The NFC East is about to make history, and not the kind Philadelphia Eagles fans want to brag about. If the Washington Commanders lose to the San Francisco 49ers on Monday night, the NFC East would become the first division in NFL history to go winless in consecutive weeks in which all four teams played a game.

That is almost impossible to pull off. Last week, two of the division’s teams played each other, and the game ended in a tie. Nobody won. Now, after another brutal Sunday for the Eagles, the New York Giants, and the Dallas Cowboys, everything rides on Washington to keep the division from the record books.

So the outlook for the next several weeks has changed. The plan was to see how the division games shake out before drawing any big conclusions. After what we saw Sunday, the question is unavoidable: do the Eagles even still try at all this season?

To me, the answer is no.

Every NFC East team has an excuse except one

Here’s the thing. This division has been hammered, and some of the struggles make sense.

The Giants lost their starting quarterback, Jaxson Dart, and they’re dealing with a bunch on top of that. The Eagles lost their starting quarterback too, since Jalen Hurts is out for the season. That’s a gut punch for any team in the league, and Philly is feeling it.

The Commanders also lost their starting quarterback Jayden Daniels for a stretch. Now he’s back on the field playing with a huge brace, and he’s probably not 100%. Washington has dealt with a lot of injuries. You can understand why that team looks the way it does.

But what’s the Cowboys’ excuse?

Seriously. Dallas has its starting quarterback. Dak Prescott is on the field, healthy, and throwing the ball. The problem is he keeps throwing it to the other team. The Cowboys are miserable, and once again they’ve fallen below expectations. Same story, different season.

Every other team in this division can point to a quarterback injury. Dallas can only point at itself.

Dallas took one of ours, and it has backfired

And on top of that, there’s a twist Eagles fans should enjoy. Dallas went out last year and took the Eagles’ defensive backs coach Christian Parker, then turned him into its defensive coordinator.

How’s that working out? He has been horrendous.

That defense has been a disaster, and that’s exactly why the next Eagles-Cowboys matchup has my attention. When the Eagles’ offense lines up against that Dallas’ defense next Monday night, it’s going to be a sight to see. Even with all the injuries and all the frustration in Philly, a matchup against that unit is the kind of game where an offense can find itself again.

Think about what that means for us. The Eagles are banged up, they’re without their starter under center, and the season has not gone the way anybody in this city expected. But if there’s one defense in the league you’d pick to face in this exact situation, it might be the one Dallas built around a former Eagles assistant.

Now, does one Monday night game against a bad defense fix everything? No. The bigger picture is still rough, and that’s why I don’t believe the Eagles are pushing all their chips in on this season. When your starting quarterback goes down and the rest of the division is falling apart at the same time, it’s fair to wonder how much the organization is willing to chase.

But a struggling division also cuts both ways. Nobody in the NFC East is running away with anything. The Giants are hurt. The Commanders are hurt. And the Cowboys? They’re just bad.

The division’s ugly week is on Washington now

So it all comes down to the Commanders on Monday night. Beat the 49ers, and the NFC East avoids a historically embarrassing footnote. Lose, and every team in this division owns a piece of NFL history nobody will want to talk about.

I’m not going to say I’m rooting for Washington, because I’m not. But I’ll admit the idea of the whole division making history this way is something else.

Either way, the most fun part of the next stretch might be watching the Eagles’ offense take its shot at a Dallas defense that has fallen apart under the coach it poached from Philly. The Cowboys wanted one of ours, and the writing is on the wall for how that decision is going to look when these two teams meet.