Breakdown: The Eagles open on the road in the Midwest for the second year in a row, beginning their 2012 season with a ho-hum matchup Sept. 9 against the Browns in Cleveland. But things get intense pretty quickly. Six of their next seven games, beginning with the Sept. 16 home opener against the Ravens, are against teams that made the postseason in 2011. The only one that's not requires a long road trip to Arizona to play the Cardinals in Week 3.
Last season's disappointing record didn't keep the Eagles from being a target of the networks that put games in prime time. They'll appear twice on ESPN's "Monday Night Football" -- Nov. 5 at New Orleans, and Nov. 26 at home against Cam Newton and the Carolina Panthers. They have two games (so far) scheduled for Sunday nights on NBC -- Sept. 30 against the Giants and Dec. 2 in Dallas. And their turn on Thursday night on the NFL Network comes Dec. 13, with a home game against the Cincinnati Bengals.
If they're in a race with the Giants for the NFC East title, the Eagles will get to play the defending champs head to head to possibly decide it. Their final regular-season game is against the Giants at MetLife Stadium. The Eagles have beaten the Giants in seven of their past eight tries, and they haven't lost at the Meadowlands since 2007.
Complaint department: Not a whole lot to complain about here. There's a stretch from Week 11 to Week 14 in which they play three road games, but their longest road trips are spaced out and nestled between home games. They don't go anywhere in December that's likely to be any colder than Philadelphia is. They have to play 10 games after the bye week as opposed to six before it, and that's not ideal, but even that could be worse. And the teams they play back to back on their short week are Tampa Bay and Cincinnati, which doesn't sound overly intimidating.
Annual victim: As every Eagles fan and many posts on this blog will spend the middle part of October pointing out, the Eagles are 13-0 in games immediately following bye weeks with Andy Reid as their head coach. This year's bye is Week 7, and the opponent who will come into Philadelphia to try to break that streak in Week 8 is the Atlanta Falcons.
Eagles Regular-Season Schedule (All times ET)
Week 1: Sunday, Sept. 9, at Cleveland, 1:00 PM
Week 2: Sunday, Sept. 16, Baltimore, 1:00 PM
Week 3: Sunday, Sept. 23, at Arizona, 4:05 PM
Week 4: Sunday, Sept. 30, NY Giants, 8:20 PM
Week 5: Sunday, Oct. 7, at Pittsburgh, 1:00 PM
Week 6: Sunday, Oct. 14, Detroit, 1:00 PM
Week 7: BYE
Week 8: Sunday, Oct. 28, Atlanta, 1:00 PM
Week 9: Monday, Nov. 5, at New Orleans, 8:30 PM
Week 10: Sunday, Nov. 11, Dallas, 4:15 PM
Week 11: Sunday, Nov. 18, at Washington, 1:00 PM
Week 12: Monday, Nov. 26, Carolina, 8:30 PM
Week 13: Sunday, Dec. 2, at Dallas, 8:20 PM
Week 14: Sunday, Dec. 9, at Tampa Bay, 1:00 PM
Week 15: Thursday, Dec. 13, Cincinnati, 8:20 PM
Week 16: Sunday, Dec. 23, Washington, 1:00 PM
Week 17: Sunday, Dec. 30, at NY Giants, 1:00 PM