🏈 Who Wants To Win The NFC East?

The NFL’s hottest topic of conversation is the NFC East, where the Eagles and Cowboys are collapsing over the finish line. [View in browser]( [FOX SPORTS INSIDER WITH MARTIN ROGERS] In today’s FOX Sports Insider: The NFC East is the most baffling division in football ... an eerily accurate LeBron James impression ... and CM Punk makes his eagerly awaited return to WWE Backstage. It was months in the making and it finally happened this past weekend. The race to win the NFC East and claim the right to host a National Football League postseason game has been narrowed to two teams — the Dallas Cowboys and the Philadelphia Eagles. That’s right: despite the small matter of the New York Giants not having won since Sept. 29 and nursing a nine-game skid, and the Washington Redskins having been one of football’s worst teams this season, the field has only just now been pared. The Eagles’ unconvincing overtime squeeze past the Giants on Monday night did nothing to dispel the notion that this is the division no one seems to want to win, given how each of the four teams have managed to find ways to crumble. Someone is going to ultimately take the title and grab that cherished playoff home game that goes along with it, but it looks like they’ll do so by falling over the line. As of today, the Eagles’ victory was enough to push them level with the Cowboys atop the standings at 6-7, with Monday’s nailbiter arresting a three-game reversal that had their fan base set in various shades of fury. Dallas has lost three straight, too, and seven of their past 10, following a strong start that had many talking Super Bowl potential. Not anymore; now the chatter is all about Jason Garrett’s chances of surviving Jerry Jones’ axe. [STORY IMAGE 1] But here’s the funny thing. For as bad as this division is — and it has been truly awful — there isn’t another in the league that is generating this much discussion. One of the reasons the NFL has captivated and held an audience like no other is by making its fans care just as much about misery as about success. Nothing excites a football fan more than the opportunity to mock the misfortune of others, and that’s exactly what’s been happening of late regarding the NFC East. The Eagles’ win leaves them with +2200 odds to win the NFC ([according to FOX Bet]( and a 49 percent chance to claim the division ([according to]( ), but that didn’t get them off the hook with Nick Wright on First Things First. “Philly should be embarrassed by how they played in the first half of this football game,” [Wright said](. “After being embarrassed by how they played in the second half of last week's football game, against Miami; you got outscored 40-6 over a 60-minute period by the Dolphins and Giants.” While the Buffalo Bills are breathing down the neck of the suddenly vulnerable New England Patriots in the AFC East, the Minnesota Vikings are producing frosty fire in challenging the Green Bay Packers in the NFC North, the Houston Texans and Tennessee Titans are destined to go down to the wire in the AFC South and the NFC West could end up taking three teams into the postseason, the NFC East is the one on the minds and lips of the football community. “The NFC East is embarrassing itself,” roared The Washington Post. “Nobody should win the NFC East this season,” Sports Illustrated’s Kalyn Kahler wrote on Twitter. “It is one thing to accept mediocrity and quite another to reward it,” wrote USA TODAY columnist Nancy Armour, while arguing for a shift in the playoff seeding format. [STORY IMAGE 2] According to information provided to The Washington Post by TruMedia, NFC East teams are 3-20 against opponents with a winning record — all of those wins coming from the Eagles. Against all non-division opponents, the collective record is 10-28. The simplest way of looking at it is that the next-worst divisions in terms of combined wins are the NFC South and AFC West, each with 25. The NFC East has 17. Yet although the NFC East is an easy target for the critics, it does now shape up as one of the more intriguing divisional races and the matchup between the Cowboys and Eagles on Dec. 22 will probably be one of the most important games of the season. If Dallas or Philadelphia does emerge as a division winner with a losing record of 7-9 while, say, the San Francisco 49ers dropped into a Wild Card spot at 13-3, chatter about the playoff structure would undoubtedly increase. However, according to multiple reports there is no momentum for a change within the NFL hierarchy. Unless a scenario in which there are division winners at .500 or worse starts occurring with regularity, things will likely be left as they are. It isn’t a perfect system, but such a thing doesn’t exist in a league that has 32 teams and 16 games. It is what it is, and if the volume of discussion is anything to go by, the NFC East is the division that football cares about right now, despite (or perhaps because of) all of its struggles. It hasn’t always felt like it, but the Cowboys and Eagles are now locked in one heck of a race – albeit one that no one seems to want to win. [STORY IMAGE 3] Here’s what others have said ... Michael David Smith, ProFootballTalk: “The good news for the bad teams in the NFC East is, most of their remaining games are against other bad teams in their own division. On Sunday the Giants play the Dolphins and the Cowboys play the Rams, but other than those two games, every remaining game involving an NFC East team is against another NFC East team — which means someone in the division has to win.” Frank Schwab, Yahoo Sports: “The Eagles aren’t a good football team, but give them credit for resilience. They came back to beat the Giants in overtime, ruining Eli Manning’s first start since Week 2. Nothing about the Eagles looked like a division championship team, aside from perhaps their refusal to lose in the second half and overtime of an ugly game. The Eagles didn’t look good for most of the game, but that sums up their season well. And they’re still alive for a division title, somehow.” Dan Benton, GiantsWire: “The Giants are mired in the worst losing streak in their entire history and are now finding/inventing new ways to lose and crush the soul of their fans. Co-owners John Mara and Steve Tisch are undoubtedly losing their patience and with each passing moment, it seems more and more likely that Pat Shurmur gets a pink slip on Black Monday.” [IN OTHER WORDS] - [Mike Tannenbaum at ESPN]( takes you inside what an NFL coaching hunt looks like from the general manager’s perspective. - Phoenix Suns star Devin Booker is trying to prove he’s one of the best players in the NBA. [Jonathan Abrams at Bleacher Report]( brings us an illuminating profile. - We may have seen a preview of the NFC Championship game. [Robert Mays at]( [The Ringer]( believes Saints-49ers was the game of the season. [THE INTERNET IS UNDEFEATED] [THE INTERNET IS UNDEFEATED]( We’re unable to confirm whether this Twitter account is owned by the actual Bronny James. However! Even if it isn’t the real son of LeBron James, the above video that the account shared is just way, WAY too accurate of an LBJ impression to not share. The staring at the ball, the nonchalance, the strangely bow-legged trot ... we all know very well what LeBron looks like when he’s shooting (and sinking) threes, and this is absolutely spot on. Well done, you wonderful impersonator, you. [VIEWER'S GUIDE] WWE Backstage (FS1, 11 p.m. ET) CM Punk returns to Backstage for his second episode to share his thoughts on the last week (or so) of WWE programming. New York Knicks at Portland Trail Blazers (NBA.tv, 10 p.m. ET) The re-energized Carmelo Anthony faces his old friends from New York while the Knicks are still dealing with the growing pains of a brand-new head coach. Bayern Munich vs. Tottenham Hotspur (B/R Live, Wednesday, 3 p.m. ET) The Champions League will present a massive match between soccer juggernauts in Group B on Wednesday afternoon. Bayern are currently 5-0-0 in the group, while the Spurs are 3-1-1 and in second place. [BET OF THE DAY] [BET OF THE DAY] Odds provided by [FOX Bet]( Miami Heat, Philadelphia 76ers & Portland Trail Blazers all to win: +138 Tuesday night marks a fairly lackluster offering of NBA games, but FOX Bet is providing a helpful way to make three of the four games extremely interesting for you. The Heat are at home against the Hawks, the Sixers are at home against the Nuggets, and the Blazers host the Knicks. The toughest game here figures to be the 17-7 76ers hosting the 14-7 Nuggets, although Denver has just lost two straight. [WHAT THEY SAID] "Success is never final, but failure can be." — Bill Parcells [FOLLOW FOX SPORTS] [Twitter]( [Facebook]( [YouTube]( [Instagram]( Download the FOX Sports app for live scores and streaming [App Store]( [Google Play]( Available on: [tvOS] [Roku] [fireTV] [androidtv] [XBOX] [Google chromecast] [tvOS] [Roku] [fireTV] [androidtv] [XBOX] [Google chromecast] Forwarded this message? [Sign up](. 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