What’s this?

What’s this?

There’s colour everywhere

What’s this?

There’s white things in the air

What’s this?

I can’t believe my eyes

I must be dreaming

Wake up, Jack, this isn’t fair

What’s this?

Those are the words of the immortal (literally?) Jack Skellington upon learning of the great joys of Christmas. An unexpected treat, if you will.

That was the Saints’ loss to the Falcons last night.

Besides the fact that I told one of our writers, who shall remain nameless because he totally doesn’t have that online sports betting account, to hammer the under in the game (and also take the Lakers to cover), this turned out to be a gift for the Eagles. I think Bob put it best:

Only the Eagles, because they don’t have Drew Brees and his fabulous PR rep.

The updated NFC standings:

In case you’re bad at math, the Eagles still have the best net points in the conference (146), and for as good as the Vikings’ defense is, the Eagles have allowed only 11 more points, while scoring 76 more.

The beauty of the Saints’ loss is that an Eagles win on Sunday, to bring them to 11-2, would put them at least full two games ahead of the Saints, Rams (with tiebreaker), Seahawks, and Panthers (with tiebreaker), vastly increasing their odds of a first round bye, regardless of what the Vikings do. But, should the Vikings lose to the Panthers, then the Eagles would again have sole possession of first place over them and a sudden edge in the tiebreaker, because, momentarily, the Eagles would have the better conference record and better winning record among common opponents (Rams, Bears, Redskins and Panthers), thus negating the need for that pesky strength of schedule thing.

So what does all of this mean? The Eagles-Rams game on Sunday is the biggest regular season game since the Week 17 Cowboys game in 2013. A win gives the Eagles a substantial advantage for a first round bye, and could potentially put them in a position for home field advantage, partly due to the Saints losing last night.