Eagles officially clinch home field advantage in 2018 NFL Playoffs

It’s official: the Philadelphia Eagles will enter the 2018 NFL Playoffs as the No. 1 seed in the NFC.

The Eagles clinched home field advantage by defeating the Oakland Raiders on Christmas night. It was VERY ugly, but somehow the Birds got it done.

Being the No. 1 seed means the Eagles will only need to win two home playoff games before playing in the Super Bowl. The other advantage of being No. 1 is that the Eagles will get to play the lowest remaining seed in the divisional round before playing in the NFC championship game.

Of course, it’s hard to feel great about the Eagles’ chances of winning in the post-season considering how they’ve struggled against bad teams since Carson Wentz has gone down. Philadelphia’s defense got exposed in Week 15 against the Giants. Then Nick Foles imploded against a bad Raiders defense that ranked 32nd overall by Football Outsiders. Not very encouraging.

Now that the Eagles have locked everything up, they’ll have nothing to play for in their Week 17 matchup against the Cowboys. The game will also be meaningless for Dallas since they were eliminated from the playoff picture on Sunday night. We could potentially see Doug Pederson rest the Eagles’ starters on New Year’s Eve. After that Raiders game, though, they might need the extra playing time to work through their issues. We’ll see what Pederson decides.

For now, enjoy the Eagles finishing on top of the NFC in 2017. If you can.

NFC PLAYOFF PICTURE

Top six seeds

1 - Philadelphia Eagles: 13-2 overall, 10-1 conference

2 - Minnesota Vikings: 12-3 overall, 9-2 conference

3 - Los Angeles Rams: 11-4 overall, 7-4 conference (direct tie-breaker over NO)

4 - New Orleans Saints: 11-4 overall, 8-3 conference (direct tie-breaker over CAR)

5 - Carolina Panthers: 11-4 overall, 7-4 conference

6 - Atlanta Falcons: 9-6 overall, 8-3 conference (direct tie-breaker over SEA)

In the hunt

7 - Seattle Seahawks: 9-6 overall, 7-4 conference