October 20, 2019
In past seasons, Philadelphia Eagles fans generally rooted for their own team, and kept an eye on the rest of the NFC East. Ever since they won their first Super Bowl, and now that they are thought of as contenders to represent the NFC in the Super Bowl, it's perhaps worth keeping tabs on the conference, as opposed to just the division.
And so, each week we'll lay out a rooting guide for non-Eagles games on the NFL schedule, and yes, I'm aware that most of the below is obvious. Ideal winning team bolded:
• Saints at Bears: Are the Saints really going to go undefeated in their non-Drew Brees games? That wouldn't be good for anybody.
• Rams at Falcons: After acquiring a stud corner while parting with a pair of premium assets to do so, a Rams loss to this crap team would be terrible for L.A.'s morale.
• Vikings at Lions: Both of these teams hold tiebreakers over the Eagles, but because the Lions have a tie on their record, their tiebreaker over Philly is meaningless, unless, you know, an Eagles' game this season results in a tie. I just broke a record for usage of the word "tie" or some variation of the word "tie" in a single sentence.
• Ravens at Seahawks: AFC team vs. contending NFC team. Duh.
• Raiders at Packers: AFC team vs. contending NFC team. Duh.
• Cardinals at Giants: Daniel Jones had a great first NFL start, and the thinking on the Giants temporarily changed to, "Ehhh, maybe it's better if they lose a few games?" Now that we've seen that he's not the second coming of Dan Marino, it's OK to be OK with the Giants messing up their draft position against a weak opponent. They're not going anywhere.
• 49ers at Washington: Selfishly speaking, I'm rooting for the Niners. If the Eagles end up winning the NFC East as a three- or four-seed, and the Niners have a first round bye, I wouldn't mind a trip to San Francisco in January in the divisonal round of the playoffs. Eagles fans, however, should clearly be rooting for the Washington team in this matchup, since the Niners remain undefeated, and Washington could further mess up their draft position.
Doesn't really matter who wins, but should interest the Eagles:
• Miami at Buffalo: The Eagles play the Bills next week.
• Patri*ts at Jets: The Eagles play the cheaters in a few weeks.
Irrelevant to the Eagles:
BYES: Browns, Steelers, Buccaneers, Panthers.
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