It’s Thanksgiving week, and only six more games are left in the 2024 NFL season. The Philadelphia Eagles are playing as good, if not better, football than any team in the league. They still have four home games and they don’t have to get on a plane for any of the road games (Baltimore and Washington). It’s shaping up to be one hell of a stretch run.
At this point, the Eagles are trying to keep pace with the Detroit Lions for the top seed in the NFC playoffs. As fans, we’re hoping that the Lions drop a game somewhere… which is a tough thing to hope for because that team looks like they could end the season with a 16-1 record.
If the Eagles played the Lions in the next six weeks, it would be the most important game by a landslide. Unfortunately, that’s not the case.
The Eagles can show their dominance down the stretch.
Not all of these games are important for playoff seeding. Some of them are important for vibes, history, and postseason health. This is what the Eagles remaining schedule looks like:
Week | Team | Home/Away |
|---|---|---|
13 | Baltimore Ravens | Away |
14 | Carolina Panthers | Home |
15 | Pittsburgh Steelers | Home |
16 | Washington Commanders | Away |
17 | Dallas Cowboys | Home |
18 | New York Giants | Home |
Week 13: Eagles @ Ravens
Someone important once said, ‘The next game is the most important game,’ or something like that, and then everyone started saying it every single week. In this case, It’s actually true. Going into the season, it looked like this Ravens game was going to be the hardest on the Eagles’ schedule. That’s held true through 13 weeks.
If you think about it like that, then this is the climax of the regular season and everything is downhill from here, more or less. Another, arguably more important, aspect of this game is the shadow of the 2023 collapse.
That downfall started in Week 13 of last season, against the San Francisco 49ers… who were also the hardest game left on the Eagles’ schedule. This game serves as a sicko’s metaphorical reconciliation for that collapse. Nothing would invalidate the end of last season like a win in Week 13.
If the Eagles do lose, it’s important for Nick Sirianni and Howie Roseman to not panic and fire Vic Fangio and hire Matt Patricia again… what a catastrophe...
Week 17: Eagles vs. Cowboys
It’s easy to say that a Cowboys game has a lot of gravity because they’re a rival and they’re in the division, but that’s not necessarily the case for Week 17.
The biggest part of this game is that it’ll be big for potential tie-breakers for the top seed in the NFC playoffs. The top three tie-breakers for deciding the conference seed are head-to-head games (the Eagles don’t play the Lions, so this is not applicable), conference records, and records against common opponents. The Cowboys are a common opponent between the Eagles and the Lions.
Another reason this game is important is that the Eagles haven’t swept the Cowboys since 2011. In those games, the Eagles starting quarterback was Michael Vick and the Cowboys had both Tony Romo and Sean McGee.
The first game they played that season, the Eagles won 34-6. The first game that the Eagles played against the Cowboys this season, the Eagles won 34-7. In their second game in 2011, the Eagles won 20-7. History repeats itself, like, all the time… so keep an eye out for something close to that in Week 17.
This game is also going to be the Eagles' second Kelly Green game of the season. They’re 3-0 wearing those as alternates over the past two seasons. It’s going to look really, really good seeing the Eagles stomp Dallas in those uniforms.
Week 18: Eagles vs. Giants
If the Eagles are not able to clinch the top seed, this game will be important because the Eagles will need to rest their starters going into the playoffs.
Now, the wonky thing about that, is that in 2021 Nick Sirianni had the opportunity to get DeVonta Smith to 1,000 receiving yards, but he pulled him early in the Week 18 game before that could happen. Since then, he’s said that he regrets not keeping him in the game.
This is to say, if any players (specifically, Saquon) are near some record-breaking milestones, Nick might be tempted to keep them in the game.
The counterpoint to this is that Nick has grown as a coach since then. He’s a players coach and he cares about his guys, but now that he’s made it to the Super Bowl hopefully he’ll understand that postseason success is more important than numbers, and postseason success relies heavily on roster health.
Also, Saquon is smart enough to pull himself out of a game and let his teammates get work. He did it in the first game against the Giants, and he’ll probably do it a few more times before the end of the season.
As of now, the Eagles don’t control their own destiny when it comes to getting a first-round bye in the playoffs. So for the time being, they’ll just have to keep stomping teams into submission behind an MVP-caliber Saquon Barkley and the best defense in the NFL. Things could be worse.