As we reach the half season mark the question looms, can the Eagles make the playoffs?

We will provide a hypothetical breakdown of what needs to happen from here on out between the Eagles and Dallas Cowboys to win the NFC East and make the playoffs.

Here’s our view from the Philly Pressbox:

The Eagles have won 3 games going in to today. They’ve beaten the Redskins, Giants and Buccaneers who are a combined 3-17. They’ve lost to the Kansas City Chiefs who are leading the AFC West at 7-0, the Denver Broncos who are 6-1, and possibly the best team in football, the San Diego Chargers who are 4-3 and the Cowboys who are 4-3 and leading the NFC East. The combined record of those teams is 21-7.

What does that tell us? The Eagles are a middle of the road team. They can beat the bad teams and not the good teams!!! So lets run with that thought for both the Eagles and the Cowboys through the rest of the season by looking at the schedules of both teams and see how it sorts out.

First, today is a MUST win for the Eagles! If they don’t beat the 1-6 Giants this conversation is over.

So let’s assume that the Eagles beat the bad teams:

Here’s the schedule, Giants (1-6) win, at the Oakland Raiders (2-4) win, home against the Green Bay Packers (4-2) loss, home against the Redskins (2-4) MUST WIN, home against the Arizona Cardinals (3-4) win, the 4-3 Detroit Lions and the 4-3 Chicago Bears, they have to win one of the those two home games. Those games are wrapped around a trip to the 1-5 Minnesota Vikings, win. That bring us to a season ending MUST WIN in Dallas.

This is doable but only because the schedule is so weak. If the Eagles are to accomplish this they will have to go 7-2 from here on out and MUST WIN the 3 remaining NFC East game. If so, they will finish 10-6. They may be able to absorb one more loss but only if the Cowboys slip up.

Here’s the catch, the Cowboys play almost the same schedule so a few of these bad teams will have to beat them. If we make the same assumptions with their schedule here’s what we come up with. They play the New Orleans Saints on the road and the Packers at home, 2 losses. If we assume they split with the Lions and Bears and beat the Giants, Redskins, Vikings and Raiders that would make them 9-6 going in to the final game against the Eagles in Dallas.

So is it possible for The Birds to make the playoffs as the NFC East Champion? Yes. Can they stumble anywhere along the line? No. Are they good enough to win 7 of the last 9? Not likely, but we will see. Is Dallas good enough to win 7 of their last 9? Probably not.

This we do know for the Eagles, it starts today with a MUST WIN against the Giants.

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