Eagles' Playoff Hopes Still Alive, but Philly Proving to Be Super Bowl Pretender

There's still a good chance the Philadelphia Eagles will win the NFC East. All Philadelphia must do now is beat two inferior opponents and hope for the Dallas Cowboys to lose to either the Indianapolis Colts or Washington Redskins.

But even if that happens, Sunday night's embarrassing 38-27 home loss to the rival Cowboys cemented Philly's position as a pretender in the NFC.

This team isn't ready to compete for a Super Bowl. Contenders simply don't lose back-to-back December home games to playoff-caliber opponents. In both cases—last week against the Seattle Seahawks and this week versus Dallas—the Eagles were humiliated in front of their own fans.

The offense, which has been overrated as a result of a plethora of non-offensive touchdowns throughout head coach Chip Kelly's second season, has been exposed by quality opponents of late.

One week after mustering a pathetic 139 yards of total offense against Seattle, the Eagles turned the ball over four times Sunday night. 

They controlled the ball for just 18 minutes and five seconds against Dallas—up one second from 18:04 against Seattle.

Sunday night, interim starting quarterback Mark Sanchez had his fourth multiinterception game in seven weeks while taking four sacks and posting a 60.4 passer rating against a pass defense that entered Week 15 ranked 25th.

In terms of building toward an indictment on this team's status as a contender or pretender, this was merely the final nail in its coffin. The Eagles are now 2-4 against teams that currently hold winning records, with killer losses to the Arizona Cardinals, Seattle and Dallas coming since their Week 7 bye.

The defensive front seven is strong, but pass coverage has become a huge liability.

Starting cornerbacks Cary Williams and Bradley Fletcher aren't remotely reliable, which is extremely problematic when you have to deal with quarterbacks and receivers from contending teams—guys like Tony Romo, Dez Bryant, Matthew Stafford, Calvin Johnson, Aaron Rodgers, Jordy Nelson and Larry Fitzgerald.

On Sunday against Romo, Bryant and company, Williams took three penalties and Fletcher was beaten like a drum.

“I think everyone in every phase didn’t play well enough to win the game," said Kelly after the game, per the Philadelphia Daily News.

And that's been the case far too often this season for me to believe in these Eagles.

The offense has a lot of talent, but it's clear Sanchez isn't a quarterback you can depend on in the playoffs. With regular starter Nick Foles—also a liability regardless—still out indefinitely with a broken clavicle, there's little reason to believe the "O" can make up for their shortcomings on "D."

Take away their touchdowns on defense and special teams, and the Eagles would be averaging just 24.7 points per game, which is 2.5 points above the league median.

This team isn't bad, but it is far from great. Right now, it is doing the opposite of peaking at the right time. Kelly's supposed to be a mastermind, but it's fair to wonder if the league has caught up to him a bit in his sophomore year. His fast-paced attack just isn't doing enough to carry a flawed, vulnerable team.

Now, it's probably too late for the Eagles to redeem themselves as contenders in 2014. They might still wind up hosting a playoff game in three weeks, but that doesn't make them a real threat in the Super Bowl race.

Brad Gagnon has covered the NFC East for Bleacher Report since 2012.

Follow @Brad_Gagnon