December 11th. That will be the first of two meetings between the clubs. Before that game the Eagles have a home game with the Commanders, a road game at the Colts and then home games with the Packers and the Titans. While the Eagles have a homestand for the next month except for that one trip to the spiraling Colts, the Cowboys have to travel to Green Bay, Minnesota and then host the Giants on Thanksgiving. A third loss is extremely likely in that run. The Giants have easy opponents at home in Houston and Detroit before facing the Cowboys in Dallas on Thanksgiving. So before the Packers game, the Eagles could be (10-0) and the Giants and Cowboys could both have at least 3 losses.

NFC

The Vikings are a true threat. I’m praying that Josh Allen and his UCL injury isn’t serious. The Bills host the Vikings this weekend and the Eagles could use a helping hand. The Vikings are 1.5 games back due to the Eagles Week 2 win, but another loss for them would go a long way towards creating breathing room. Lose either the Bills game or the Cowboys game and the sun will shine over Novacare just a little bit brighter.

‘Do the math, you aren’t getting too far ahead of yourself. The worst case scenario I visualize is the Eagles being (12-2) going into the Christmas Eve showdown in Dallas. They still should have breathing room by then. Winning the NFC East looks like it will be tougher than guaranteeing the top seed in the NFC. That’s amazing. One game at a time, but if the Eagles get to (10-0) I assure you that the NFC East race will be over.