The Eagles are beyond must-win games. Way beyond. Whats bigger than a must-win? Whatever it is, thats what the Eagles are facing. Thats the hole theyve dug for themselves.
Its desperation time. Win and hope everybody else loses. Its a tough way to get through an NFL season.
With the second half of the season starting on Sunday, the Eagles are 3-5, three games and a tiebreaker behind a Giants team thats won six of its last seven to reach 6-2. The Eagles will try to avoid another upset loss Sunday when they face the 2-6 Cards at the Linc, where theyve won just once in the last 11 months.
Stay in the game with the latest updates on your beloved Philadelphia sports teams! Sign up here for our All Access Daily newsletter.
I dont want to say we have to win every game, but we have to take it one game at a time and win every game that were looking at, safety Kurt Coleman said. The seasons not over. We can rattle off eight straight and go 11-5 and if we do that, were going to make the playoffs. But we cant afford too many more losses.
The Eagles have reached the playoffs nine of the last 11 years, but they havent won a playoff game since 2008, when they beat the Vikings and Giants on the road before losing to the Cards in the NFC Championship Game in Glendale, Ariz.
Sundays game will be the first between the Eagles and Cards since then, and both teams have fallen on hard times since they were on top of the NFC just three years ago.
The Cards are just 7-17 the last two years following the retirement of Kurt Warner. The Eagles are 6-9 in their last 15 games and have lost six of their last seven at home.
The guys still remain confident, Michael Vick said. You know, we still feel like we can beat any team in this league and thats the mindset and thats the way its going to be. Its not going to change.
I think its exciting that we still have an opportunity and we still have a chance to play against some good teams. And we can only control what we can control and we cant dictate ... what happens with other teams. We just have to play our game and let that be it.
A loss would drop the Eagles to 3-6 or worse for only the third time in the last 25 years. The Eagles were 2-7 in 1998, Ray Rhodes final season, and 1999, Andy Reids first.
Every single game is super-important, tight end Brent Celek said. Weve got to go on a streak. We cant do anything but win. Thats it. If we dont, its going to be real tough to get where we want to get.
The scary thing for the Eagles is that even if they go on a huge run, it wont guarantee them a playoff berth.
If the Giants just finish out 4-4including a win over the Eagles on Nov. 20the Eagles would have to go 8-0 the rest of the year just to get in front of them and win the NFC East.
Were 3-5, so I dont think you can overlook anybody at this point, cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha said. You know, we have to start winning each game at this point. And theres no one that were taking lightly.
The last team to open 3-5 and reach the playoffs was the 2008 Chargers, who started out 4-8 before winning their last four games.
Under the current NFL playoff format, which went into effect in 1990, the 1990 Saints, 1994 Patriots, 1995 Lions, 1996 Jaguars and 2002 Jets also reached the postseason after opening 3-5.
Thats six out of 121 teams that were 3-5. Thats 5 percent.
Its frustrating, because were not playing our A-game and yet were still in all of these games, and thats whats frustrating, Jeremy Maclin said. And that also says what were capable of doing.
If games were played on paper we wouldnt lose to anybody, but games arent played on paper. We have to go out there and understand that just because were the Eagles or just because we have this guy, this guy, this guy, teams arent going to lay down for us. We have to stay with that mentality all four quarters of the game.
Since 2000, the Eagles are 57-39 the first half of the season, a .594 winning percentage (fifth-best in NFL during that span). Theyre 59-28-1 the second half, a .676 winning percentage, second-best in the NFL during that span (behind the Patriots 68-20, .773).
But even a big second-half surge might not be enough to propel the Eagles into the playoffs this year.
Our backs are going to be against the wall ... the rest of the year, and its going to be an uphill battle, Vick said. And we just have to get on the same wavelength with one another and once we do that, the skys the limit.
E-mail Reuben Frank at rfrank@comcastsportsnet.com
