Ranking 4 teams jeopardizing the Eagles playoff push (including a rival)

Two Eagles games versus Washington could tell the tale of this season.

The NFL’s schedule makers just get it. They sure know how to keep the public interested, and they’re constantly fine-tuning the game to make it better.

In less than five years, they’ve added a 17th game while decreasing the preseason slate from four games to three. They added an additional team to the postseason on both sides of the board so the only recipient of the first-round bye would be the top-seeded team in each conference.

Here’s something else that they’ve done that receives less attention but isn’t any less of a game-changer. Divisional games are placed at the end of teams’ schedules now, and for a league that prides itself on parity, that’s helped more late games in the season to offer more importance to the overall picture.

Divisional races often come down to a game or two, and in the NFC East, where the Dallas Cowboys are unfortunately on top, two games between the Eagles and Washington Football Team could determine which of these two franchises sneaks into the playoffs.

They meet in Week 15 and again in Week 17. Past that, Washington has two games versus the Cowboys and a game versus the Giants on the schedule to close things out.