Eli and the Giants currently sit atop the NFC East.
The Eagles didn't have the pleasure of playing this Sunday, but they did get some valuable time to heal and study up on their division foes as the other three NFC East teams did play Sunday.
They had to be fairly happy with what they saw, as none of the three teams played well. The Redskins stole one from Tampa Bay, the Giants played just well enough to get by the Chiefs, and Dallas fell to the surprising 3-0, now 4-0, Denver Broncos.
On top of all that, Eli Manning, Marion Barber, and Roy Williams are all nicked up coming out of their Week Four games.
The NFC East is still one of the most competitive divisions in football, and none of these games will be a cakewalk for the Eagles this season, so a quarter of the way into the season let's take a look at how the division is shaping up.
1. New York Giants (4-0)
The Giants are now 4-0 and even though they're not playing their best football at the moment, they are undefeated, which is more important than anything else. They are relying on their passing game a whole lot more than they have in the past as Brandon Jacobs has been largely ineffective in the first quarter of the season.
Ahmad Bradshaw has been effective, but has been underutilized and, for the most part, is nothing more than a change-of-pace back for Jacobs.
Of course the big question heading into the season was how the offense would respond to losing Plaxico Burress as he's currently serving a two-year prison sentence because of his heavily publicized nightclub incident. Mario Manningham and Steve Smith have stepped into the role of Manning's favorite targets and are really coming into their own in his absence from the team.
Eli Manning is looking sharp as he's distributing the ball well and is now really starting to not only trust his wide receivers, but trust himself as he's taking more chances and being rewarded for it. The Eagles secondary has always found success of Eli, but at the rate he's going they may not be able to victimize him the way they did last season.
2. Philadelphia Eagles (2-1)
We'll talk plenty about the Eagles this season, let's move on.
3. Dallas Cowboys (2-2)
Let's all just face this right now, and this is not speaking out of bias or anything else but, Tony Romo is just not as good as everyone thought he could be. He started the year off well, but that was against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. There's not much argument that they're not exactly a Super Bowl contender.
That's not to say that Romo is a bad quarterback by any means, but he's just an average, sometimes above-average, quarterback and probably will not be anything more than that. He just has not progressed the way that a quarterback should, and really put that on display this week.
He was missing his receivers in every which way. He'd miss them high, he'd skip the ball, he'd miss left and right, and just overall was way off point and off target in a game that the Cowboys could have very easily won were it not for his continuous errors.
In the Cowboys' defense, I think it is now safe to say that the Broncos are for real.
Or, you know, maybe not.
4. Washington Redskins (2-2)
Yes, they pulled it out against the Bucs. Yes, they're a .500 team right now, and yes, they may just be one of the worst teams in the league right now.
So how can a .500 team be one of the worst when there are several winless teams still floating around the league? Well you earn that dubious distinction by beating the Rams and Buccaneers by a combined five points. That's right, five points.
There may be a debate as to if the Redskins really are one of the worst teams in the league, but there's no debate that the Rams and Bucs certainly belong in the bottom of the barell.
The Redskins can't pass, they can't catch, they can't run, they can't block, they can't tackle, they can't cover, and they just can't play together. Add all of those things up, then pile the talk that Jim Zorn's job is on the line and you have the makings of a team that wouldn't surprise anyone if they went 4-12 or 5-11 to finish this season.
