Home field could be beneficial for Birds on Sunday
PHILADELPHIA >> The Eagles are full of adrenaline after back-toback wins over the New York Giants and Washington Redskins.
Carson Wentz engineered game-winning drives in both of those games and last Sunday the defense made a play with the contest on the line.
The sobering news is those losing teams are a combined 6-22
(.273). Additionally, the Eagles allowed an average of 22 points to a quarterback on the verge of retirement in Eli Manning, and a rookie who had been averaging less than 14 points a game, in Dwayne Haskins.
It will be a different atmosphere this Sunday when the Eagles, their season on the line, entertain Dak Prescott and the Dallas Cowboys, who can clinch the NFC East pennant with a victory.
The Eagles and Cowboys both are 7-7.
They Eagles are a much more encouraging 4-3 at Lincoln Financial Field, where they oppose the Cowboys in dry, 46-degree weather, according to the early weather forecast. The Eagles are allowing an average of just 17.9 points at home.
The Cowboys beat the Eagles,
37-10, at AT&T Stadium earlier this season and hold the division record tiebreaker on the Birds. But they’re a mortal 3-4 on the road, where they’re averaging 20 points.
Philly fans are aware of all of this, which should make the Linc nothing short of deafening. We’re talking a minimum of two false starts.
“I think that’s probably the first thing is crowd noise really makes it difficult for opposing offenses to communicate,” Eagles defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz said Tuesday. “They do a lot of checks at the line of scrimmage and things like that. But I think it’s more than just that, more than the noise affecting the game. I do think that our players feed off the energy of the crowd. And in a big game like this, I mean it will be a playoff atmosphere. Our guys know the stakes of this game and I’m sure our fans do, too. They all know what time it is.”
The last time the Linc echoed from a playoff atmosphere, Patrick Robinson returned an interception 50 yards for the score knotting the NFC title game with the Minnesota Vikings. It kick-started a burst of 38 straight points burying Skol Nation and sending the Eagles to Super Bowl LII.
It’s not difficult to imagine how the Linc would have rocked had Nigel Bradham’s 47-yard fumble return for a TD last week occurred there.
There’s also no question the Cowboys are a much better offensive team than the Redskins, the Giants or any other club the Eagles have played this season.
Running back Zeke Elliott is fifth in the NFL with 1,188 rushing yards to go with 15 touchdowns. The Cowboys last week rushed for 265 yards in a 44-21 demolition of the visiting Los Angeles Rams, who are 8-6.
Prescott has thrown for 4,334 yards, second in the league and his 26 TD passes are tied for fourth.
The Eagles have lost four straight games to the Cowboys.
“Teams are going to move the ball,” Schwartz said of the defensive struggles last Sunday. “But when you’ve got third-and-goal at the five, we’ve got to hold them to a field goal there. We got them on the 11-yard line and Adrian Peterson goes all the way backdoor across our defense (for a TD). Those are plays that led to a lot of those points. We have to hold them to field goals in those situations.
“When we’re at our best, we’re stopping the run, we’re playing clean football, we’re playing good in the red zone, we’re winning on third down. I think you can probably point to each of those as contributing to some of the plays we gave up in that game.”
The Eagles need wins over the Cowboys and the Giants, as well as a Cowboys defeat at Washington in Week 17 to win the NFC East.
If the playoffs started today the NFC East leader would host the 49ers, of all teams, in the first round.
The winner of that game would play at Seattle.
According to Nate Silver at fivethirtyeight.com, the Eagles now have a 43 percent probability of winning the division.
If the Eagles defeat the Cowboys, the number jumps to a 77 percent probability of claiming the division title.
If the Eagles and Cowboys tie the probability of winning the division falls to 10 percent.
Confused? Chalk it up to Gen X metrics.
The Eagles realize they must win-out. And it should really help this weekend playing in front of their fans.