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Well, here’s some bad news to wake up to if you went to bed early after the Philadelphia Eagles got blown out by the Dallas Cowboys and eliminated from the NFC playoff picture last night.
The NFL officially flexed the Eagles’ Week 17 game against the Washington Football Team from a 1:00 PM start time to an 8:20 PM start time on Sunday Night Football. Prime-time, baby!
Had the Eagles actually beaten the Cowboys, it would’ve made sense to put an NFC East championship game on national television. But the Eagles didn’t win and now we’re forced to have this season drag on even longer. We couldn’t even be granted the mercy of a 1:00 PM start to get this thing over as soon as possible.
Sigh.
The Eagles’ season finale does have meaning for the Washington Football Team, of course. If they win, they’ll win the division and head into the 2021 NFL playoffs as the No. 4 seed. If the Eagles somehow win, however, it’ll be the winner of Sunday’s Cowboys at New York Giants game that clinches the NFC East instead.
With that in mind, the Eagles’ Week 17 game is really a must-lose affair. The Birds need to get a better draft pick and avoid delivering a playoff berth to the Cowboys or Giants. Washington making the postseason is the least of all evils since they badly need a quarterback upgrade and the Football Team falling to No. 19 overall (at best) in the 2021 NFL Draft hurts their chances of landing one.
On the bright side, the NFL flexing the game gives normal, well-adjusted humans less reason to watch this very bad Eagles team play a meaningless matchup. It’s just bad news for the sickos (myself included) who feel obligated to watch regardless of circumstance.