Eagles Preview: Five on Dallas Part II

The Cowboys are one of the most talented teams in the NFL but Saturday's regular-season finale is likely to anticlimatic

PHILADELPHIA - Turns out the Eagles won’t play 17 games, at least some of them anyway.

As unlikely as it seemed after a dismal 2-5 start with a rookie head coach and a first-time starting quarterback the Eagles were able to punch their ticket to the postseason early and Saturday night’s regular-season finale against Dallas isn’t all that meaningful for the Cowboys either.

Both can wrangle some seeding with Philadelphia having an outside chance to move up to No. 6 and the Cowboys, the NFC East champions, could go as high as No. 2 if the stars align.

That potential juice isn’t likely isn’t worth the squeeze of losing players for the postseason, however, even if Nick Sirianni won’t admit it.

“That’s still something that we’re discussing and we’re working through,” the Eagles coach said Thursday. “Everybody is ready to go.”

Well not everybody.

The Eagles technically still have 11 players on the reserve/COVID-19 list as of Friday afternoon, including starters Dallas Goedert, Nate Herbig, Fletcher Cox, Alex Singleton, Rodney McLeod, and Avonte Maddox.

All of those players will be eligible to be activated by game time if they are feeling better and showing no symptoms, though.

Jason Kelce, who was also on the list, was activated Friday and will likely start to keep his consecutive starts streak alive and extend it to 122.

“Even the guys that are out of the building right now are ready to go this week because of the preparation that we’ve had by everybody throughout the week,” Sirianni said. “Every situation will be looked at differently. We are very aware that we don’t control our own destiny, as far as the six or seven seed.”

To that point, the Eagles have no real incentive to play their top players especially when you consider that many of their most important players are dealing with nagging injuries and could use a little extra time to get as healthy as possible.

RELATED: Here's What Nick Sirianni Should Do with His Team vs. Dallas

That list is headlined by quarterback Jalen Hurts but also includes Kelce, Lane Johnson, Jordan Mailata, and Landon Dickerson on the offensive line as well as running backs Jordan Howard and Boston Scott, who are also both on the COVID-19 list, and receiver DeVonta Smith.

The Cowboys are in the same boat but Jerry Jones indicated early in the week that he wanted his team to play to win after a poor performance against Arizona.

Since then, though, star rookie linebacker Micah Parsons, left tackle Tyron Smith and cornerback Anthony Brown were all placed on the COVID list.

Here are five things to know about the Cowboys when they are at full strength at least:

EXPLOSIVE

Dallas leads the NFL with 29.9 points per game and has already tied the franchise record for most points in a season of 479 which it accomplished in 1983. The offense was hurt by losing receiver Michael Gallup to a torn ACL against the Cardinals but their WR4, Cedric Wilson, would be the WR2 in Philadelphia.

DIGGS IT

Part of the Cowboys' impressive scoring numbers comes from the defense’s ability to make plays, particularly Diggs, who leads the NFL with 11 interceptions and is second in the league with 21 pass breakups.

The 11 interceptions are an astronomical number in the modern era. Green Bay’s Aaron Rodgers, as an example, has thrown only nine over his last 31 starts and while A-Rod is certainly an outlier, more short throws have caused INTs to plummet in the league yet, if he plays, Diggs is on the verge of becoming the first player to record 12 interceptions since Mike Reinfeldt in 1979.

Diggs has also recorded at least one interception in all three games he has played against the Eagles and had a pick-six against his old college teammate, Jalen Hurts, in the 41-21 win over Philadelphia in Week 3.

Overall, Dallas currently ranks third in the NFL with a plus-13 takeaway differential.

DAK-TASTIC

Cowboys QB Dak Prescott has nine games with a 100.0 or above passer rating in 2021, a number tied for the second-most in the NFL. The two-time Pro Bowl QB is tied for the NFL lead with seven 100.0 passer-rating games while also throwing at least three touchdowns.

Overall, Prescott already has thrown a career-high 32 TD passes.

PRIMETIME

The Cowboys are obviously no stranger to primetime games. Saturday night’s affair will be No. 177 and America’s Team is 96-80 all-time in primetime games and 4-1 this season, with the opening week loss to Tampa Bay and wins against the Eagles, Minnesota, New Orleans, and Washington.

With a win on Saturday night, Dallas would go 5-1 in primetime games for the first time since 2016.

NFC EAST KINGPINS

The Cowboys won the NFC East title for the 21st time this season which dates back to the 1970 NFL-AFL merger and realignment in 1970. The Eagles are second on the list with 11, followed by Washington (10), the New York Giants (nine), and the St. Louis/Arizona Cardinals, who used to play in the division, getting two.

Since the turn of the century, however, the Eagles have nine of their 11 and Dallas has only six of its 21.

PREDICTIONS:

JOHN MCMULLEN (13-3, 10-6 vs. spread) - No one knows who is going to play or how much other than Jones insisting the Cowboys' starters need some work.

The weather should also play a factor in that it's supposed to be very cold in Philadelphia on Saturday night and this is the lone opportunity the Cowboys will get to at least somewhat mimic a potential trip to Green Bay, an environment no one understands better than Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy, who spent 13 seasons with the Packers.

The Eagles, on the other hand, really aren't going to gain that much with a win or lose much with a setback so that theory is that Sirianni will protect as many of his key pieces as possible.

Dallas would be expected to beat the Eagles at full strength so it stands to reason that if the Cowboys play more of their regulars for a longer period, they should come out on top.

COWBOYS 24, EAGLES 18

ED KRACZ (10-6, 8-8 vs, spread) - Nick Sirianni said on Thursday his team will play to win, though he will try to do with a watered-down cast. The last time these two teams played a meaningless game was Week 17 when the Eagles already had the No. 1 seed in the conference that took them to a Super Bowl title. Dallas won that 6-0, and it didn't matter.

Forced to make a pick that doesn't matter, let's go with the home team.

EAGLES 24, COWBOYS 21

-John McMullen contributes Eagles coverage for SI.com's EagleMaven and is the NFL Insider for JAKIB Media. You can listen to John, alongside legendary sports-talk host Jody McDonald every morning from 8-10 on ‘Birds 365,” streaming live on both PhillyVoice.com and YouTube. John is also the host of his own show "Extending the Play" on AM1490 in South Jersey. You can reach him at jmcmullen44@gmail.com or on Twitter @JFMcMullen

Ed Kracz is the publisher of SI.com’s Eagle Maven and co-host of the Eagles Unfiltered Podcast. Check out the latest Eagles news at www.SI.com/NFL/Eagles or www.eaglemaven.com and please follow him on Twitter: @kracze.