Philadelphia Eagles schedule: Breaking down the fourth quarter of 2017

With Eagles training camp set to begin in just over a week, 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 wrap up with the fourth quarter. Check out our breakdown of the [first quarter here] and the [second quarter here] and the [third quarter here].

14) at Los Angeles Rams (Dec. 10, 4:25 PM ET)

The Eagles aren’t immediately coming back to Philadelphia after playing the Seahawks in Seattle in Week 14. They’ll be headed straight for L.A. instead.

The big storyline heading into this game is obvious: it’s time Carson Wentz versus Jared Goff. Both quarterbacks didn’t have excellent rookie seasons in 2016, but Wentz was clearly better than Goff. The No. 1 overall pick in the 2016 NFL Draft looked like a disaster on the field. Goff finished the 2016 season completing a mere 54.6% of his passes for 1089 yards (5.3 yards/attempt), five touchdowns, seven interceptions, and a 63.6 passer rating. New Rams head coach Sean McVay has his work cut out for him with Goff.

Los Angeles figures to be more competitive on the defensive side of the ball. Wade Phillips was a great hire for the Rams; he’s arguably the best defensive coordinator in the NFL. The Eagles offensive line will have their hands full trying to stop Aaron Donald. That dude is just a straight up beast.

The Rams’ defense and the Eagles’ travel considerations could make this game tougher than expected on paper. Still, Goff is just so uninspiring that I can’t not take the Eagles to beat him.

15) at New York Giants (Dec. 17, 1:00 PM)

Teams don’t typically fare well when playing in the third tilt of a three-game road stretch. The Eagles have that working against them in this one.

Then again, New York New Jersey isn’t that far away from Philadelphia. And the Giants don’t really scare me. I could regret writing that if their receiving corps proves to be as big of a mismatch for the Eagles’ secondary as it is on paper, but I still don’t trust Eli Manning behind that shaky offensive line.

I’ll say this game comes down to the wire.

16) Oakland Raiders (Dec. 25, 8:30 PM)

The Raiders are a better team than the Eagles on paper. Oakland has a lot of nice talent with Derek Carr, Khalil Mack, and their offensive line. Hell, even Beast Mode is back!

But do I really want to be the grinch who says the Eagles aren’t going to win on Christmas? Of course not. The Eagles might really need this win to make the playoffs at this point while Oakland might not be as desperate.

17) vs. Dallas Cowboys (Dec. 31, 1:00 PM)

Unlike last year, I think this game will matter this season. I don’t think the Cowboys are going to go 13-3 again this season. I don’t think they’ll be bad, either, but I do think they take some kind of step back. The number of suspensions that Dallas will be facing (including the potential Ezekiel Elliott one) early in the year could cause them to get off to a slow start.

This game could decide the winner of the NFC East. There hasn’t been a repeat winner since the early 2000’s and I’m not about to predict that changes this season. Eagles win the crown with a win over Dallas.

What will the Eagles’ final record be?

This stretch could be pretty tough. I think that’s a good thing, though, because the Eagles will have the opportunity to prove they’re ready for the playoffs. Winning the division would be great, but they should at least be in the conversation for a wild card. I say the Birds finish around 8-8 or 9-7 this season.