5 reasons you should watch Eagles vs. Panthers on ‘Thursday Night Football’

It’s time again for your favorite football night of the week, Thursday! This week’s poopfest features the Eagles and Panthers, who will be trying to get some separation atop the NFC with a victory.

Both teams come into this game at 4-1, and should provide for one of our more competitive Thursday night games. Of course, we thought that about last week’s game between the Patriots and Bucs. While that game wasn’t a blowout, it was still kinda boring.

This one could be too, OR it could be the best game you’ve ever seen. Here’s why you should watch it.

Football is a good and fun game. But players’ celebrations add another dynamic like the cherry on top of a perfect ice cream sundae — or the Henny to your Coke.

The Eagles and Panthers have had good group celebrations in the past. Most recently, the Eagles celebrated a Torrey Smith touchdown by pretending to play baseball in the end zone.

Shouts out to Nelson Agholor and Alshon Jeffery, who stopped their teammates that clearly thought they were taking a squad photo.

If I told you a Philadelphia team would be playing baseball in October, you’d guess it would be the Eagles. Because the Phillies are trash.

We might also get a good one out of the Panthers. They got penalized for this one last season. It would now be legal since the NFL took a chill pill on its Get Off My Lawn celebration rules.

More points = more celebrations. Go get ‘em, gentlemen.

The Panthers fell off of a cliff last season after going 15-1 and making the Super Bowl in 2015. This season, they’re third in total defense in the NFL, behind only the Broncos and Bengals.

Aside from his sexist remarks earlier in the week, Cam Newton looked like 2015 NFL MVP Cam Newton against the Lions. He completed 26-of-33 passes for 355 yards and three touchdowns. If he’s able to keep that up, there’s no reason the Panthers can’t go on a nice run.

But it’s not like the Eagles are going to be an easy target.

Carson Wentz got some serious help this offseason when they picked up Alshon Jeffery and Torrey Smith. He’s turned that into 10 touchdowns against just three interceptions this season. He’s also good for sixth in the NFL with 1,362 yards passing, just 5 yards behind Aaron Rodgers for fourth, 3 yards behind Philip Rivers for fifth.

Nelson Agholor is having a nice comeback year as well, as he’s second on the team in receiving behind tight end Zach Ertz. So there’s no shortage of talent in this game. Hopefully it’s closer to what we saw between the Rams and 49ers as opposed to the Packers-Bears blowout.

The Panthers have one of the best Color Rush uniforms in the NFL. They aren’t quite the Rams’, but if you’re into blue, these are for you.

They look like a bunch of fierce Smurfs running around the field in our sport that’s often referred to as “modern day gladiators.” Could have sworn those things looked more cuddly than violent.

The Eagles aren’t wearing any particularly special uniforms for the Color Rush festivities. They’ll be donning their all-white uniforms, which are always a clean look.

If this game between good teams somehow turns into a bad one because of the Thursday Night Football stamp, at least they’ll look good doing it.

We haven’t heard a lot from Christian McCaffrey this season after he was selected No. 8 overall in the 2017 NFL draft. He has 34 rushes for 96 yards, while handling the punt returns for Ron Rivera’s team.

It’s always good to tune in for young talent, though. I love college football, and McCaffrey was one player I always looked forward to tuning in for because he could do it all. He set the record for all-purpose yards in a season in 2015, racking up 2,019 rushing, 645 receiving, 1,070 on kick returns, and 130 on punt returns while at Stanford. That’s pretty damn good.

His first NFL touchdown came last week, and might have been illegal because of offensive lineman Matt Kalil being more than a yard past the line of scrimmage, but it counted:

Even if you don’t have a dog in the fight, it would be cool to see McCaffrey have a breakout game similar to how he played at Stanford.

Maybe we’ll even see one of these:

That’s immensely harder to do in the NFL, but one can dream.

The NFL schedule doesn’t look so hot this week! Here’s the slate, minus Thursday night:

Bears vs. Ravens - No thanks.

Packers vs. Vikings - All Aaron Rodgers

49ers vs. Washington - Kirk Cousins is going to smack his future team.

Lions vs. Saints - There should be a lot of offense here but it doesn’t have high stakes.

Dolphins vs. Falcons - This game will be entertaining only for the Jay Cutler faces.

Browns vs. Texans - lol

Patriots vs. Jets - These always end up close but come on, Tom Brady won’t lose to the Jets.

Buccaneers vs. Cardinals - Use this as your bathroom break for the next game on the list.

Rams vs. Jaguars - OK, this one is actually good. Never thought I’d say that.

Chargers vs. Raiders - *obnoxious Chris Berman voice* DEHHHH RAIIIIDEERRZZZZ

Steelers vs. Chiefs - This one might also be good but then again the Chiefs look amazing and Ben Roethlisberger is broken.

Giants vs. Broncos - Half the Giants are injured and the Broncos defense will steamroll them.

Colts vs. Titans - Jacoby Brissett vs. Matt Cassel ... Hard pass! Time to fire up those Game of Thrones reruns, folks.

Enjoy the poopfest!