Philadelphia Among the Elite?

For those of you who are placing the Eagles among the elite teams of the NFL, I'd like to offer a little perspective. A preseason glance at the schedule had nearly all analysts predicting a 6-2 start for the Birds, which they are on pace to reach. Many of those same analysts had the Eagles finishing 4th in the division, in part due to a second half of the schedule that looks like this:
Nov 12 Washington 1:00pm
Nov 19 Tennessee 1:00pm
Nov 26 @Indianapolis 1:00pm
Dec 4 Carolina 8:30pm
Dec 10 @Washington 1:00pm
Dec 17 @N.Y. Giants 1:00pm
Dec 25 @Dallas 5:00pm
Dec 31 Atlanta 1:00pm

There is one game where the Eagles are the clear favorite following their bye week - hosting the Titans. They have an unprecedented three consecutive away division games. They play the Colts in Indy. They play both Carolina and Atlanta, who will both be contending for playoff spots. Philadelphia is very good, and isn't due for a fall. They are, however, due for a correction.

I think we find out how good the Beagles are today. If the can beat the Cowpukes then I will be a believer. I really think the Cowboy defense is 5 times better than anything they have faced so far this season.

As much as I hate the Eagles they have a great quarterback and really really good O and D lines. That's all it takes to give yourself a good shot to win any game you play in the nfl.

If you look at the eagles entire schedule, they have a total of 7 games (including the 4 they've already played) against teams with 0 or 1 wins up to this point.

Sure, the second half is tough, but they have an exceptionally soft schedule.

There is no reason for them to not make the playoffs with that kind of a schedule. Of course, they probably won't be able to do anything once they get there.

Westbrook didn't practice all week, and Donte Stallworth is out with a hamstring injury.

I'm picking Dallas to win.

I think a healthy McNabb, combined with their stable coaching staff, makes them a threat. Injuries hurt them (Westbrook, especially), but the soft schedule helps. I think they will be a big test for us, especially if our Pass D remains suspect.

They are The Pretenders. Same team as last year but with a healthy D McNabb which is not enough in the long run. Dallas will throw on First Down to exploit J. Trotter who can't move well enough to re-direct receivers these days.

You can't call a team a threat when they have 3 wins against the Texans, Packers and the 49ers. Their only big game they blew a big lead to the Giants. There is really no way to know how good the eagles really are until they win a meaningful game.

they beat dallas and came a lot closer to beating the giants than we did :/.

having mcnabb on your team must really suck.

mcnabb is the read deal, and the way their offense passes the ball, they might get 40 on the redskins