Dallas Cowboys Risk: Will the NFC East Streak Be Broken by the Philadelphia Eagles?
The Philadelphia Eagles will end a more than 15-year-long winning streak in the NFC East if the Dallas Cowboys fail to recover and win the division.
You can pretty well assume that if you’ve seen a nationally televised game featuring the Dallas Cowboys, Philadelphia Eagles, New York Giants, or Washington Commanders in the past ten years, you were presented with a graphic that stated the NFC East hasn’t produced a repeat winner since the early 2000s.
Though the Cowboys have the biggest point difference in the NFL (+162), they trail the Eagles in the NFC East by two games, with the Eagles’ point differential (+64) still strong but more modest. Although Philadelphia’s record may not be as impressive as Dallas’, quarterback Jalen Hurts and the Eagles have won two straight after mounting a strong comeback against the Buffalo Bills and Kansas City Chiefs. As a result, the team is 10-1 for the second straight season. The Cowboys, who are currently 8-3, have already lost to the Eagles 28-23 in Week 9.
The Eagles will thus become the first NFC East club to win consecutive division titles since… the Eagles did it from 2001-2004, led by coach Andy Reid and quarterback Donovan McNabb. That is, assuming the Cowboys mount a comeback during the next six weeks of the season.
Every NFC East team has won the division at least three times since the 2005 season began, with the Cowboys and Eagles sharing six division crowns.
The Eagles are six in number: 2006, 2010, 2013, 2017, 2019, and 2022.
Cowboys: Six (years ending in 2007), 2009, 2014, 2016, 2018, and 2021
Three Giants: in 2005, 2008, and 2011.
The three in the Commanders franchise are 2012, 2015, and 2020.
Of course, the Cowboys, who haven’t won the NFC East in consecutive years since 1992, still have a chance to overtake the Eagles. In Week 13, Philadelphia will play host to the San Francisco 49ers in a repeat of the NFC Championship Game, which the Eagles are not likely to win. After that, the Eagles will go to Dallas to play the Cowboys again in Week 14. The competition for the NFC East championship and the top overall seed in the NFC playoffs will be quite open if the Eagles lose to the 49ers and then to Dallas a week later. That is presuming, maybe unreasonably, that the Cowboys will not falter when facing the Seattle Seahawks on Thursday.
The Cowboys have a compelling case to make that they should utilize home-field advantage more than the Eagles do throughout the postseason. Dallas is 5-0 at home this season, and before the season, previous coach Jason Garrett made a comment about how much more formidable the Cowboys are on AT&T Stadium’s artificial turf than they are on other fields.
“It’s true that Dallas plays a little slower on defense on grass,” Garrett said. “They play defense like they have 14 guys on that fast track at home.”
Due to the fact that the 49ers and Eagles play on grass, there’s a significant chance Dallas will have to play both teams away in the postseason if they don’t win the NFC East and eventually manage to move up in the NFC playoff picture.
The most overused graphic in broadcast history will be retired if the Cowboys fail to defeat the Eagles in the NFC East.
