Eagles

I realize that I'm going to get laughed out of the building for this, but the Eagles have a legitimate shot in the NFC this year. I know they're 2-3, but they haven't played their best football yet:
-McNabb is coming off of a mega-injury, again, and hasn't quite shaken the rust off or adjusted to his new lack of mobility. He's got to learn to be shifty in the pocket, more like a Brady, instead of trying to run around outside of the pocket to make plays.
-The defense has played well, way better then folks around the league have realized. The most points that they've surrendered were the 21 against the Lions, and those were meaningless blowout points. They're in the top ten in every major defensive catagory, including fifth in total yards surrendered and fifth in points against, and that's with being on the field too much (that'll come up again in my next point). This is all with half of their starting secondary, as they're missing arguably their best defensive player (Brian Dawkins) and their best CB (Lito Sheppard). Once those guys come back, look out.
-The offense has sputtered, but that can at least partially be attributed to poor coaching. If this team were coached by Bill Cowher (Note to the Eagles front office: fire Andy Reid and hire Bill Cowher) then they'd be way better. The Eagles have a great tandem of backs in Westbrook and Buckhalter and a great defense. Why they don't run a ton and grind teams down is totally beyond me. Their play action is already outstanding, they already run a ton of screens, and running more would make both of those things more effective. This would make their red zone offense better too, because Lord knows right now it stinks. The coaching deserves it's own paragraph though.
-I'm done with Andy Reid. There, I said it. The man has his strengths, there's no doubt about it. He's got the gift for brainwashing teams into running with his program, hanging together and all toeing the party line. In that way he's on par with Belichick and it's a good thing. Bringing a ton of ego-maniacal professional athletes together and making them into a real, cohesive unit is a skill and a gift and Andy's great at it. He's also (with a few exceptions) a very good draft guy and a great developer of young talent. The Eagles are loaded with home-grown talent, and considering they've been drafting towards the back end of every first round for a while that's saying something. So yes, Andy Reid has good points. But he's grown increasingly shaky during the game, and that's a problem.
The guy's totally committed to running his style of offense, and I (and every other Philly fan) am tired of it. It's terrible on third down, due to A. throwing on third and short instead of just running and B. on third and long always running a pass pattern that involves running up and in towards the middle of the field three yards short of the marker, catching the ball and getting immediately tackled a two yards short. This has happened what feels like 20 times every game this season; third and long, quick in by Curtis/any TE/Westbrook, tackled just short of the first down. Shoot me. Andy's offense is also insane in the red zone. They'll march down the field, get to the 30 yard line, and then run lame pass plays until they go 3 and out to make it a long field goal. Honestly, just run the damn ball. We're begging you. Finally, Andy's track record shows that the bigger the game, the worse he coaches. I don't know what it is, but his playoff coaching over the years has been really shoddy. The Eagles under Reid will roll through the regular season, roll through the playoffs, and then crap out in the big game. For a while they would crap out in the NFC title game, but I think Andy sensed that if he kept doing that he was going to get murdered, so we got to a Superbowl. Then, right on cue, the Eagles crapped the bed. And I'm not taking anything away from the Pats, they outplayed the Eagles and won fair and square. But I watched the team for that whole season and they just didn't bring the A game, like they never do when it counts. In my eyes, that's the coach's fault.
I think eventually every fan base (that's not in Pittsburgh) just runs out of patience with any given head coach. Philly is there now, and it's not pretty.

Getting back to my point, the Eagles can make waves if they perk up. I mean look at the NFC: Green Bay is playing way over their heads and at some point the lack of a solid running game is going to hurt them. Dallas is pretty good, I hate them and they suck but they're pretty good. After that there's Tampa Bay with their aging quarterback and defense and broken RBs, Carolina with no quarterback at all, and the Giants who specialize at coming out hot and fading in the second half of the season. If the Eagles get it together, they're right back in it. So Chicago fans had better brace themselves because unless Devin Hester can play every position simultaneously (and he's almost that fast) the Bears are going to get a beating Sunday.