This afternoon's game isn't meaningless for everyone. One Eagle that will start and will be going all out is WR Jeremy Maclin, who needs just 36 yards to reach 1,000 for the season. That's a big mark for any WR to hit, especially a young guy, so you can be sure that's important to him. Should he reach the mark, he and DeSean Jackson would be the first pair of WRs in franchise history to both go over the 1,000 yard mark. Combine that with LeSean McCoy's 1,000 yards rushing this season and the Eagles will have drafted two thousand yard WRs and a thousand yard back in consecutive drafts.

The 2010 Eagles are also poised to break almost every major franchise offensive record. Philly.com points out that the team needs 2 points to eclipse last season's franchise record points total, 118 total yards to surpass the franchise record for net yards set in 2006, and three TDs to break a 62 year old record for TDs in a season.

The Eagles had a few milestones Sunday that were overshadowed by the ridiculousness of how the game played out. So I thought it would be worth giving these guys their due today.

First, Michael Vick set a career record for rushing TDs in a season. Pretty amazing to think that there are seasons where he ran more and started more games and still didn't have as many rushing TDs as he has this season.

LeSean McCoy went over 1,000 yards, he's the first Eagles back to do so since Brian Westbrook in 2007.

DeSean Jackson went over a thousand yards receiving for the second straight year. He's also got a pretty good shot at setting a career high for yardage. Last year he finished with 1,167. He has 1,024 with two games to play.

Jeremy Maclin caught his ninth and tenth TDs, which is the first time an Eagle has had double digit receiving TDs since Terrell Owens in 2004. His 10 TDs are also tied for the fourth most in team history. Maclin has 890 yards receiving and if he got to 1,000, it would be the first time in franchise history two Eagles WRs were over 1,000 yards in the same year. So far this season he's averaged 63.6 yards per game, so he's got a real shot at it.

Ironically, the closest the Eagles have ever gotten to having two 1,000 yard receivers was just last year when Jackson was over a thousand and Brent Celek had 971 yards.

There were two numbers that came out this week that seem to indicate that the country has forgiven Michael Vick. Not only have they forgiven him, but they appear to actually like the guy...

The first number is 25.7 million. That's how many people watched the Eagles vs Cowboys game Sunday night and it's also the highest rated Sunday Night Football game ever. Now you might say, that has something to do with the Cowboys being in the game because they're always a good ratings draw. That's true, but when you look at the kind of ratings the Eagles have drawn this year, it becomes apparent that they're the draw this time around.

Their Sunday night game against the Giants was the highest rated Sunday night game in 12 years. Their game against the Bears was the highest rated NFL game of the season on any network. Their early November matchup with the Colts was the highest rated regular season game on CBS in three years and was at that point the highest rated TV program in America since the start of the NFL season. That game eclipsed the previous highest rated TV program in 2010 which was… Eagles vs Packers on opening day.

Other than the opening day game against the Packers, Vick started every one of those games and he's really the major difference between this year's Eagles team and last year's which wasn't out breaking ratings records every week.

The other number is 981,687. That's how many pro bowl votes Michael Vick has gotten so far, he leads the NFL in that category. He has over 34,000 more votes than second place Tom Brady. If pro bowl voting is just one big popularity contest, then Michael Vick, who everyone apparently hates, is winning it.

So people are tuning in record numbers to watch Vick, they're casting more pro bowl votes for him than anyone else... Is it not fair to draw some assumptions from this? There's not doubt that he's always going to have his detractors and that's certainly their prerogative... but there really seems to be a lot fewer of them then I remember. His play has turned a lot of people around and his general demeanor and attitude has converted others. People love a comeback story and this is the best one the NFL has going right now.

There's been a lot of theories floated lately about why DeSean Jackson seems to have gone cold as of late. Some have suggested he's not on the same page as Michael Vick, is it maybe problems with the coach? The latest explanation seems to be Jeff McLane's anonymous source who says he's got so much pressure on him trying to earn a new contract it's hurting his play. McLane also says he's still suffering effects from the concussion he suffered against Atlanta.

Who knows, maybe all of that is true in some ways. He's at the point in an NFL players' career where he has the chance to win the lottery and it may be his only shot. He's playing for contract and has already suffered a couple concussion scares. That's gotta weigh on the kid.

But what if the explanation isn't quite as psychological? What if the reason DeSean Jackson hasn't had big games the past few weeks is just because he's streaky?

Haven't we seen this before? Look at his game by game performances this season after the jump.

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There are five games remaining in the NFL season and the Philadelphia Eagles have the easiest remaining schedule of every NFC playoff contender. The Chicago Bears, who have been going on all week about all the respect they're due after finally beating a good team in the Eagles, will have plenty of chances to prove themselves as they've got the toughest schedule from here on out. Their division rival, the Packers also have a tough road, so that division winner will certainly be battle tested. However, it may mean that the wildcard won't end up coming from the North. The NFC West teams have such an easy remaining schedule because of course they have to play each other and none of them have a winning record.

Here's the NFC teams in order of toughest strength of schedule to easiest. Only teams within two games of their division lead are on the list.

The NFL season, compared to virtually any other team sport, is incredibly short. That's really a large part of what makes it so great, that every game is meaningful. That said, there are two distinct halves of the season. There's everything leading up to around Thanksgiving and then what comes after. The pre-Thanksgiving period serves mostly to just separate the wheat from the chaff. We've now finally got an idea of who stinks and who is a real contender. I think Jimmy has done a nice job illustrating this with his weekly NFC obituary.

Now, a second season begins. It's now time for the teams that survived the first half to make their run. The interesting thing is that we've seen the NFL really emphasize this second half in recent seasons with their scheduling. Every team has division games packed at the end of their season. It's no coincidence that we seem to end every season playing Dallas. This stretch run of the season has basically become a tournament where, for the good teams, every game becomes about playoff positioning and tiebreakers.

Sunday night's game is for all intents and purposes a playoff game between the Eagles and Giants. For one, it's literally for first place in the NFC East... but it also gives the winner an improved division record, conference record, a head to head win, improved strength of schedule. Aside from the tangible effects, think of all the intangible things that are at stake this weekend.

An Eagles win gives them their 3rd victory over a legit playoff contender and will be seen as proof that the Eagles are looking like an NFC juggernaut. The Giants loss to the Cowboys will be seen as the start of a tailspin in which the Giants "choke" away the NFC East. They'll be peppered with questions & speculation all week about how their season is slipping away. On the other hand, if the Eagles lose then their beating of the Redskins will retroactively seen as just a big win over a bad team. Sure, the Eagles can whip up on the Redskins but when the Giants came to town they folded. For the Giants, the loss to Dallas was just an aberration and after slaying the great Michael Vick they're back on track and seen as one of the NFC's elite.

I really can't overstate how important this weekend really is.

The Eagles had a statement win over the Colts Sunday and they reached some interesting milestones in doing so.

Michael Vick's 74 rushing yards gave him 4,215 career rushing yards which makes him only the 3rd quarterback in NFL history to record at least 4,200 rushing yards. He trails only Randall Cunningham(4,928 rushing yards) and Steve Young (4,239 rushing yards) for the all time QB rushing lead. He'll easily pass Young this season, but will need to wait until at least next year to catch Randall. Pretty crazy to think that Vick would easily be the all time QB rushing leader had he not went to prison.

The Eagles won their 12th straight game after the bye, which is the longest streak in NFL history. Since the bye was introduced in 1990, the Eagles are 18-4 the week after. That's the best of any team in football.

The Eagles also beat Peyton Manning for the first time and handed the Colts their first November loss since 2007.

Eagles offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg spoke with the media yesterday and was asked whether running the ball is the way to beat the Colts given that their strength of defense is the pass rush. The Colts come into this game with the 5th worst run defense in the NFL.

"Yeah, well, that's real, and that's all good. The two teams that beat them did it that way and jumped out on top of them. And other teams wanted to do it, and then find themselves behind. It's all good unless you're 14 points behind or something like that. That's with every team, with every defense. Your point is valid there. They have such great pass rush ability that you do need to do some things to counter that. There's many different ways to go about it and I think we've got a pretty good plan. We'll see if it works."

The two teams that beat them he refers to are the Texans and Jaguars. Texans RB Arian Foster went nuts facing the Colts in the first game of the year running for 231 yards and 3 TDs. As a team the Texans rushed for 257 yards in that game. Maurice Jones-Drew didn't fare quite as well as Foster, but he had a solid game against Indy with over a hundred yards and a TD. Jacksonville had 174 yards as a team that day including 44 rushing yards from QB David Garrard.

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