My Eagles Prediction

My projection:

I have them at 9-7 which surprised me that it was so many wins. 

I have them beating the Lions, Jags, 9ers, Bears, Texans, Vikings and all division teams at home. 

I have them losing to Packers, Falcons, Titans, Colts, all division teams on the road.

Of course, i could easily see the Cowboys also beating us at home which brings it down to 8-8.

The entire key to the season will be the Falcons, Titans, 49ers, Bears games. Those are all teams that in theory should be better than last year, some of which we barely beat last time.

A couple other thoughts. 1) the eagles really have benefitted from the skins sucking so bad the past couple years. that is an extra in-division win. before that it was the dave campo/chan gailey cowboys AND the spurrier skins that allowed the eagles to have their way in the division, which then becomes a huge competitive advantage. don't get me wrong, the eagles were good during that run, but their competition in the East was lousy.
i'm also reminded of something jeff pointed out a couple of years ago. You want your hard games to be on the road where you're more likely to lose anyway. Go 6-2 at home and .500 on the road and hello 10-6 and the playoffs (well, unless your the Patriots).

Anyway, it sucks that the Packers and Colts are home games though maybe that is tempered by getting Detroit on the road.
the other wildcard is have no sense of how good either the Giants or Skins will be this year. the skins will likely be improved but by how much. And i have no idea what the Giants are capable or not capable of this year. The Cowboys should win the division with all the uncertainty among their rivals.

Of course, as we all well know, the nfl season is an incredibly long slog and teams that appear down and out even late in the season - like the Eagles did after they benched McNabb and tied the Bungles - can still marshal a push and make the playoffs - where now anything has become possible. You literally just have to be in it to win it.

Still, the Eagles margin for error isn't like in years past when we debated the prospects of 13-3, 13-4 or 11-5.

A 9-7 projection can quickly become 7-9... or worse.