With one last second field goal, John Carney single-handedly leveled the playing field in the NFC East, not to mention solidifying New Orleans as the NFC South leader by a game over Carolina.
As it stands now, the Eagles are 4-2, the Cowboys and Giants are tied at 3-2, and the Redskins are in big trouble at 2-4, having just lost to Tennessee! Despite being in the lead, the Eagles are in no way the frontrunner for the division. That honor goes to the Giants, who everyone dismissed after a 1-2 start(a narrow loss to Indianapolis, an amazing comeback win against Philly, and a horrible blowout to Seattle). The Giants are the winners of two straight(dominating performances against Washington and on the road against Atlanta). The Giants have played a much tougher schedule than the Eagles and are only a half-game back, and have already beaten Philly in Philadelphia!
If the Giants can steal a road win at Dallas on Monday night, their stock to win the division will skyrocket, regardless of if the Eagles stay ahead by a half-game with a win in Tampa. They will have made it through the most difficult part of their schedule with a 4-2 record, and will be in control of the division having beaten all three teams, two on the road.
The Cowboys have other plans, and after a sluggish start in Dallas before eventually throttling the Texans, Dallas is looking strong on both sides of the ball. With Bledsoe connecting with TO and Terry Glenn on a regular basis, and Julius Jones and Marion Barber taking advantage of the extra safety help (tied up doubling the receivers), the Cowboys offense looks unstoppable at times. It's important to note that the Cowboys' offense has not put up a dominating performance for an entire game though, which could be their eventual downfall against New York.
New York already showed that it is a difficult team to put away, and if the Cowboys let up on either side of the ball, the Giants will be able to take them out. Tiki Barber is a man on a mission in his last season, leading the league with 533 yards rushing on 102 carries. And when Barber is finding room to run, Eli Manning can open it up with play-action and deep balls to Amani Toomer and Plaxico Burress. When the run game isn't working, the Giants have struggled this year, so if Dallas is able to stop the run throughout the contest, they will likely be able to hold on a for the win.
My prediction is Dallas will jump out early on New York, and then play it safe, and try to run out the clock. Giants' coach Tom Coughlin will be conservative in the early-going, choosing to run often, and not succeeding against a strong Dallas defensive front. As the game wears on, Coughlin will open things up in the passing game, and it should be just enough to give the Giants the W, and put them well on their way to winning the NFC East.
As for the Eagles in Tampa Bay, they better show up for both halves this week. With the defense taking a step back against New Orleans (no sacks, and barely any pressure on the QB), the offense needs to step up and put points up on the board throughout the game, not just in bunches. The Saints used a lot of quick 3-step drops to elude the pressure, and I'm sure every team in the league will watch the tape to see how the Saints beat the pressure. The question now is whether or not the Eagles can find an answer for the new approach their opponents will be using. We shall see in the coming weeks...
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