Week 17 Preview: Eagles vs Cowboys
By Jake Starr
The 13-2 Philadelphia Eagles will look to have their best regular season in team history with a win over the Dallas Cowboys in Week 17.
One year ago, the Dallas Cowboys came into Philadelphia at 13-2 already having home field clinched throughout the playoffs. On the other hand, the Philadelphia Eagles were on the outside looking in at the playoff picture. That game, was, in essence, a meaningless game and the Eagles beat Dallas, as many of their starters did not play much of the game.
Now just one year later, the script is completely flipped. This year, it is the Eagles who are 13-2 and have the No. 1 seed in hand, while the Cowboys will not be apart of the NFC playoffs this January.
The exception though this year is that we may see the Eagles starters play a bit more than we saw the Cowboys starters play in last year’s Week 17 matchup.
After a poor offensive showing last Monday night against the Oakland Raiders, Eagles coach Doug Pederson made it clear throughout the week that he would like to play his starters a significant amount against Dallas, so they can continue to get reps and hopefully go into the playoffs on a good note.
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That is, of course, a very fine line Pederson is walking. He needs to continue to get Nick Foles reps with the first-team offense, but at the same time not risk injuries to any significant players heading into the postseason.
Players with any lingering injuries will most likely not play. Brandon Graham has already been ruled out with an ankle injury, but should be fine in two weeks. It would also not be a surprise to see Jalen Mills have a limited role as he still deals with a lingering ankle injury.
The most important thing will be to have a healthy team in two weeks for the divisional round, but if the Eagles can have a good offensive showing on Sunday without anyone getting injured to gain confidence, then that will be an added bonus.
The last time these two NFC East rivals met was back in Week 11 when the Eagles exploded in the second half en route to a 37-9 victory to move to 9-1, a game in which they were fueled by another MVP like performance from quarterback Carson Wentz.
This time around though, the Cowboys will have All-Pro running back Ezekiel Elliott, who missed the team’s last matchup as he was serving his six-game suspension. But with or without Elliot, Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott has really struggled in his second season.
For the Eagles, winning this game won’t be as important as seeing Foles bounce back from last week`s performance. If Foles can put together some positive drives and score some points early on, then the Eagles can pull the starters, not risk injury, and turn their attention to the next important part of this game, which would be getting Nate Sudfeld reps.
Hopefully, by the second half, all of the starters should be pulled from the game and Sudfeld can get playing time. Nate was drafted out of Indiana in 2016, but has never played in an NFL game. No team wants to go into the playoffs with their backup not having any reps, so getting Sudfeld in will be invaluable to him and the Eagles.
Prediction
I expect to see Dallas play all of their healthy starters for the entire game and try to finish the season on a high note for Prescott and Elliott. Going against the Eagles backups for most of the game should make their day easier, but don`t sleep on the Eagles backups on defense. The Eagles backup defensive linemen are good enough to start on most other teams around the league.
On offense, expect to see the Eagles go very pass heavy early on to try to get Foles into a rhythm. After hopefully a few good drives, Foles and the Eagles first-team offense will take a back seat and the backups will get reps so they will be good to go if called upon in the postseason.
The Eagles should start fast in the first half, as their starters are more talented than what Dallas has to offer. But, as the Eagles start to pull their starters, expect to see Dallas come back in the second half.
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Foles should play well to give the Eagles a lead in the first half, but Dallas will come back and win it against the reserves in the second half. The outcome of this game is meaningless, but coming away with no major injuries will be the real victory on Sunday.