All Praises Due To... Your 2006 Philadelphia Eagles

As a lifelong Giants fan, I gotta give it up to Philly. All Praises Due-style. It's Xmas Day, and they're 9-6, tied with the Cowboys, who they whooped up on tonight, 23-7, for the divisional lead. Sweet month, thusfar:

- Started December at 5-6.

- Proceed to win their next four. Beat Carolina at home. And, then, THEN: At Washington. At New York. At Dallas. All on the road. All Divisional Opponents. All wins.

- One game to go. They host Atlanta on New Year's Eve. And even if Dallas wins their last game (at home vs. Detroit), the Eagles hold the tie breaker on the Cowboys. So their win tonight guarantees them a spot in "the Tournament", as Bill Parcells calls it.

9-6. I don't know how long Jeff Garcia is gonna keep it up (and, sure, by all means, genius, feel free to insert your expected, boring, and/or obvious "gay" joke or double entendre here, because YOU HAVE TO, what with being blessed with the curse of originality), but dude's played like a monster since filling in for McNabb. In his six starts, he's completed almost 62% of his passes, with 10 TD's and 2 picks thrown. Studly and sterling. (And T.O. continued to drop more balls tonight; the karmic justice just makes rooting for Garcia all the more enjoyable.)

The long and short of it is that the Eagles are playing with house money right now. They are playing like a team who believes they not only can go far but will go far in the Tournament. Handicapping the NFC, right now, I'd be willing to say, sure, Eagles could take the Saints for the NFC Championship. The Saints did beat the Eagles in the Superdome back in Week Six (27-24, featuring the Time-Expiring Stylings of John Carney, ladies and jellyfish! Drive safely!), but the Eagles are playing more consistent, if not better, football than the Saints. The Bears ("Crown their ass!!!") aren't much more consistent than the Saints, but their defense is so ridiculously fast, they'd definitely make Jeff Garcia run around all day long. But I do think the Eagles could definitely give the Bears a run for their money. Without question, those are your top three teams in this year's soft-ass NFC:

1. Chicago Bears (13-2)
2/3. Philadelphia Eagles (9-6) or New Orleans Saints (10-5)
4-6. Insert "one-n-done" of your choice. Giants? Hee! That's funny. (And perhaps the topic of a different post.)