The Philadelphia Eagles suffered a potentially season-altering loss to the Dallas Cowboys last week, but Tom Brady isn’t too concerned for the defending Super Bowl champs.
Brady believes that the 21-point lead the Eagles blew in the loss to the Cowboys was just a minor setback for a team that’s naturally going to be tested every week.
“That was a tough one last week. I was a part of a game in Miami, the Miami Miracle play, where we thought we had it in the big and we didn’t,” Brady said on “FOX NFL Sunday,” relating the loss to something he often faced in his career. “The reality of being the defending Super Bowl champ is heavy is the head wearing the crown. When you’re the defending Super Bowl champ, you’ve got to play 17 Super Bowls it feels like.
“They’ll find their way. I still have a lot of confidence in the Eagles.”
Philadelphia is still 8-3 and in the driver’s seat in the NFC East. It also trails the Los Angeles Rams by one game for the top seed in the NFC, holding the tiebreaker.
Still, the Eagles have had some weird ups and downs this season as they seek to repeat. Their offense has faced a good amount of scrutiny as wide receiver A.J. Brown has expressed some frustration with the passing game. But the defense has been better as of late following the addition of edge rusher Jaelan Phillips, slowing down the Green Bay Packers and Detroit Lions in a pair of victories prior to the Week 12 loss to the Cowboys.
Tom Brady on How Packers-Lions Showdown Affects NFC North & Whether Chiefs Can Make Playoffs
The Cowboys, meanwhile, improved to 5-5-1 with the victory, keeping their playoff hopes alive. But as the Cowboys sit a few games back of the San Francisco 49ers for the final spot in the NFC playoff picture, Brady believes that Thursday’s game against the Chiefs is a bigger must-win for Dallas than Kansas City.
“Dallas has got to win today. I think they’ve got like, a 10% chance [to make the playoffs] if they lose,” Brady said. “The Chiefs have Patrick Mahomes. So, until they’re officially eliminated, I always think they’ve got a great shot.”
The Chiefs are also on the outside looking in of the playoff picture entering Week 13. However, Kansas City is only a game back of the seventh-seeded Buffalo Bills. While all three wild card teams in the AFC hold a 7-4 record, the Chiefs have actually lost to each of those teams already (Bills, Jacksonville Jaguars, Los Angeles Chargers).
Both the Chiefs and Cowboys have pretty long odds to win the division. The Cowboys are 3.5 games back of the Eagles for first place in the NFC East, while the Chiefs are three games back of the Broncos for the AFC West lead. Denver also has the tiebreaker over Kansas City.
That’s why Brady’s looking at Thursday’s Green Bay Packers-Detroit Lions game as a matchup that could determine who gets first place in the NFC North when he was asked which team he believes is the most likely to move into first place that currently isn’t in first place.
“Either of the two teams playing today. Both of them are tremendous. A lot of great upside down the stretch. Yeah, it might be a shameless plug to watch today. But it’s actually the truth. These two teams are the ones to watch.”
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