Eagles schedule: 3 most important games coming after bye week

When the Philadelphia Eagles’ schedule came out, the Week 5 bye felt way too early. Now that it’s here, it’s perfect; It couldn’t have come a minute too soon. Not only are three of the most important players on the team banged up, but after the incredibly frustrating way they’ve played over the past four weeks, our hearts, brains, vocal cords, Nick Sirianni voodoo dolls, and liquor cabinets could all use a break.

That being said, an early bye means there’s about to be a whole lot of football that’s going to get played with no breaks. One thing that helps is that the Eagles have one of, if not the easiest schedules remaining (depending on how you look at the strength of schedules).

3 upcoming games that are the most important for vibes

When it comes to games that are important for the Eagles’ overall record, the NFC East games are the most important, the NFC South games are second, the AFC North games are third, and the games against uncommon opponents are the least important. You already know that because you’re not a total dumb dumb.

These are the most important games for vibes. Vibes are low with the Eagles right now, so it’s going to be important to get those back up so we’re not inundated with stories about the locker room devouring itself, but also good vibes mean the football season isn’t completely awful for everyone the entire time. 

It’s easy and uninteresting to say that games against the Cowboys are the biggest games for vibes. That’s like saying one of your three wishes is for more wishes. It’s lame and boring. Those two games take the cake, so they’re not going to be included here. 

Week 6: Vs. The Cleveland Browns

The Eagles are going to be back to full strength (hopefully) and they’ll need to come out swinging. They need to get the bad taste of a terrible offensive and defensive performance against the Buccaneers in Week 4 out of their mouths. 

They need to remember how to win and they need to do that immediately. Luckily, they’ll be in a good spot to do that because the Browns are an atrocious team from top to bottom. Their offense is an abomination and their defense isn’t even close to being as good as it had been for the past few years. 

On top of that, this will be the Browns’ third consecutive road game. Teams have a record of 81-130 (38.4 percent win rate) when they play their third consecutive road game. The Eagles have had that kind of scheduling blunder twice in the past five years (2019, Week 8 and 2022, Week 16) so it’s nice to finally be on the other side of it for once.

A win here wouldn’t necessarily be season-altering, but it would make everyone feel better. A loss here would be season-altering. That would mean everything is indeed broken and whatever adjustments that were made over the bye week were fruitless. 

Week 11: Vs. The Washington Commanders

Washington has been an offensive wagon this year. Maybe it’s because offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury might actually know what he’s doing, but it’s definitely because of their rookie quarterback Jayden Daniels. He’s really good and it really sucks that he’s in the NFC East.

The thing to keep in mind is that the defenses Washington has played aren’t very good. In Week 4, they played the Cardinals who are ranked 29th in defensive DVOA. In Week 3, the Bengals who are 22nd. Week 2 was the Giants who are 21st. In Week 1, it was the Buccaneers who (not accounting for their Week 5 loss) are 13th.

They lost that game against Tampa Bay and the 20 points they scored is the lowest they’ve scored all season. To be fair, that was also Jayden’s first game, so take what you will from that.

Between now and Week 11, the Commanders will have to play the Bears (12th), the Ravens (9th), and the Steelers (seventh). We’ll learn more about what their offense actually is in that time, but it doesn’t help that the Eagles are ranked 26th.

This game is going to be important because it’s going to be the Eagles' first time playing against Daniels and it’s going to be important for Jalen Hurts to show that he can go toe-to-toe with him. That shouldn’t be too difficult because the Commanders’ defense (ranked 30th) is as effective as a stop sign at 4 a.m.; you can just blow right through it without any consequences.

The Eagles play the Commanders again in Week 16, but that one is at Washington (Landover, MD). A home win against a divisional opponent is definitely more vibey than a road win against one. There’s a decent chance that these games decide the winner of the NFC East, and a win at home when there’s a better chance of everyone being healthy would go a long way in making everyone feel better about the hierarchy in the division.

That doesn’t compare to how good it would feel for the Eagles to humble a team that’s feeling themselves. The Commanders are on the up and up, and it would be great to see them get thrown back in the mud.

Week 13: @ The Baltimore Ravens

This game is important for a whole lot of reasons: The first reason is that this is the last actually good team the Eagles have to play. After the Ravens, it’s the Panthers, the Steelers, the Commanders, the Cowboys, and the Giants. It’s the metaphorical climax of the regular season schedule. 

Second, it’ll be a ‘grit check’ game. It’s going to be the first game of December football, and the Eagles will be coming from a game in Los Angeles. That means they will have flown across the country twice in two weeks to play two road games in two climates that couldn’t be more different (both weather-wise and home-field advantage-wise). 

Third, it’s the first game in the stretch of the schedule where the Eagles don’t have to get on a plane again. Starting that stretch off on the right foot will be a huge exhale with a win, or a butt-clenching reality check with a loss.

Fourth, and probably the most important reason, is that Week 13 was the game where the 2023 season turned to hell. If things are going poorly up to this game, it could be a turning point. Likewise, if things are going well up to this game, it could also be a disgustingly familiar turning point the other way.

If the Eagles can make it through a Week 13 game against a good team with either a win or a loss that’s not totally disheartening, embarrassing, and entirely frustrating, it means things we’ll be able to tell ourselves that the Eagles can finish strong.

Also, starting December with a win means we’ll be able to enjoy listening to the new Philly Special Christmas album, so that’d be awesome too.