"Very steep," L.J. Smith said of the mountain the Birds must climb to sneak into the NFC playoffs. "This really puts us in a bad position right now."
It's Mt. Everest steep, and this team has shown nothing that would make you believe it's up to the challenge.
Even with mediocrity reigning supreme in the NFC outside of Dallas and Green Bay, it is virtually impossible to imagine the Eagles finding a back door to sneak into the playoffs.
If conventional wisdom is that 9-7 will be good enough for the postseason, the Eagles would have to win their final four games.
Not only has this team only once won consecutive games, their final four are against the Giants, at the one-loss Cowboys, at New Orleans and at home against Buffalo.
The Eagles might not win any more games, much less all four.
"We still have an opportunity," said Brian Westbrook, painting the best picture he can on a bad situation. "Even playing and losing the games we lost, we still have the opportunity.
"I believe we are one game out of the wild card picture, and we still have an opportunity. We have to go out there and fight for these last four games and try to get in a situation so we can make the playoffs."
That's the math talking.
Two weeks ago, the Eagles were talking about having six games left to get things done; last week it was five, now it's four.
Considering how average the playing field is, an 8-8 team might make the NFC playoffs. The likelihood that team could be the Eagles, however, is remote.
The Birds' tiebreak situation is so bad that they would lose virtually every scenario.
"We need a lot of help," Darren Howard said. "First of all, we have to help ourselves. We just have to play good football."
The Eagles have rarely done that, which best explains why their record is what it is after 12 games.
