To state the obvious, the Philadelphia Eagles games are incredibly painful to watch these days. The prime time games have become particularly worrisome, as it’s not just a segment of the country seeing how far the Birds have fallen this season. It’s the entire nation.
While we hope against hope that the Eagles can stop their seven-straight game losing streak, particularly at Cowboys Stadium, I’m not sure that any of us truly believe the Birds can pull it off.
The 3-8 Birds face a 5-6 Dallas team. Neither team is good, but there is no team that you can comfortably say that Philadelphia is better than right now. And that hurts. Tony Romo has 15 interceptions so far this season, but he’s only thrown two picks in the last four games. As the Eagles defense has only a pitiful 7 takeaways this season, don’t expect Philadelphia to be able to force Romo to revert to his old ways.
Miles Austin is questionable for the game, but Dez Bryant and Jason Witten are ready to go as huge weapons on the Cowboys’ offense. Running back DeMarco Murray may return for the first time in seven games, and if so he will try to build upon the success Felix Jones had against the Birds the last time the team’s met in Week 10.
On offense, Nick Foles will make his third start at quarterback, and Bryce Brown will return to start for LeSean McCoy. Last week Brown made the game against the Panthers interesting, rushing for a whopping 178 yards. Foles has yet to wow us and the play calling for him has been incredibly conservative. But that’s because it needs to be. We’ll continue to watch and hope for improvement. The Eagles lost their biggest deep threat when DeSean Jackson was lost for the year, but Foles is only averaging 5.5 yards per pass attempt. Philadelphia will again feed the ball to Brown and Dion Lewis as much as they can, and hopefully Brown’s ball security has improved in the past week.
Some interesting points to watch: with Jason Babin shipped away to Jacksonville, Brandon Graham has his chance to make an impact on the d-line. And rookie Vinny Curry will be back in action after making his first NFL start, making 5 tackles in only 22 snaps against the Panthers and adding some much needed energy and passion to the Eagles defense.
I’m only hoping for the embarrassment not to be too bad. Is that too much to ask?
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Brandyn Campbell of Philly Sports Muse, for War Room Sports
Tags: All's Fair in Sports and War, Brandon Graham, Brandyn Campbell, Dallas Cowboys, Football, Jason Babin, NFL, Philly Sports Muse, Sports Talk Radio, The War Room, Vinny Curry, War Room Sports