Philadelphia Eagles receive surprise help from Atlanta Falcons during bye week

Even though the Philadelphia Eagles were on a bye week, the team ended up being winners from Week 9 thanks to some help from the Atlanta Falcons.

Without question, the bye week couldn’t have come at a more perfect time for the Philadelphia Eagles following their trip to London, mainly because of all the injuries the team continues to deal with on both sides of the football.

Getting back to .500 before the bye week was huge, but when seeing how the Eagles still trailed the Washington Redskins in the NFC East by two games shows just how important each game will be during the final two months of the 2018 season.

In fact, the division appears to be wide open at this point since the Dallas Cowboys, who play Monday night against the Tennessee Titans, are still in the running as well. As much as Philadelphia fans don’t want to hear it, a win by Dallas Monday will have them right there with the Eagles in the division standings with a 4-4 record.

When seeing how both teams received an unexpected gift on Sunday thanks to the Atlanta Falcons knocking off the Washington Redskins on the road in front of their own fans, chances are the Cowboys will be playing with a little extra motivation when facing the Titans.

But most importantly, both the Eagles and Cowboys are feeling extra thankful towards the Falcons for handing the Redskins their third loss of the season to trim down that NFC East lead to one game.

All of a sudden, the race for the division title just became a lot more interesting since Philadelphia won’t be facing as much pressure to play catch up by only trailing their rivals by one game. And with the Eagles taking on the Cowboys during a Sunday night showdown in Week 10, the team could be in better shape if they not only win this battle, but also see the Redskins fall to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on the road.

Philadelphia knew that defending their Super Bowl title wasn’t going to be easy since they would be playing with targets on their backs all year, and even though the first half of the 2018 season had some bumps in the road, making the playoffs is all that matters.

As great as it would be to earn home-field advantage, all the Eagles need to do is punch their ticket for January, and just take things one game at a time since anything is possible when it comes to playoff football.

But before jumping that far ahead, Philadelphia realizes the importance of focusing on their top goal at the moment in catching Washington in the NFC East, which is once again a little bit easier to do now thanks to some help from Atlanta in Week 9.