Eagles schedule 2017: Analyzing the third quarter stretch

With Eagles training camp set to begin in less than two weeks, now’s a good time to look ahead to the upcoming season. I'm going to spend the next couple of days breaking down Philadelphia's 2017 schedule into four quarters. As a reminder, click here for the entire 2017 Eagles schedule. Today we'll focus on the third quarter. Check out our breakdown of the [first quarter here] and the [second quarter here].

9) Denver Broncos (Nov. 5, 1:00 PM)

On paper, Denver seems like a pretty tough opponent. No, their quarterback situation isn’t anything to fear. But how about that Broncos defense?

It’s true, Denver obviously has a lot of talent on the defensive side of the ball. It’d be surprising to suddenly see them become a bad defense.

I just don’t know how good that defense will be this year, though. While reading through a Football Outsiders article earlier this offseason, I saw them note it’s historically very difficult for defenses to play at such a high level for a long period of time.

Another thing to keep in mind is that the best defensive coordinator in the NFL, Wade Phillips, is no longer running the show there. That could prove to be a big loss.

This tilt could very well be a tough defensive battle. With that said, I do like the Eagles’ chances at home.

Week 10 - BYE

I think we can all agree that a Week 10 bye is much better than a Week 4 bye. I think the NFL agrees that the Week 4 bye is bullshit because they got rid of them for this season. Thanks for being a year late on that, Roger Goodell.

Week 11 - at Dallas Cowboys (Nov. 19, 8:30 PM)

The Eagles will have extra rest heading into their first game of the season against the Cowboys. That’s a nice bonus.

This game figures to be a rematch of last year’s overtime contest. It felt like the Eagles deserved to win that won but the Cowboys ultimately stole it away.

Now we get to see Carson Wentz and Dak Prescott face off in Year 2. It’ll be interesting to see how each of these quarterbacks progress from their rookie year. A lot of people are assuming Prescott will be awesome again in 2017. Maybe that’s the case, but we’ll see.

There’s no doubt this will be a tough one. It wouldn’t be surprising to see it go down to overtime yet again. I’m not scared of the Cowboys, though. I’m confident in saying the Eagles can win in Dallas.

Week 12 - vs. Chicago Bears (Nov. 26, 1:00 PM)

Yesterday I wrote that San Francisco appeared to be the weakest opponent on the Eagles’ schedule. The only other team challenging them for that spot is the Bears. And Chicago may very well be worse than the 49ers.

The Bears are starting Mike Glennon … or Mitch Trubisky … or Mark Sanchez … or someone at quarterback. It’ll probably be Glennon heading into the season, but who knows how long that’ll last.

Like the 49ers game, this Bears game is right after a big divisional contest. So there’s some trap game factor here. Still, I think the Bears are just pretty bad. The Eagles shouldn’t have toooooo much trouble winning this one at home.

I can’t help but imagine Alshon Jeffery is going to want to go off for a big game against his former team.

Week 13 - at Seattle Seahawks (Dec. 3, 8:30 PM)

I hate to dub games automatic losses but that’s really what this one feels like. It has nothing to do with being negative and everything with being realistic. Seattle’s home record is ridiculously good. The Seahawks just don’t lose there.

I will say that it felt like the Eagles were actually in their game against the Seahawks last year prior to Nelson Agholor’s meltdown. Maybe the Eagles can keep things more competitive this year. An actual victory would be amazing but the Eagles might have to settle for a moral one instead.

Is 3-1 possible?

The feeling here is the Eagles definitely beat the Bears but definitely lose to the Seahawks. That puts them at 1-1 in this stretch. The other two games can go either way. I’ll say Philadelphia goes at least 2-2 with 3-1 being their ceiling. Based on my predictions from the first half of the season, that puts them around 7-5 or 8-4 at this point.