Eagles

The Eagles Deserve More Credit for Having a 9-5 Record with Their Schedule

By Nick Piccone

Published: Dec 17th, 2025 · 8:00 AM EST

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If you listened to the noise after the NFL released every team’s 2025 schedule back in the spring, you’d probably be hard pressed to find anyone who didn’t think the Eagles had one of the tougher slates.

In fact, the Eagles headed into the season with the fourth-toughest schedule in football, facing teams that had a combined record of 162-127 in 2024, a .561 winning percentage. The Eagles, along with the Lions, led the league with 11 playoff teams from 2024 on the schedule this year while the Giants were actually the team with the toughest schedule (166-123, .574 winning percentage).

In comparison, the 49ers had the easiest schedule (120-169, .415 winning percentage), so if you want to crown their ass, crown their ass.

In the spring, the general consensus was that the Eagles certainly wouldn’t be as good as they were in 2024 – the best team in Eagles history. But everyone thought they’d still easily make the playoffs. 

Nobody thought they’d lose against the Cowboys in the season opener (until it was time to stir up some engagement), but more than many thought they’d likely fall to the Chiefs and the Rams game would be the toughest test early in the season. The Eagles beat the Chiefs, again, but it looked like the Rams would be well on their way to a victory at The Linc before a miraculous Eagles comeback was punctuated by Jordan Davis’ touchdown return from a blocked field goal to end the game.

Almost everyone had the Eagles losing in Tampa Bay, if only because of recent history. Despite not being healthy in those games, everyone thought the Eagles would falter. They almost did, but came out with the win. The only stat that matters.

The Broncos game was almost universally pegged as a win, even if Denver was off to a hot start. I’d say it looks a bit more than a hot start as they are now 12-2 and lead the AFC West. The Eagles could’ve easily handed them a loss, but conservativeness after building a big lead bit them in the end. A Giants game that nobody really cared about because the Phillies were playing in an elimination game against the Dodgers might have humbled some, but I honestly didn’t care much about that game. The vibes weren’t great, but a win in Minnesota against the Vikings and Carson Wentz, and the Giants before the bye, which was probably  the Eagles’ best game as an offense all season before this past Sunday, seemed to set things back on track. 

The bye seemed to fix everything last season, but had the opposite effect this season. The Browns game was ugly in 2024, but it was a win, and after that things seemed to shift. Coming out of this year’s bye, the Eagles won back-to-back games against strong NFC North teams in the Packers and Lions, but that was due to defensive clinics by Vic Fangio’s group. But, the consensus there was a split was needed because losing those two games back-to-back could spell trouble for the Birds.

But they won both of those games. And even though the offense looked as bad as it did, those wins still meant something.

Fast forward a week and the Eagles had a 21-0 lead against the Cowboys in the second quarter. This was a must-win game for the Cowboys and there were people who thought a desperate Dallas team would be dangerous enough to knock off the Birds. The offense looked fixed in that first quarter and change, but they once again got too conservative and the same thing that boned them in the Broncos game boned them once again – in Dallas against the Cowboys, no less. It certainly felt like they would bounce back from that on Black Friday at The Linc against Chicago, but the defense faltered and the offense looked as inept as ever as the Bears, now 10-4, took down the Birds. People were hoping the offense would get back on track against the Chargers in LA, and despite seeing some different things and being close to winning the game in overtime, Hurts’ five turnovers proved to be too much to overcome. Three straight losses against three teams that the wins and losses predictors had most likely as wins. The Chargers have a top-five defense, and are ranked second in yards allowed per game as of this writing, so we should’ve given credit to them as much as we gave blame to the Eagles’ offense for just being bad. 

That certainly felt like rock bottom. All week there were voices saying, “Just give me an easy win with the offense looking great,” and they got exactly that. Right on cue, some of those same voices are now minimizing that Eagles performance because it was against the Raiders, one of, if not the worst team in the league right now. 

But is it too much to ask to consider exactly how the schedule has played into the Eagles’ 9-5 season thus far?

Traveling to Kansas City, again, after the initial high of opening the season against a divisional rival and raising the Super Bowl LIX banner, seemed like an easy loss. Certainly everyone expected Patrick Mahomes and Andy Reid to be ready in waiting for their revenge. But the Eagles won.

Then the Eagles came back home and won a game that, for all intents and purposes, they should have lost against the Rams. It was an impressive comeback and felt like the offense had turned a corner. After that high, they had to travel down to Tampa Bay where they’d struggled, and they won that game. Home against Denver seemed like another win, but they collapsed there and then had a brutal game at MetLife. Sure, not a terribly long drive, but travel nonetheless. Then going to Green Bay out of a bye on a Monday night and then back home against the Lions – brutal. Absolutely brutal. But two wins. There has to be credit for that. I don’t think we’ve heard enough credit given for being able to win those tough games despite a hiccup along the way. 

Every year, we always seem to be afraid of teams that are good, but don’t give our team enough credit for being good. Maybe it’s the Philadelphia complex. Maybe it’s the need for engagement. Maybe it’s just how it is because talking about going 17-0 is boring. I know football rules all. But so should common sense.

The Eagles are the only team in the NFL that does not have any back-to-back home games this season. While they didn’t travel internationally, the teams that did were compensated by the schedule-makers. The Chargers had back-to-back home games twice this season, including the second half of a back-to-back against the Eagles. The Chiefs, who famously lost Super Bowl LIX 40-6, were rewarded with three straight home games in addition to another back-to-back later in the season. The Steelers had back-to-back home games once, but were given a bye after their international game. The Browns end the season with four of their last six games at home, with two back-to-backs. The Jets started the year with back-to-back home games, had home games sandwich their international game, and had another back-to-back home stretch after that. The Broncos had back-to-back home games after their international game, and had two more instances of back-to-back home games after that. The Jaguars had back-to-back home games before traveling internationally, then they had four of their next five games away from home followed by back-to-back home games. The Rams had two stretches of back-to-back home games. The Colts had two stretched of back-to-back home games and one more stretch to come. The Falcons end the season with back-to-back home games, and had back-to-back home games surrounding a bye earlier in the season. The Dolphins had back-to-back home games twice. The Commanders had back-to-back home games before their international travel which was followed by a bye week and another home game. They’re also rewarded with back-to-back home games against the Eagles and Cowboys coming up, which now mean nothing to them.

I’ve heard ad nauseam how the Raiders were already beat before they got on the plane. Flying across the country into a snowstorm with single-digit wind chills. But why can’t we apply similar logic when the Eagles barely have any time to settle in since they’re always headed to another city by the time they adjust to being home? Do we not think that affects them not only physically, but mentally, too? Instead of thinking 100% of their struggles are internal, isn’t there a pretty good possibility that a large chunk of it could be external?

The only chance for the Eagles to have back-to-back home games this season might be in the playoffs. Having a 9-5 record with this schedule is more impressive than people would like to admit. It doesn’t mean the Eagles will win the Super Bowl this year. But we saw the Chiefs just be eliminated from playoff contention. The Cowboys most likely won’t make the postseason. The Commanders have a lost season. The Ravens are .500. The Bengals are 4-10. It could be much, much worse.