Want to get nuts? Let’s get nuts.
As the Eagles enter a strange (almost totally meaningless) Week 18 with a playoff trip secured, credit will be doled out to Jalen Hurts, Nick Sirianni, Howie Roseman and an organization that was never actually the dumpster fire it was made out to be last offseason.
But the job isn’t done, and the dream of this team making an improbable run past the first round of the playoffs is more than plausible. In fact, there’s a decent chance it happens. And the right matchup would certainly help.
Based on how Week 18 shakes out, the Eagles could end up as the No. 6 or No. 7 seed in the NFC. That would line them up for a Wild Card weekend matchup with one of four teams: Dallas, Tampa Bay, Los Angeles or Arizona.
Here’s how I’d rank those teams in terms of Eagles upset viability, starting with the team Sirianni’s crew should most want to play and ending with the group they should least want to see.
1. Arizona Cardinals: Let’s not let a Week 17 win in Dallas fool us. The Cardinals are who they are: Soft and beatable. Kliff Kingsbury’s coaching record in the second-half of seasons is abysmal, Kyler Murray’s body language is terrible when things go wrong, and this team has been on an offensive swoon for months. Hurts went head-to-head with Murray in a shootout loss last December. Both teams are better now. This matchup is unlikely, but should easily be what the Eagles are rooting for.
2. Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Everything other than quarterback made me want to put the Bucs at the top of this list. Last year’s champions look vulnerable. This is a team that was shutout by the Saints a few weeks ago, then needed a comeback to sneak past the Jets. Injuries (Leonard Fournette, Chris Godwin) have robbed Tom Brady of two of his best weapons. Antonio Brown just quit. The defense is missing Shaq Barrett, and has had secondary issues all season. This feels like an older team that’s now feeling the attrition of last year’s run and long, 17-game season in 2021. The Eagles are different, and better than they were when these teams met in early October. It wouldn’t shock me to see the Eagles take a lead in Tampa with two and a half minutes to go in a playoff game, but could they stop Brady to end it?
3. Los Angeles Rams: Don’t let Los Angeles’ big names get in the way of facts: This team is a Jekyll and Hyde outfit, led by a quarterback that’s erratic and never won a big game in his life. Plus, for all the big-name talent on defense, this is a unit that’s fallen out of the top-10 in rush DVOA. In Week 17, the Baltimore Ravens racked up 165 yards rushing on 5.2 yards per carry vs. Los Angeles’ defense. That included 54 from mobile quarterback Tyler Huntley. There’s boom or bust potential to this matchup, and the Eagles could get blown out. But if it's close late, a Stafford interception is almost a guarantee.
4. Dallas Cowboys: It would be the most fun. It would be the most juicy. WIP would do a full-week pregame show heading up to kickoff. But it would be the toughest matchup. Dallas is good. We can admit it. They have playmakers on both sides of the ball. They are fast. They have really smart coordinators. They embarrassed the Eagles in September. The division and familiarity factor are real, and the Eagles can certainly compete with Dallas. But it’s tough playing a team in back-to-back weeks (and we’re still not sure how either team will handle Week 18). Beating Dallas would rank as the the most sweet of all these potential first-round upsets, but I’d rank at it as the least likely to happen.