3 winners and losers from Eagles Week 17 win: Legacy Game complete

It’d be easy to say that the Philadelphia Eagles beat the life out of the Cowboys, but the Cowboys had no life left. It’s better to say that the Eagles beat the will to compete out of the Cowboys.

That's everything you could ask for and more in a relatively juiceless Week 17 football game whose starting quarterbacks were Kenny Pickett and Cooper Rush. It was 45 minutes of pure domination by The Birds and the Cowboys had fewer answers than Martin Shkreli. It was an unexpected and unbelievably enjoyable afternoon of football.

Saquon gets his shine, but there was a lot more to the win

The game was highlighted by Saquon hitting a massive milestone, but there were some notable performances all across the field.

Winner: All of us

There’s simply no other place to start than Saquon Barkley. He became the ninth running back in NFL history to hit 2,000 rushing yards. He's been nothing less than phenomenal. 

It’s easy to say that Zack Baun was a steal in free agency, but Saquon has the very real potential to have the most rushing yards in NFL history and his $12.5 million per year seems ludicrously cheap.

The question now is ‘Does Saquon play in Week 18?’ If you say ‘No,’ you’re right. If you say ‘Yes,’ you’re right. 

The clear reason that he shouldn’t play is because of the risk of injury. Running backs get hit and they get hit in really funky ways, so all it takes is one tough play and Saquon could be dinged up going into the playoffs. It’s plain and simple: the more playing time Saquon has, the higher the risk he has of getting hurt. That’s bad. 

BUT… he only needs 101 yards to break Eric Dickerson’s single-season record of 2,105 rushing yards. 

Saquon has run for over 101 rushing yards in 11 games this season.  The only games where he didn’t hit the mark (by the way, it’s wild to say it’s easier to point out the games he didn’t get 100+ rushing yards) were against the Falcons, the Buccaneers, the Browns, the Cowboys, the Steelers.

It’s crazy to say that Saquon gets 101 rushing yards more often than not. In the games where he doesn’t hit that number, he averages 71.4 rushing yards. In the games where he does hit that number, he averages 149.8 rushing yards. 

Now, the Giants just won in Week 17, and it bumped them from the first-overall pick in the 2025 draft to the fourth-overall pick. Their owner John Mara and general manager Joe Schoen probably aren’t huge fans of that, and the best way for them to avoid any other type of draft-capital-related hindrances is to bench a handful of their starters. 

The other thing to think about is that if he’s out of the concussion protocol, the Eagles will probably want to give Jalen Hurts some playing time before the playoffs. If he didn’t play, he’d go into a playoff game without playing for more than two weeks, which sounds like a recipe for disaster. 

If Jalen is playing, that means the starting offense is playing. If the starting offense is playing, that means Saquon has a chance to run behind the starting offensive line. That’s a recipe for success. 

This is going to be a huge talking point this week. Personally, I think this comes down to who the Giants play on Sunday. If they’re upset with their starters winning the Week 17 game, Schoen and Mara might make some starters inactive.

The Giants’ defense is bad when they’re trying, and if the Eagles can get a Giants’ defense that’s not trying, 101 yards could happen in two carries. Saquon getting 167 yards made this week incredibly interesting. 

Here are Saquon videos that’ll give you goosebumps:

Loser: History

This is the 20th consecutive season there hasn’t been a repeat NFC East winner since the Eagles did it from 2003 to 2004. The Eagles started that curse and now they’ll have the opportunity to end it. 

Not only was this win the first time the Eagles have swept the Cowboys since 2011, but it also means the Eagles are the kings of the NFC East. 

The football gods are poets and the most poetic thing that could possibly happen would be that the Eagles end one of the most diabolical and chaotic streaks in the NFL. Now that they won the division, it gives them a chance to be the first team to become back-to-back winners two years in a row, ending the streak after a cool 20 years.

Loser: Defensive Rookie of the Year

In the Week 16 loss to the Commanders, rookie cornerback Quinyon Mitchell gave up a 32-yard touchdown to the Commanders’ Terry McLaurin. It was just the first touchdown that Quinyon ever allowed all season, but it dropped him from being a +100 favorite to win the Defensive Rookie of the Year Award to a relatively distant second behind Jared Verse. 

Unfortunately, he gave up another touchdown to Jalen Tolbert in Week 17. As of Monday morning (December 30, 2024), FanDuel says Quinyon is +650 to win the award behind Verse. 

The only thing that could potentially get Q back into contention would be an interception. As it turns out, he had an amazing opportunity for one near the end of the second quarter, but it was ripped away from him.

Absolutely gutting. At this point, will he ever get an interception? This seems like this is going to be one of those clips that gets shared around every time Q gets close to getting his hands on the ball, but he ultimately doesn’t. 

He’ll have to play out of his mind in Week 18 if he’s going to be able to take the award home during the NFL Honors, and that’s if he even does play. The Eagles have a bunch of depth at the position and that means Q won’t have to suit up next Sunday. 

It’s just a huge punch to the nards. He’s been a lockdown corner for all but a handful of plays through the season, but unfortunately with his position, slipping up (even a little) gets amplified by about a 1000%. 

The part that really stinks is that he was in good coverage on the Tolbert touchdown catch. It was just a receiver winning on a jump ball. It hurts, but it happens. 

Winner: The Eagles Quarterback room

There’s been a lot of bad quarterbacks in the NFL this year. Hell, just this week we had to watch Aaron Rodgers, Spencer Rattler, Tyler Huntley, Dorian Thompson-Robinson, and Mac Jones.

We also got to see Kenny Pickett and Tanner McKee step up for the Eagles, and what a delight it was. Kenny started off pretty slow, but after he hit Grant Calcaterra for 34 yards on a scramble drill, things seemed to click… aside from the play where it looked like the ball instantly weighed 600 pounds and was stuck to his hand.

But let’s forget about that. 

After Kenny left with more rib injuries, Tanner McKee made his NFL debut, and what a debut it was. 

You could tell that he stepped on the field and thought, ‘Okay, cool. I don’t have to throw to Danny Gray and Kyle Phillips anymore. Now I get DeVonta Smith and A.J. Brown. I’m gonna go ahead and abuse this power.’ He only threw the ball four times, but two of those throws were for touchdowns. It was incredible. 

It was kind of weird that the Eagles had a fully healthy McKee and an injured Pickett, but gave the practice reps to the latter. Last week we saw what happens when a quarterback has to come in, and he doesn’t have much, or any, reps with the starters. You would think the smart move would be to prepare the guy who isn’t one or two hits from aggravating an injury, but hey… it worked. It’s one of those ‘results over process’ types of things. 

Whatever the case is, all three of the Eagles quarterbacks have taken meaningful snaps against the Cowboys this year, and all three of them have dominated in one way or another.

Meanwhile, Cooper Rush and Trey Lance are struggling to breathe in Dallas’ backfield. The juxtaposition led to a beautifully brutal ending to the Eagles-Cowboys 2024 games. Hopefully, Jerry Jones learns nothing (he won’t) and keeps his team the same next year (he will).