The Eagles look like the heavy favorites to win the NFC East (at this point, the Commanders look like next-best option), but I wouldn’t hesitate to start Kirk Cousins at Philadelphia on Monday night. I think he’s going to have a big game.
Cousins was good last year, with 33 TDs versus only 7 interceptions in 16 games, and he looks like he might even better this season. He and the Vikings came up big in their opener against the Packers.
Philadelphia, meanwhile, has a talent-laden roster but hasn’t been able to pull things together on the defensive side of the ball. They have had no answers when going up against the game’s best quarterbacks.
Seven times last year, the Eagles played against one of the game’s top dozen quarterbacks, and they lost every one of those games, given up at least 27 points in all of them. This includes Dak Prescott playing in Week 18, and I’ll admit I’m fudging some there – the Eagles rested their starters in that meaningless game, while the Cowboys played their guys.
Nonetheless, the Eagles have had no answers for the good quarterbacks. In those seven losses, those quarterbacks have completed 82 percent of their passes, with 21 TDs versus only 3 interceptions.
I’m not promising the Vikings will win. (I still think the Eagles are good, and they’ll move the ball too.) But I think Cousins is in line for top-10 passing numbers.
| EAGLES AGAINST GOOD QUARTERBACKS | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Player | Result | Com | Att | Pct | Yds | TD | Int | Rating |
| Prescott | L 41-21 | 21 | 26 | 81% | 238 | 3 | 0 | 143.3 |
| Mahomes | L 42-30 | 24 | 30 | 80% | 278 | 5 | 1 | 131.0 |
| Brady | L 28-22 | 34 | 42 | 81% | 297 | 2 | 1 | 102.1 |
| Carr | L 33-22 | 31 | 34 | 91% | 323 | 2 | 1 | 113.6 |
| Herbert | L 27-24 | 32 | 38 | 84% | 356 | 2 | 0 | 123.2 |
| Prescott* | L 51-26 | 21 | 27 | 78% | 295 | 5 | 0 | 151.8 |
| Brady | L 31-15 | 29 | 37 | 78% | 271 | 2 | 0 | 115.2 |
| Cousins | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? | ? |
—Ian Allan