We haven't done this in a while, mostly because I haven't been able to bear to look at them... but i figure now that we are back on the winning track it would probably be interesting to see where the national media sees the Birds...
ESPN Rank #11 up from #16 - Two weeks ago the Eagles had lost three straight and were reeling, now, they're just one game behind the beat-up Giants and right back in it. Just another example of how up-and-down the NFL season can be.
CBS Rank #14 up from #16 - The week off did this team a lot of good after they lost the three games before the bye. They looked rejuvenated against the Redskins, especially on offense.
Real Football 365 Rank #10 up from #12 - Much like the abovementioned Seahawks, don't be surprised at all to see the Eagles make a serious run at greatness as the regular season nears ever closer to the playoffs. Having Donovan McNabb, Brian Westbrook and Donte' Stallworth healthy will go a long way toward making that happen.
Fox Sports Rank #13 up from #17 - Talk about a statement game. The Eagles emerged from the bye week with an impressive 27-3 wipeout of the Redskins in Philadelphia Sunday afternoon, successfully ending a dreadful three-game losing streak. Philly improved to 8-0 in weeks following the bye under head coach Andy Reid. Though the incredible Reggie Brown-Correll Buckhalter catch-and-toss play was truly not planned, Brown told reporters otherwise after the game, jokingly explaining: "It was a hook-and-lateral all the way. I'm sticking to my story." Planned or not, the play was important. The Eagles are now 5-4, a game behind the Giants in the NFC East, and have the 2-7 Tennessee Titans coming to town Sunday.
Sports Illustrated Rank #14 up from #18 - Andy Reid loves to throw the ball. I mean not him, it's that he loves to have his QB throw the ball, you understand. So it was fling, flang, flung, bombs away, even in windstorms and they lost three straight. "Here," he said to Marty Mornhinweg (God, I hate trying to spell that name), "you call the plays." So against the Redskins Marty did. He called runs, 34 of them, more than the Eagles had called in a year. And Philly won. Stay tuned next week when Hallmark will present the story of the little girl and the magic football shoes..
And the special Fox Sports DVOA ranking which breaks down every single play of the season and compares each one to the NFL average based on situation and opponent and is considered to be the system that takes the opinions and guesswork out of power rankings Has the Eagles ranked #4 overall and project their record as 10-6
Note I'd like to point out the insanity of ESPN, CBS, Fox, and SI to rank Dallas ahead of the Eagles. Not only did the Birds beat them head to head, they own every conceivable tiebreaker over them and are statistically superior in both total offense and defense. The Eagles have the 7th ranked defense in football right now giving up 18 points a game.