You can imagine that fans of the Philadelphia Eagles are pretty excited these days given their team is the lone undefeated squad in the National Football League. Tonight, they go for win number nine in a row when they host one of their NFC East Division opponents, the Washington Commanders.
If you are an Eagles fan, and are living the dream, I suggest you stop reading now and stay with your current illusion.
For those that read on, you might find some surprises.
First of all, teams that were the last to fall from the unbeaten ranks have not gone on to win a Super Bowl since the 2006 Indianapolis Colts downed the Chicago Bears in Super Bowl XLI. Every team that was the last to fall from the unbeaten ranks since Peyton Manning won his only ring with the Colts have failed to win it all.
Eight times teams that were the last to fall from the unbeaten ranks during the regular season lost in the Wild Card round and two teams failed to even qualify for the postseason. Six other squads advanced all the way to the Super Bowl but lost the Roman numeral game.
So, for those Eagles fans that are planning to give Christmas gifts that includes airfare to Arizona and Super Bowl tickets to the big game might just have to have their fans watching two other teams compete in the final leg of the race to the Vince Lombardi Trophy.
Is tonight where the Eagles perfect season comes to an end?
It is uncommon that an 11 point home favorite gets beat, but there's a better chance for a Washington upset victory tonight than most would imagine. The problems for the Eagles actually began yesterday when their closest division rival, the Dallas Cowboys, lost in overtime to the Green Bay Packers.
Why is that a problem for the Eagles?
Because even if they lose tonight, they would still maintain a two game lead in the NFC East Division. Had Dallas won yesterday, the Eagles would have more focus for tonight’s game knowing that a loss would allow the streaking Cowboys squad to pull to within a game with one game left to play between the two division front runners.
While on the subject of the Eagles and Cowboys, I look for an apex for a team, the time in their season that they reach a height that is almost always scheduled to take a tumble from where they’ve climbed. For the Eagles, that happened four weeks ago when they beat and covered the point spread in a win over Dallas, 26-17, while favored by 6½ points on the spread.
My indicators after that game lit up with warning lights that the Eagles would not cover another point spread until they lost a game straight-up.
How has that worked out?
Not perfect.
They had their bye week after their victory over the Cowboys and came out of their week off with a one-sided home win over the Pittsburgh Steelers. My side in that game was Pittsburgh plus double-digits, which was not enough as the Eagles rolled to a 35-13 triumph.
Were we wrong about the Eagles trajectory?
I don’t think so, I just think the Steelers were bad enough to not take advantage of the situation. Philadelphia’s next game was against another opponent that could have been considered not good enough to take advantage of the situation, the Houston Texans, but we fired against the Eagles again and got the point spread win with 14 points on the line while Philadelphia won the game by 12 points, 29-17.
Now, one more step towards their first loss of the season, Philadelphia plays another team with marginal talent, the Commanders. But, it can be deduced that Washington is better than either Pittsburgh or Houston and catch the Eagles too far out on the limb to survive an 11 point spread.
The spread win seems a near certainty tonight, while the game is a lot more likely to fall the Commanders way than most of the football world would think.
Qoxhi Picks: Washington Commanders (+11) over Philadelphia Eagles