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Philadelphia Eagles head coach Chip Kelly against the Seattle Seahawks at Lincoln Financial Field on Sunday, December 7, 2014. The Eagles lost the game 24-14. (Martin Griff | Times of Trenton)
(Martin Griff)
PHILADELPHIA — The Eagles had an opportunity to establish themselves as legitimate Super Bowl contenders in the NFC with a win over the Seattle Seahawks Sunday.
Obviously that didn't go as planned.
After a lackluster performance on the way to a 24-14 reality-check type defeat, the Eagles position as one of the league's elite teams certainly is in doubt.
The Eagles are now 0-4 this season against playoff caliber NFC teams and would lose tiebreakers against the Seahawks, Arizona Cardinals, San Francisco 49ers and Green Bay Packers. Currently they hold the division lead by virtue of a Thanksgiving Day victory over the Dallas Cowboys, but that lead is on rocky ground heading into Week 15.
With a rematch looming Sunday night against the Cowboys at Lincoln Financial Field, the stakes have been raised to 'must win' status for this team just to assure a playoff spot.
Sunday's winner will likely take the NFC East division title and the Eagles are positioned nicely with two games against the Giants and Washington Redskins to close out the year after playing the Cowboys. However, a loss to the Cowboys -- who are in a revenge situation -- would be devastating to this team's playoff aspirations.
"Yeah, I don't think anybody has to get revved up to play the Cowboys," Kelly said. "It's a division game. It's an opportunity to establish yourself in the NFC East, and that's what this season's about right now."
After managing just 135 yards of total offense and nine first downs against the defending Super Bowl champions, a much better effort will be required against Dallas in Week 15.
"I don't know if this means one thing and if we would have won that we're the best team in the league," Eagles quarterback Mark Sanchez -- who threw for 90 yards, two touchdowns and one interception -- said after Sunday's game. "That's not really how it goes. Until you play all of those other teams, it only matters who was better on this field today and tonight, and it wasn't us.
"That's really too bad because I think we match up well with them. We just didn't play very well tonight."
Seattle dominated the Eagles in all phases Sunday and adding to the drama of Dallas week is the fact that the Cowboys will have 10 days to prepare Sunday's rematch from a Thanksgiving defeat that left a very sour taste in their mouths.
Eagles center Jason Kelce says he expects to see a much different Cowboys team this time around.
"Yeah, we just got done playing them," he said. "I doubt that they are going to come out and give us the same stuff. With how much success we had last time, they will probably dial something up for us. We just have to be ready. We will make the corrections tomorrow and we will move on."
Speaking of moving on, there was plenty of talk in the Eagles locker room last week of the matchup against Seattle being a litmus test. The true test of this week will be this team's ability to bounce back from a game that has shifted the goalposts for this season from being a potential Super Bowl run to now having to fight for survival in a tightening playoff race.
That will be no easy task.
"The only thing you can do is win to get past this," Eagles running back LeSean McCoy said, after rushing for 50 yards and breaking the franchise career-rushing record previously held by Wilbert Montgomery. "That is the only feeling that makes everything go away.
"We will get back to the drawing boards, we will get back to practice, we will train and prepare hard. It is a big, big game, a must-win type of game. And there is nothing better than having [Dallas] here, in Philly. I guess we will see this Sunday."
After getting manhandled as a defense, Eagles safety Malcolm Jenkins sounded resolute as ever after Sunday's game in keeping his eye on the prize as the playoff push intensifies.
"We have an opportunity to correct our mistakes," Jenkins said. "We still have all of our goals ahead of us. Nothing is out of the picture. We're not closing the door on anything. We're in a great position.
"Although we don't like losing. We just didn't win today. We'll start to get after this Dallas game plan as soon as we get back and move on."
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