Eagles still have good chance of making playoffs

Yes, I genuinely mean that. The Philadelphia Eagles still have a strong chance of making it to the postseason.

Maybe I’m part crazy, or maybe I’m fully crazy. Maybe a tiny bit of my bias is showing through here. But then again, maybe not.

I went into the bye week fully disappointed, looking at the Eagles sitting in third place in the NFC East at just 3-4. In what was seemingly a state of euphoria over all the new Eagles acquisitions, I confidently predicted that they would be 6-1 going into the bye week with their only loss coming against the Jets. Well, I was only 2-5 in my picks for those games, so who knows what I was thinking. However, I took a look at the Eagles upcoming schedule, and I saw a little ray of sunshine poke through the clouds. There is hope.

So while disgruntled Eagles fans who likely only stick by their team to criticize them for their 40 years of fandom are complaining about the state of the team, wipe that negativity away and look at the situation in a new light. Let’s break down the Eagles’ remaining opponents, sorted into groups:

Not a Chance the Eagles Win

If you don’t have the Patriots game (Week 13) in this category, there is approximately a 98 percent chance that you’re insane. The other two percent is that you’re just trolling. If a meteor struck the Earth and knocked out Tom Brady, Julian Edelman, Rob Gronkowski, Bill Belichick and all the guys who he hires to videotape opposing signals (kidding on that one…sort of), the Eagles still wouldn’t have a chance of winning. The Eagles couldn’t even beat the Redskins, there’s no chance they’re beating the Patriots.

Not Likely the Eagles Win

The only game I have in this category is the game against the Cardinals. Arizona has proved itself it be a really solid team this year with Carson Palmer still at the helm of the offense. The defense, however, has been what has kept this team as one of the best in the NFC. If the Eagles offense looks anything like it has in most games this year, it will have a very difficult time getting points against the Cardinals. I’m fine with chalking this one up as a loss.

Definitely a Chance the Eagles Win

This category encapsulates the rest of the Eagles’ schedule this year. Other than the two aforementioned opponents, there isn’t a single team on the schedule that has a winning record. The other remaining opponents for the Eagles are the Cowboys (2-5), Dolphins (3-4), Buccaneers (3-4), Lions (1-7), Bills (3-4), Redskins (3-4) and Giants (4-4). The only one of those teams that doesn’t have a losing record is one the Eagles already handily beat, and I have confidence they could do it again.

The Cowboys have Dez Bryant back, but as evidenced by this past week’s loss to Seattle, that didn’t really affect much. The other opponents are all pretty weak themselves. The Lions are easily the worst team in the league. While many of those teams do indeed hold the same record as the Eagles, I’m obviously exhibiting blind confidence that my home team can win those games.

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Eagles

Three of those games are also division games, which will be the most important ones to win. The Eagles already have two losses in the division and can’t afford to lose another if they want to avoid having to win the wild card to make it into the postseason. That wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world, but even if they lost one more division game, that’d put them at seven losses, which could be too many to keep their season alive past Week 17. They need to win every game in the above category.

If they do that, taking losses to the Cardinals and Patriots in the process, they’d still finish out at 10-6. That’s probably their ceiling though, so I 100 percent do not expect anything better than that. And considering they had that record last year and still didn’t make the playoffs, they may already be in too big a hole. But I have faith in the contrary.

The Eagles haven’t played like a playoff team thus far, but if their offense gets going and their defense remains the same, they can really become a playoff-quality team. Is beating a bunch of teams with losing records really too much to ask? I sure hope not.

Next: Eagles Analysis: Receiver drops need to stop

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