Looking ahead to the Week 16 matchup in Dallas.

The Philadelphia Eagles are 1.5-point road underdogs ahead of their Week 16 game against the Dallas Cowboys, according to DraftKings Sportsbook.

This NFC East rivalry matchup suddenly has a lot less juice following the results of Week 15. With the Eagles beating the Chicago Bears and the Cowboys losing to the Jacksonville Jaguars in humiliatingly painful fashion, the Birds don’t need to win this tilt by any means.

Even if the Eagles can’t beat the Cowboys, they can still clinch the No. 1 seed in the NFC playoff picture by beating either the New Orleans Saints at home in Week 17 ... or ... the New York Giants at home in Week 18.

But why rely on doing that when you can go out and beat the Cowboys to guarantee two weeks of stress-free football? The Eagles can opt to rest their starters to ensure good health as they enter the postseason.

I’ve seen some suggest that the Eagles should actually rest their starters against the Cowboys and then bring them back to beat the Saints in order to make the draft pick that New Orleans owes to Philly more favorable. That’s not going to happen. The Eagles are absolutely focused on clinching the No. 1 seed as soon as possible.

Beating the Cowboys will not be easy. Dallas has undoubtedly struggled lately; they really should have lost at home to the Houston Texans in Week 14 before losing on a walkoff pick six in Week 15. But you can bet they’ll be looking to get the bad taste out of their mouths with a win over Philly.

The Eagles previously beat the Cowboys back in Week 6. Of course, that was when Cooper Rush was still starting. Dak Prescott poses a bigger threat than his backup.

That said, Prescott has not been so great at taking care of the ball. Only two quarterbacks have thrown more interceptions than Prescott this year: Matt Ryan and Davis Mills. And they’ve each played three more games than Dak has.

Meanwhile, Jalen Hurts has been one of the NFL’s best quarterbacks at not throwing picks with five total. Two of those obviously came against the Bears. The cold weather may have been a factor in those mistakes. If so, Hurts will not have to worry about that happening again in the confines of AT&T Stadium.

The early feeling here is that it’s going to be a good game that the Eagles win. Prior to playing in Chicago, they were rolling. They’ve been really good more often than not lately. And they’ll likely be getting Dallas Goedert back in the fold. The Cowboys are showing some cracks in the armor lately.

What say you?