2014 Schedule
Posted: April 23rd, 2014 | Author: Tommy Lawlor | Filed under: Philadelphia Eagles | 85 Comments »The schedule is out tonight. Some of you get really fired up for this. I’m a bit more ambivalent, but it is fun to take a look and see who the Eagles play and when they play them.
Here goes…
Here it is, the Philadelphia #Eagles 2014 regular season schedule: http://t.co/MBYiWNa9vl pic.twitter.com/GHH2oBdm1M
— Philadelphia Eagles (@Eagles) April 24, 2014
The game that jumps out…Thanksgiving at Dallas. I don’t know what to make of that game. My family aren’t very big football fans. Normally we eat a lot and goof off. I get them to watch a few minutes of football, but not much. This year is going to be very different. It will be kinda fun to play on Thanksgiving. There is something cool about playing on that day.
There are 4 primetime games:
Week 2 – at IND – MNF
Week 6 – NYG – SNF
Week 10 – CAR – MNF
Week 15 – DAL – SNF
It is interesting that 3 of them are at home. I’m not sure if that is good or bad.
I can’t say opening the season with JAX is compelling, but that should be a favorable matchup for the Eagles.
My biggest complaint is playing Dallas twice in the span of 3 weeks. That’s too good a rivalry to treat it like that.
The Eagles close out the season with 3 straight division games. Based on recent years, that could very well decide the division title. The NFC East race tends to be pretty close.
Do you guys love or hate the schedule?
Any games really grab your attention?
_
Love the Thanksgiving game. I get so tired of being forced to watch Dallas. This year it will be entertaining to carve up that defense of theirs before carving up the turkey. Or some such Thanksgiving-related reference.
Hype of the home game vs. seahawks
Geagle over/under 9.9 wins
We’re gonna stuff those Cowboys.
I am the only Eagles fan in my family. I hate the the game that day. I won’t be able to reach my loser fandom intensity level.
Things will start well for Dallas but by the end – when it’s clear it’s been another disappointment – they’ll be rehashing old arguments awkwardly in front of everyone on the sideline until mom (Jerry Jones) breaks down in tears and storms off.
This will be great because we have a cowboys fan in our family. I almost feel sorry for him!
Just for old time’s sake there needs to be a bounty on Dallas’ kicker for that Thanksgiving game.
Only their punter. Their kicker won’t be doing much.
I have the original tape of the 11 sack performance and our 24-0 beating we put on the Cowboys back in 1989. We may need to put that on at 1pm to “get in the mood” for the 430 kick off!
That might have been the best game Buddy Ryan coached as the Eagles HC. I remember Madden giving the turducken “award” to the entire Eagles D-line. Great game!
I am totally stoked for the Thanksgiving game. The 1989 Bounty Bowl was the last time the Eagles played on Turkey Day in Dallas. Can’t wait!
This game will mark the 25th anniversary of that game notwithstanding the exact date.(11/25/89)
Side effect of the team being popular but there are only 7 1PM games.
I see 7-8 relatively easy wins. The rest could go either way, and the team will have to play well in those if they are to come out with a victory.
Week 16 is listed incorrectly. That is a Saturday 4:30 game.
According to PFT — it’s a flex schedule — time isn’t set yet…
I like football
GO SPORTS!
S-P-O-R-T-S, SPORTS!!!!
Like the schedule overall. 4 division games out of 5 down the stretch may be good or bad. Like having us play on Thanksgiving so I can actually be interested in the game.
I think they try to schedule the last 5 games so that everyone plays division opponents.
The NFL really did a better job of scheduling the THU games as divisional games which makes the viewing more attractive to fans especially the FFL owners.
I actually really like playing Jax first. They’re similar to the Vikings in that it could be an upset if it was later in the season. But it’s the first game so Eagles should be sharp, and defensive minded Gus won’t have any regular season film of the 2014 offense.
kind of raises the stakes, though. Imagine losing that game right out of the gates from what turns out to be a resurgent Jaguars team on their way to a solid bounce back year….at the time though, it would be doomsday ’round these parts….
On the flip side, winning will be shrugged off. Like winning an extra preseason game or something.
I definitely understand the fear of Jax going all Seahawks South on the Eagles, but man, I’d rather take that advantage against a team that can keep up on offense. It’s either a rookie’s first start or it’s Chad Henne, right?
I am in a winners/losers football pool and over the years, by far, week one is the hardest to prognosticate. Too many unknown variables at the start. It’s easy to chalk this up as a win, but…upsets abound.
In other words, we might not get what we expect. As the philosopher says, that’s why they play the game.
Like you, I don’t get too excited about the schedule. Every season in the NFL takes on a life of its own, so it’s tough to say how easy/difficult it is. With that said, a couple of things/games stand out to me:
* The home stretch of 3 NFC East games. Love the fact that we end the season with 3 straight division games. It should make for some exciting football with a lot of suspense.
*Thanksgiving Game – Family obligations have me eating 3 separate times of the day. Thankfully, my last meal is at my parents house who always have a game on during the football season. Hopefully, I will be able to watch most of the game – probably won’t be able to see it in it’s entirety though 🙁
*Playing Seattle at HOME with a few extra days rest is a nice luxury
*Playing both San Fran and Seattle should give us a good idea of where this team stands. I think both Seattle and San Fran are set up to be solid teams for awhile. I don’t think we’re on their level yet, but it would be nice to see us make some gains on them. Personally, I think this team is in that 2nd tier of NFC teams with Green Bay, New Orleans, & Carolina.
*The Arizona game should be feisty.
*I’m glad our first game against D.C. is a day game. Much rather prefer that to an overblown/hyped up night game where the Desean revenge factor takes precedent over the game.
Man, sending us back to Lambeau? Oh well, better than going to that cursed Soldier field.
We already knew the home and away games.
I didn’t, so I’m commenting now, problem?
Just saying it wasnt revealed now.
No need to go all mr tough guy in the internet
thanks for the input lol
True
But now we know it’s not in December!
16-0.
last couple of years, jacksonville has tended to play pretty hard on their first game before wilting.
Nominally, that looks like a very hard schedule, but we’ll see after injuries, flukes, struggles, etc.
The good news is at least the whole division has to play the nfc west….The NFC east could be won by a pretty sad record, unless one sweeps the rest of the division (please be us!).
But yeah who knows what the difficulty of this schedule will look like in hind-sight. Teams change so much every year…and during the year too.
Not 100% sure that San Fran will be quite as tough this year.
there are a few teams that shouldn’t be as good as they were last year. I don’t think the Panthers were quite as good as their record said they were. I think the Cowboys got the worse end of the NFC south deal having to play the Saints.
UM they scored a total of 2 points last year in their opener – WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT – Jags don’t know what playing pretty hard is
Glad to have SF away and SEA at home rather than the other way around. I don’t think it would be surprising to have SF fall off a bit this year.
I should have read a little further. You said it first.
This schedule looks pretty brutal NGL. A step back wouldn’t be a huge surprise…as I sit here on April 23.
For me, the value of seeing the schedule is determining scheduling advantages and disadvantages. We already knew the matchups, we already knew the locations, the thing the schedule provides is if and when our bye week comes, when our opponents bye weeks come and when we have difficult back to back travel situations. After a quick look through the schedule, here are some of my observations:
Week 1. Personally, I like the week 1 game against Jax at home. We should be favored, we also are at home so hopefully that means we start the season off well.
Week 2. Week 2 we have a Monday night game. Neither team has a major scheduling advantage.
Week 3. We come off a short week to play DJax and Washington. Being at home helps, but the short week gives Washington a slight scheduling advantage.
Week 4. Week 4 is a tough game, plus we travel all the way to SF, but scheduling-wise, nothing really note-worthy about this game.
Week 5. We play the Rams after they come off their bye week, so scheduling advantage for the Rams.
Week 6. Playing the Giants for our second division game of the season. First of two 2-game homestands of the season for us.
Week 7. Bye week. Personally, I prefer having a bye week later in the season in preparation for the playoffs, but it isn’t so early that it becomes a disadvantage in my opinion.
Week 8. Playing Arizona off our bye week. Nice advantage for us.
Week 9. No major scheduling issue in the Week 9 game beyond being part of a 2-game road trip
Week 10. Carolina is coming off a Thursday night game, so they have several extra days of rest. This is a Monday night game though, so that advantage is at least slightly reduced.
Week 11. We are coming off a short week after playing Monday night. The fact that it is an away game against the Packers will make this a tough week scheduling-wise.
Week 12. The Titans are coming off a Monday night game, and traveling to us, so we gain the slight advantage.
Week 13. Thursday night game at Dallas. Since we are away, Dallas has a slight advantage on such a short week.
Week 14. Playing SEA, you would have wanted any advantage you could get from the schedule, so at first glance, it is exciting that we have a long week with the Thursday night game the week before… but they have a Thursday night game as well…. so no advantage there. They do have to travel cross country at least.
Week 15. DAL is coming off two consecutive Thursday night games, so against us, they have 3 extra days of preparation. Will be part of a two game home stand for us.
Week 16. Saturday game against Washington. No significant advantage either way, especially with Washington not exactly a far away game.
Week 17. Going into our last game against a division rival, we have an extra day of rest. Part of a two game road trip for us.
The one thing that does stand out is that outside of SEA, from Week 13 on, we are not facing what is perceived to be a bunch of elite teams. Furthermore, unless we have a disastrous beginning to the season, since we are playing division rivals throughout December, we should likely have significant control on our own destiny late into the season.
I think the schedule looks pretty balanced (a trend of home then away games), love the Thanksgiving game and I like the trend to push a run of division games at the end of year. Don’t love the early-ish buy, but it is what it is.
I think what’s fun is to speculate who’s going to be the surprise good or bad teams this year. Looking at SF’s schedule last year, before the season, you would have said it was brutal… but teams like Houston, Atlanta, Washington, all ended up terrible last year, a tailwind for them.
Looking at the schedule it’s hard to think that any of the expected good teams are going to be any worse than last year (Colts? SF? Seattle? Arizona?), and there are teams on the schedule that look like they’re going to be better and dangerous (Rams, Houston maybe?). Who might be the surprise teams on the Eagles’ schedule, either good or bad?
Looking at the schedule I am trying to go to 5 home games and 1 away game (week 17 @ Giants).
I really like the MNG against the Panthers as the next day is a bank holiday. So I am thinking of taking the family to Philly for a long weekend.
Actually.. I might treat myself with a nice little road trip to Washington for the Saturday game in December as well…!
NFL Network is teasing that they’re going to talk about the Eagles’ schedule next up.
Put your money on the Jaguars winning the Super Bowl as the Eagles face them in their home opener this year.
wasn’t that trend broken last season?
Yeah, when San Diego went down. It was close though they almost came back against the Broncos.
Still an awesomly good record over the last 5 years. 😉
surprised that first skins game isn’t a primetimer. would’ve thought the big networks would want to pump up the whole desean v. eagles storyline.
Maybe the league office is as sick of the whole thing as we are.
Nobody around the country cares about that
Dammit…I won’t be able to watch the opener at home. For some stupid reason, the CBS networks in my area give preference to the Ravens, who are also playing at 1PM.
Also, ew to ending the season with two consecutive road games.
I always have this problem. I live in central jersey and even though Philadelphia is geographically closer than NYC I’m still considered a NY local area, so getting the game at home is almost always a no go.
Get Direct TV NFL Network
Last two games on the road really sucks. The rest advantage is slightly tipped against the Eagles. Only one team off of a bye. Having division as last 3 is awesome, no more Vikings trap.
The SEA game is when teams are in the prime of their season or have the dogs called off. That could earn the game of the year votes.
You think we’re even on the same level? NOLA beat us straight up — SEA crushed NOLA twice last year — ugly losses. Transitive property of football says Broncos game all over.
Transitive property doesn’t work in the NFL. We beat the Cards last year, they beat SEA, at SEA. We beat the Cards. This isn’t like college; you can’t make those same associations.
I believe things will be better on defense compared to last year and SEA isn’t the same team on the road as opposed to being at home.
The way the schedule’s laid out for both teams: PHI & SEA get Turkey Day games and a longer week, but SEA has AZ Wk 13, and SF in Wk14 and Wk16 as we play them in Wk 15.
SEA’s final 6 weeks during our game is much harder than ours. Our last 3 are divisional games and may be easier than the murderer’s row SEA has to play.
I never put too much weight into the schedule when it first comes out. But what I do look for are how far apart the divisional splits are. I too don’t like playing the Cowboys twice in 3 weeks. Swap the 1st meeting with them with the Cards game and it makes more sense.
Also not sure I like the back to back away games after the bye with the Cards & then the Texans. That’s a lot of travel for east coast team to make, unless they stay out west moving from Cards game right onto Houston before then heading home to face Carolina.
Couple of days ago I saw a commentator, who was evaluating Seattle, suggest that the Eagles might be a team that Seattle should possibly fear! Also, west coast fans like myself enjoy the late start games. We see more of them.
Why? Are you still sleeping when the Eagles kickoff at 10am?
I like the general level of respect from the schedule makers. 5 stand-alone / prime time games, only playing one team coming off of their bye, and nothing really horrible in terms of too many games in too few days.
My only major complaint with the NFL is that the %(&$#&$ nobody Giants were given too many prime time games. I would prefer they put that team and fan base in their place with the diminished level of national exposure they deserve. Their only two prime time games should have been the Sunday night game here (where we will destroy them!) and the Thursday night opener in Seattle where Eli would have been appropriately embarrassed and exposed as the fraud interception factory he truly is.
I’ll have to settle for Suh body slamming that loser Eli into a busted head / shoulder in the Monday night opener in Detroit.
GO LIONS!
345 Park Avenue, my friend…
I hate them the most — but winning 2 SB’s in recent history — you tend to get prime time games…
The whole home vs away is overrated. Teams either play well or not and sometimes being away helps a struggling team. Look at the Eagles last year. Dominant on the road and terrible at home until December. Won first home game the week before Thanksgiving. season ticket holders were not happy.
No it’s not. Teams play better at home and the home/road splits indicate that. Eagles are a clear outlier the last 10 years since the Linc opened.
so the Linc is a jinx?
There is a reason why the home team always get an extra +3 in betting odds.
i am saying its not an automatic advantage to be at home. The bookies are simply following bettors perception that home field is worth 3 points or what ever they may add. As I am sure you know, bookmakers don’t make odds on actual matchup rationale, but on where they think public will bet 50/50 on each side of the line. Factors such as weather, turf, coming off a loss, a bye, whatever, they don’t know what will happen but they are experts at what bettors will think – in this case bettors always assume being home is an edge, which is not always true.
the average home win% is around 57.24% since 1990 while the average win% is 50% (due), so yes home field is an actually advantage and not just made up.
http://www.sportingcharts.com/articles/nfl/home-field-advantage-broken-down-by-nfl-team.aspx
also some teams have higher than +3 and other lower. The Seahawks get a +4.5.
I like it – love the Thanksgiving game – love ending with 3 straight against the division, we will be in the best shape and we will pull out ahead in that run – opening against the Jags will be a nice warm up for the colts.
I hear you on the dallas games but to be honest I think they are not going to be competitive this year…so taking 2 free wins in 3 weeks is nice – especially with Seattle in the middle…and coming off of Thanksgiving with 10 days to prep for the Seahawks who will be traveling across the country, GREAT!
I keep hearing people say we will have it a lot harder this year…#1 schedule blah blah blah – that is VERY overrated…we have to play 2 additional top teams, that is it – just 2…Panthers and Packers…even if we lose those 2 we can still easily go 10-6 again. My prediction, 11-5…Chip keeps us moving in the good direction this year…if we win all the games we should we could even go 12-4…but I will leave that as just a bonus…
Seahawks game is in a good spot for the Eagles. NFL is paying us back for that 2011 game where the Birds had to fly to the West Coast for a Thursday night game against Seattle. I had that game pegged as a loss the day the schedule was announced.
The NFL changed their flexing schedule to week 5. I can’t imagine too many games would change that early in the season.
I don’t know why but I like that Carolina game on Monday night. At this point, the last 4 games are brutal. I doubt that Giants game is meaningful for them though.
I love when the Eagles play Dallas on a holiday. We seem to have their number in these games. I’d like to share my favorite moment for everyone:
It was December 23rd, 1990. I remember we had Christmas dinner at my Grandmother’s house. I was 13 years old and pretty pissed that we had to go away when the Eagles were playing the Cowboys. I’ll never forget my dad and I being glued to the television and not sitting down to dinner with the rest of the family. The rest of the family was smart enough not to get in our way. By the end of the 3rd quarter some of my uncles started filtering into the room, along with some of my young (under 10) cousins. The best moment came in the 4th quarter, and I remember it like it was yesterday. Eric Allen intercepted Babe Laufenberg and my dad leaped from his chair, yelling “Run you son of a bitch, run!!”. The entire room got quiet, the kids were ushered out of the room, Eric Allen scored, and dad and I were high fiving.
“Any games really grab your attention?” – Yes
This Year will Be tough
At Best My instant expectation is 11-5. But thats hopeful.
Of course I want to see us win every game.
But That means this year will be fun, because I will be on the edge of my seat. Hoping we upset my own expectations.
The five that worry me the most:
1. Sea (Great defense)
2. SF (great Defense)
3. IND (Offense is explosive)
4. GB (Arron Rodgers )
5. Car (Tough team)
Others I will be watching with the most suspense:
1. WSH (Mystery if the redskins can put it all together. People underestimate chemistry as a factor, weve all seen what should be dream team scenarios end up having the opposite effect)
2. HOU (Pass rush will give us memories of the cheifs last year pending draft it could be scary) (Comeon Evan!)
3. STL (I think this team is underrated)
4. COWS (They have a good offense, always give us trouble)
Games I expect us to excel:
1. Jacksonville (Not to be taken lightly)
2. Tennessee (I believe in Jake Locker, but letting A. Verner go..seems like a mistake to me)
3. Arizona (Carson is done in my book, he will have some good games, but I think this year he shows his regression) (That defense though, is tough, I remember the T. Math hit.)
4. NY (They will bounce back, but i expect little in upside and it will be not enough to give us to much of a headache)
I’m surprised that we aren’t scheduled to play the Redskins back-to-back the first two weeks, given all the controversy that will spawn over-the-top hype for those two games.
If that was the schedule, then at least we could then get over all the ALL CAPS COMMENTS BACK AND FORTH ABOUT DJACC and get back to the business of football starting in week 3.
I love that foles get to show the world that he is a better quarterback than Andrew luck in primetime AND I love playing on turkey day I will be glue to the t.v
Hey all, I hope someone’s still reading this post, didn’t want to hijack a draft discussion! After some advice – I’m an Aussie who’ll be in philly for the home game versus Wash. It’ll be my first live football game! Stoked! So – pathetic newbie questions…
1. Where’s the best seats in the stadium to watch the game? Sideline/endzone? Up in the stands or down towards the ground?
2. What’s (very roughly) reasonable to pay for a ticket?
3. Is that NFL ticket exchange website the best way to secure some tickets?
4. How would I go about joining in the tailgating experience? We don’t have that here for our football! Do you need an invite from someone or do you just rock up and enjoy the atmosphere?
Sorry for NFI questions, I come to Tommy’s website for all my other Eagles info, thought you may be able to help with this too! Ridiculously excited that I’ll get to see them play live!
Cheers,
Daz