The Eagles may be facing the toughest schedule stretch in team history
This isnt rare. Its way beyond rare.
From Week 9 through Week 14 this coming season, the Eagles will play five consecutive games against teams that won at least 12 games last year and three straight against teams that won 13 games last year.
To put this into context, only seven NFL teams even won 12 games last year, which makes it really hard to play five of them in a row. But thats the reality of the Eagles schedule. Its brutal.
Depending how you measure it, that stretch is the Eagles most challenging five-game stretch in nearly half a century.
From Nov. 5 through Dec. 10, the Eagles face the 12-5 Cowboys, 14-3 Chiefs, 13-3 Bills, 13-4 49ers and 12-5 Cowboys again, with the Chiefs at Arrowhead on a Monday night, the Bills at home on a short week and the second Cowboys game in North Texas on a Sunday night.
Thats five opponents and a combined 64-20 record in 2022, a .762 winning percentage.
Think about how hard it is to face five straight teams that won 12 games the previous year. Most teams only face one or two opponents all year that won 12 games the year before. Its rare to face five in one season. Getting them all in a row? Thats just about impossible.
Now, things do change. A great record in 2022 doesnt guarantee the same in 2023. Injuries. Slumps. Surprises. Bad bounces. Lots of stuff can happen.
But sitting here in May, looking ahead to the 2023 season, all four of those opponents are projected to be playoff teams and Super Bowl contenders in 2023, and playing five of them in a row is going to be a massive challenge for the Eagles.
OK, how rare is all of this? Were using 2022 records and not 2023 records, but the facts are still overwhelming:
- The Eagles have never played five consecutive games against teams that made the postseason that year.
- The Eagles have never faced five straight teams that finished the same season with 11 wins.
- Since 1985, the Eagles have only faced five straight opponents that finished the year with a winning record twice. In 2005, they went 1-4 vs. the Chargers, Broncos, Washington, Cowboys and Giants), and in 2016, they went 1-4 vs. the Cowboys, Giants, Falcons, Seahawks and Packers.
- Since the NFL went to a 16-game schedule in 1978, the Eagles have faced three straight 12-win teams only three times in 1990, 2014 and 2020
- The Chiefs, 49ers, Bills and Cowboys (counted twice) had a composite record of 64-20 last year, a .762 winning percentage. (The Bills played only 16 games, so it doesnt equal 85). The last time the Eagles played a five-game stretch where their opponents had a composite record (at the end of that year) higher than .762 was 1975, when they faced – in order the 10-4 Dolphins, 11-3 Cards, 10-4 Cowboys, 12-2 Rams and 11-3 Cards. They lost all five by an average of 12 points and coach Mike McCormick was fired a few weeks later.
But that was a franchise in the midst of 11 straight non-winning seasons that had five head coaches in nine years and hadnt won a postseason game since 1960.
This 2023 Eagles team is the defending NFC champion, and in the span of 36 days, theyll have to face a division opponent that theyre 8-14 against in the last 22 meetings, then the Super Bowl champs on the road on a Monday night, then a Bills team that has the 2nd-best record in the NFL since 2000 on a short week, then a 49ers team that went 13-4 last year with the No. 1 defense in the league, then the Cowboys in Arlington, where the Eagles have lost five straight.
Oh, and once they finally get through that Murderers Row, all they have to do is fly to Seattle and face a Seahawks team that theyve lost seven straight to in a stadium where the Seahawks have the second-best home record in the NFL over the last decade.
In all, the Eagles face nine 2022 playoff teams this coming season. They face just four teams that had a losing record in 2022 (the 8-9 Patriots, 7-10 Jets, 8-9 Buccaneers and 5-12 Rams) none of them after Week 6.
They better get off to a hot start again. Because the second half of the schedule is a flat-out beast.
