Carolina Panthers @ Philadelphia Eagles, 1:00 PM
Don't look now, but the Carolina Panthers are showing up. It took a lot for the Kansas City Chiefs and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers quite a bit to beat them over the last two weeks. The Chiefs needed a game-winning field goal as time expired, and the Buccaneers needed overtime to get the best of the Panthers.
Second-year QB Bryce Young is definitely playing with a ton of confidence, and at this point, it would be a shock if the Panthers used their first-round pick in the 2025 NFL Draft on a QB, so there's that. At the end of the day, though, the Panthers are still not a good team and are 3-9 for a reason, but they aren't slouches.
On the other hand, the Philadelphia Eagles come into this game as the hottest team in football, having now won eight games in a row, recently beating the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday Night Football. Not only are the Eagles the significantly better team, but this game is in Philly, and while the Panthers aren't going to make the playoffs, the Eagles are still in contention for that top seed in the NFC.
The top seed would give them a bye week and home-field advantage throughout the entire postseason. I could be a wise guy and pick the Panthers to upset the Eagles, but the Panthers aren't quite good enough for that, and the Eagles are too good to have a stinker of a game like that. I believe Philadelphia wins this game and earns their ninth win in a row.
They'll likely be 11-2 when Week 14 of the 2024 NFL Season closes out. Is this Eagles team as good as or better than the version that made the Super Bowl in 2022? Maybe.