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THIRTEEN AND THREE.

Since you asked, no, I’m not joking and no, I’m not drunk. This season the Philadelphia Eagles will finish the year with a 13-3 record and have home field advantage throughout the playoffs. Everywhere you turn across Eagles country you hear a lot of hesitation and skepticism, nobody thinks they’re a bad team, but nobody wants to be the one trumpeting them as true contenders. I will be that man. I will drive the bandwagon, and I will bring all of you doubters, skeptics and downright haters with me.

Why 13-3, why not a more conservative 10-6 or 11-5? Here are my main reasons:

1. This is the best offense in the NFC. I am super-stoked to watch this team run up the scoreboards, B-West and D-Jax are playmakers of the highest level, and will score in bunches. Brent Celek showed me that he has what it takes to be among the NFL leaders in TD’s from the TE position. Celek had 4 in the season’s final four games, and all of those were against teams with winning records. League wide in 2008 only 9 TE scored more than 4 times, give him a season and Celek will shine.

2. Although the defense took some unfortunate losses, the flaws of this team will be shielded from exposure due to the team always playing from ahead. Gaither playing MLB hurts more if you have to play smash-mouth football, but with the offense scoring like it will teams will be forced to throw much more than they intend when they gameplan, and Gaither actually ends up being a better fit than Bradley. Our 185 pound, rookie CB turned safety Macho Harris will be much more effective in coverage than in run support, again with big Eagles leads his support won’t be oft-required in the run game.

3. Expectations are low around the city, with the Phillies dominating the headlines, and a fan base that expects between 8 and 10 wins this year, the Eagles can hopefully avoid distractions, until Vick is back anyway.

4. McNabb is the best QB in the NFC. Well, number two behind Warner. Either way, Donovan wins football games, both in the regular season and the post-season. He is starting to get older and this may be the year where he peaks, that 2-4 year run where a QB’s experience catches up to his physical skills, but before those skills really start to erode.

5. Nobody else is a true contender for the NFC crown. The Giants have no receivers (btw, please stop people from talking up Kevin Boss as if he’s a somebody, he is not I assure you. He had 33 catches in 2008, he stinks), Carolina has a joke of a QB and a shoddy defense, Arizona has a brittle QB and a shoddy defense, Green Bay is scary but Rodgers has no playoff experience and they may need time to adjust to the 3-4, Chicago has a loser at QB (17-20 career record for Cutler) and no WR’s, Dallas has no WR’s and a choke artist at QB, Washington will be good but lacks the offensive playmakers to win in the playoffs (by then Portis will be banged up as is the case every December), Minnesota has the NFL’s interception king at QB and fumble leader at RB and Childress on the sidelines, Saints have no D, Atlanta has no D and Ryan will have to win games this year instead of just not losing them, and Seattle should win the West, but Hasselbeck ain’t a playoff QB.

I refuse to join the hand-wringers out there. I will not hem, nor will I haw, the Eagles are going back to the Super Bowl, and they will finish the 2009 season with a record of 13-3. The line to jump on the bandwagon starts here. I leave you with their schedule and projected results, I plan on writing an in-depth piece on every game as they come along.

Week 1: @ Carolina. WIN
Week 2: New Orleans WIN
Week 3: Kansas City WIN
Week 4: BYE
Week 5: Tampa Bay WIN
Week 6: @ Oakland WIN (5-0 and no one will notice as the Phillies will be in the NLCS)
Week 7: @ Washington LOSS
Week 8: New York Giants WIN
Week 9: Dallas WIN
Week 10: @ San Diego WIN
Week 11: @ Chicago WIN (9-1, Back to back road wins after the World Series ends will start a short lived groundswell of support.)
Week 12: Washington LOSS (LETDOWN CITY!! After this home loss, people will have their excitement tempered)
Week 13: @ Atlanta LOSS (9-3, Now people will start to let their Eagles hate fly, this will also be the only week where Vick as QB talk will get any traction.)
Week 14: @ New York Giants WIN (Getting the angry fans to settle)
Week 15: San Francisco WIN
Week 16: Denver WIN
Week 17: @ Dallas WIN (Mike Vick plays most of this one, keeping McNabb out of harm’s way)