The NFC East is the worst division in football. It is simply not even close. On Monday night, the Philadelphia Eagles came through with a 23-17 overtime win over the New York Giants to improve to a record of six wins and seven losses.
One could argue that no National Football League team that gets spanked by the Miami Dolphins, who barely beat the Giants in overtime, and is under the .500 mark deserves to make the playoffs, let alone win their division. However, in the wacky NFL playoff system, that is the scenario. The 6-7 Philadelphia Eagles are currently tied for first place with the equally pathetic Dallas Cowboys.
In analyzing further just how unfortunate the system is, there are currently three teams above .500 at the moment, who are out of a playoff spot. They are the 8-5 Los Angeles Rams and the 7-6 Chicago Bears in the National Football Conference and the 8-5 Tennessee Titans in the American Football Conference. All three teams are much more deserving to be in the playoffs than the Eagles and Cowboys.
In the Giants loss, Eli Manning was actually very good at times. He had one great quarter as he found Darius Slayton for two major scores, which put New York up 17-3 at the half. Slayton ended the night with five catches for 154 yards. However, Slayton was the only Giants receiver that got open. The rest of the Giants receivers had 49 yards combined. Also, the Eagles made some great second-half adjustments defensively and prevented New York from scoring anything in the second half.
Offensively, the Eagles were led by rookie running back Boston Scott and tight end Zach Ertz. Scott had 128 total yards and his second career touchdown, while Ertz had 91 yards receiving and two touchdowns, including a game-winning major in extra time to win the game.
