NFL Week 11 Picks: Scrambled NFC East Will Come into Sharper Focus

Remember when the NFC East was supposed to be one of the best divisions in the NFL in 2011?

Yeah, me neither, or at least not after watching the Philadelphia Eagles "LeBron James" their fourth quarters, the Washington Redskins go limp after losing Tim Hightower and swapping in John Beck for Rex Grossman and the Dallas Cowboys stumbling through the first half of the season.

At least the New York Giants are an elite team, right?

Right?

The division will spend Sunday of Week 11 beating up on itself, which should help to clear things up just a smidgen—or not.

Philadelphia Eagles at New York Giants

Everyone and their mother will have their eyes affixed to the tube on Sunday night when the Giants begrudgingly let the Eagles into MetLife Stadium.

It's a good thing the team finally sold the naming rights to the place. Otherwise, Philly could be coming in looking to pull off another "Miracle at the New Meadowlands" like they did last December.

Because, frankly, the "Dream Team" is going to need a miracle to win this time around. At 3-6 and fresh off an embarrassing 21-17 loss to John Skelton and the Arizona Cardinals, the Eagles are nothing short of an absolute mess, a collection of talented free agents assembled into an ineffective hodgepodge of a football team.

Between Michael Vick's two broken ribs and DeSean Jackson's half-assed, too-little-too-late holdout, the Eagles more closely resemble a dysfunctional family than they do a football team capable of winning its last seven games, as Vick would suggest.

As such, neither star is a lock to play on Sunday night, which is certainly welcome news for Big Blue following a disappointing 27-20 loss to the 49ers in San Francisco. The Giants were victimized in that game by the uneven play of Eli Manning, who threw two costly interceptions, and an ineffective running game that managed 93 yards on 29 combined carries.

To be fair, no team has yet had an easy time of things against the Niners, so it'd certainly be a bit irresponsible to write off the Giants just yet. They still own a one-game cushion atop the NFC East and should up their record to 7-3 against an Eagles team that may well have Mike Kafka under center.

Then again, let's not get ahead of ourselfs. After all, these are Tom Coughlin's Giants we're talking about here.

But seriously, the Giants should take this one rather handily to finally put the Eagles out of their misery, once and for all (in 2011).

Dallas Cowboys at Washington Redskins

The Cowboys have emerged as the Giants' chief competition in the division by virtue of the fact that they own a winning record and have stunk slightly less than they haven't.

OK, so maybe Dallas deserves more credit for hanging around, but realistically, the team hasn't done all that much to earn it. The Cowboys have notched one "quality" win all season—a 27-24 overtime win against the Niners that would not have been had the team's training staff not shot up Tony Romo with every painkiller they had on hand.

Listen, the guy's one tough cookie, but do you really think it was just grit and determination that allowed him to play with fractured ribs and a punctured lung?

Whatever the case may be, the Cowboys seem to have gotten their act together since suffering an embarrassing 34-7 loss to the aforementioned Eagles by ripping off home wins against the Seahawks and the Bills.

As for the Redskins, well, their 3-1 start is now little more than a distant memory, a grand illusion that might as well have never happened. A season-ending injury to Tim Hightower here, a flip-flop between Rex Grossman and John Beck there, and BAM!—Mike Shanahan has the first five-game losing streak of his NFL coaching career.

Hence, Washington is already well on its way to picking up a shiny, new franchise quarterback in the 2012 NFL Draft, even if his name isn't Andrew Luck.

These two teams will meet on Sunday at FedEx Field under vastly different circumstances than those that surrounded their tilt in Week 3 when the Cowboys edged the Redskins with six field goals in one of the most boring Monday night games in recent memory.

Washington's defense is still pretty good, but not likely good enough to stop a Cowboys offense that (dare I say it?) has improved with DeMarco Murray and Laurent Robinson taking over for the injured Felix Jones and Miles Austin, respectively.

Or at least not good enough to make up for its own team's horrendous offense and prevent a sixth straight defeat.