The job is done. The Philadelphia Eagles are NFC East champions after clobbering the Dallas Cowboys at home on Sunday afternoon with a combination of Kenny Pickett and Tanner McKee under center. It was a muted game, perhaps, flexed down to 1 p.m. and played between backup quarterbacks, but the Birds obliterated the ‘Boys nonetheless to claim the division and secure what looks like the #2 seed, depending on how the rest of the Week 17 schedule plays out.

Does it matter that Dak Prescott and CeeDee Lamb did not play? No. You play who they put in front of you. The Cowboys weren’t that good before Dak went down anyway, and they went on to lose both games to the Eagles this season by a combined score of 75 to 13. That is satisfying. Beating the Cowboys will never not be satisfying, especially when it’s 41 to 7 at home with the division crown on the line.

This Eagles team was 2-2 at one point, fans were calling for Nick Sirianni’s head, and they responded by winning 11 of their next 12 games. They are a Super Bowl contender.

To the observations:

1) WIP replaced Howard Eskin with Devan Kaney for the sideline radio gig. Great choice! It’s like Nickelback dropping off the world tour and AC/DC takes their spot.


2) The Cowboys were moving the ball on their opening drive. It was one of those things where you’re like, “ah shit, they showed up to play and they’re not gonna make it easy.” Then Cooper Rush throws a pick-six you’re reminded that Dak and CeeDee aren’t out there. Great play by CJGJ after getting himself ejected and hurting the Eagles in Washington last week. He made up for it.

3) Pretty dumb penalty by Nolan Smith on the second Dallas drive. On third down no less. Dallas scored on the next play and it was 7-7. The Eagles defensive backs didn’t exactly cover themselves with glory on that possession.

4) The first Eagles’ drive was pretty gross. False start, incomplete, and then incomplete again rolling Kenny Pickett to the left (why?). Then we got a 3rd and 15 swing pass and punt. The refs also missed what looked like a pretty obvious facemask on that drive.

(The push in the back on DeVonta Smith was not a penalty because Pickett was outside of the pocket. Greg Olsen got that wrong on the broadcast)

5) No tush push on 4th and 1 of the second drive. Sirianni punted with the ball on the Eagles’ 46. Could he have handed it to Saquon and asked him to pick up a yard? Perhaps. Makes you scratch your head a bit since they did run the shove later, successfully.

6) At some point in the 1st quarter, Bryce Huff left the game with an injury and Jeremiah Trotter Jr. replaced Oren Burks. Burks then came back in the 2nd quarter and forced a fumble. There’s only one Oren fucking Burks!

7) Very loud cheers for the first Cowboys penalty, which was two guys basically tackling Cooper DeJean to the ground. The refs were a little corny to start, then evened it out.

8) That first down swing pass was an abomination. A slow-developing, six-yard loss. Luckily for the Birds, they have Grant Calcaterra aka Tony Gonzalez 2.0 making ridiculous one-handed catches to move the sticks. And then Smitty on the touchdown grab? Beautiful. Let Kenny Pickett cook! Hail to Pitt!

9) I thought Olsen did a good job catching Sirianni’s sideline behavior on the series of initial shoves. He noticed Sirianni complaining to the refs about Dallas lining up in the neutral zone, so Sirianni ran the shove again on 4th and 1 and the refs threw the flag that time. Good bit of nuance there.

10) Jake Elliott back on kick offs for the first time in forever. You wonder if being more active in general helps his field goal issues. Sitting on the bench for 99% of the game has to be boring.

11) That was a cool graphic showing Eric Dickerson and Saquon Barkley’s rushing yards. Creative.

12) The touchdown right before halftime was the knockout punch. CJGJ pick #2, Saquon first down run, then Smitty on a go ball down the sideline to the one yard line. Pickett tush push 2x and they’re in. To be able to do that and then have the first possession of the 3rd quarter is a beautiful thing.

13) 17 points off turnovers in the first half. It was one of the main reasons they lost in Washington, the inability to cash in on the defensive takeaways. Not in this game. They punished Dallas and cashed in early and often.

14) Remember the “roughing the passer” flag on Milton Williams last week? Now compare it to the 3rd quarter hit on Pickett. Two things that are not the same.

15) Some people were calling for Tanner McKee instead of Pickett. The guy can, indeed, play. He threw TD passes for A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith and did a nice job of handing the ball to Saquon Barkley. He played well and so did Pickett. Do the Birds have a quarterback controversy on their hands? (sarcasm, of course, but the bottom line is that both did a nice job).

16) Brown could have/should have ended up with three TDs, one called back because of a holding penalty and the other a one-handed bit of brilliance but only one foot down. Then this happened:

17) Great job by Big Dom recovering McKee’s first TD pass football after Brown threw it into the 25th row. Good sideline shots from the Fox crew. Even better teamwork from the fans to recover the ball and get it back to McKee, in exchange for another gift instead:

18) Barkley: 31 carries for 167 yards. He reached the 2,000 mark in 16 games and likely will not play in Week 18. He needs 101 yards to break Dickerson’s record, though Dickerson achieved that in 16 games while the NFL now plays 17. Not a huge deal, just a required asterisk when comparing two guys who played in two different eras.

19) Great call by Seth here:

20) This result guaranteed that Dallas will finish with a losing record. How bout them Cowboys!