The Eagles are in a precarious position where they aren’t tanking, they just have no incentive to win. In a meaningless Week 17 game, a team constantly riddled with injuries is going out the only way they know how:
Key Eagles NOT Playing Tonight
Miles Sanders
DeSean Jackson
Fletcher Cox
Lane Johnson
Derek Barnett
Dallas Goedert
Rodney McLeod
Jalen Mills
Brandon Brooks
Jason Peters
Andre Dillard
Jordan Mailata
Jack Driscoll
Nathan Gerry
Cre'Von LeBlanc
Avonte Maddox
Josh Sweat
Duke Riley pic.twitter.com/pnBXj1267r— Jeff Skversky 6abc (@JeffSkversky) January 3, 2021
Its hard to gage how competitive the Eagles will be when they take the field tonight against Washington Football Team on Sunday Night Football. You see the list. It’s longer than the future counts of tax fraud that kid on Twitter committed yesterday when telling people how to spend their $600.
The same secondary issues they had last week, will persist this week. Except this time, they are now less Jalen Mills, who won’t be able to fill the void when the CB2 is getting exposed again. And without Fletcher Cox, Derek Barnett or Josh Sweat, they will again not be able to put pressure on the quarterback.
But, that hasn’t stopped the Eagles who are playing to emphatically state how hard they’re going to play this game tonight:
Even though Eagles can get a HIGHER draft pick Darius Slay does NOT want to see Washington win + clinch NFC East Tonight
“We don’t want nobody celebrating on our field wearing hats and t-shirts… we are looking forward to going in here, messing up some dreams”@6abc #Eagles pic.twitter.com/AlZ6LB17fZ
— Jeff Skversky 6abc (@JeffSkversky) January 3, 2021
Eagles trying to spoil WFT winning NFC East
“No hat game means there’s no hats getting passed out”
“The strength coaches called it the charity game. We want to give all those hats and t-shirts to charity instead of those guys”
-Alex Singleton on NBC10 Eagles coverage 9:30am pic.twitter.com/4zGH8LIvA3
— John Clark (@JClarkNBCS) January 3, 2021
Obviously them winning does absolutely nothing for this franchise except put us further from Devonta Smith. But, I wouldn’t expect anything less from. guys like Alex Singleton or Darius Slay to go out and compete. They’re not going to get up on that stand and say, “yup, can’t wait to get this show on the road. The sooner we get our ass kicked the sooner we can go home to our families”.
Plus, although Jim Schwartz gameplans have been controversial, he has always seemed well liked. We are definitely in “win one for the road” territory when it comes to the soon to be sort of retired defensive coordinator.
Everyone in Philadelphia knows what the most Eagles thing to happen would be: they win this game for absolutely NO reason. It opens the door for the Cowboys, their most detestable rival to win the division. AND Philly hurts their draft order in the process. We’ve have enough cynicism coursing through our veins at this point to expect that outcome.
So, expect the Eagles to play hard and try to hold up their end of the bargain on the “no hat rule”. They can definitely keep it close, but it’s yet to be seen if they have the firepower to pull off the (needless) upset.
