Philadelphia Eagles inspire little confidence but can still win NFC East

The Philadelphia Eagles remain in the thick of the race atop the NFC East but their latest win over Washington should have no one feeling confident.

In truth, what happened with the Philadelphia Eagles in Week 15 on the road against the Washington Redskins was of little consequence. What matters is how they perform in Week 16 as they welcome the Dallas Cowboys to town. That game will likely be what decides the NFC East barring some unforeseen circumstances.

However, Eagles fans would’ve liked to have seen their team inspire some confidence against a vastly inferior Washington team, even at FedExField. Instead, they had Philadelphia fans hanging on until the final seconds to see if they could pull out the win.

Yes, the final score says that the Eagles picked up a 37-27 win but that final touchdown came as time expired on a fumble return touchdown after a desperation effort from the Redskins to try and make one last play to get into the end zone. Prior to that, the Eagles needed a perfect throw from Carson Wentz to Greg Ward Jr. in the corner of the end zone to pull ahead by four points after trailing 27-24 with less than a minute remaining.

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Make no mistake, there were positive signs from the Eagles on Sunday, particularly in regards to the offense. Wentz made do with his hodgepodge group of wide receivers and pass-catchers while Miles Sanders had a career game with 122 rushing yards, 50 receiving yards and two total touchdowns. Ward also stepped up with 61 receiving yards.

While that may sound good though, Philadelphia also got taken down to the wire by a three-win Washington team that moved the ball well against them. Dwayne Haskins looked like a stud against this Eagles secondary and Adrian Peterson had a strong day on the ground as well.

For an Eagles team that was circled as a potential Super Bowl contender at the start of the year, this has been an exceptionally disappointing season. They are just 7-7 right now and have looked much worse than that on a number of occasions. On top of that, they’re struggling to beat bad teams right now.

To be sure, the opponent and rival that the Eagles will need to beat to win the NFC East, the Cowboys, is not a good team (or at least hasn’t looked like one). So there’s a chance that Philadelphia could stay in this current form and still end up a division-winner with a home playoff game.

But in this current form, that still has to leave a bad taste in the mouths of Philly fans. Even playing at home, the way they’re playing should give fans and the team little to no confidence in the postseason. It remains to be seen if they’ll play in January but, if they do, they will be a playoff team in terms of the letter of the law not due to their quality.