Three of four teams in the wobbly NFC East of the National Football League, will come away Sunday with first place and as a first-round playoff host

Despite being eliminated in the four-team dismal NFC East for the National Football League playoffs, the Philadelphia Eagles would like to do the same to the visiting Washington Football Team Sunday night.

Simply put, Philly can not rely on home field attendance to cheer it on during this coronavirus pandemic year of restrictions, but it will do its best to keep Washington from celebrating on its Lincoln Financial Field and keep it from sporting the NFC East championship hats, which failed the Eagles with last week’s 37-27 loss in Dallas. And with that, one less team in this topsy-turvy division race to play host in the first round of the playoffs, and each one of these below .500 clubs have gone back-and-forth from first to last all season.

As for the Eagles getting in the mix with nothing more to loss except the game, one possible advantage will belong to the home team, for it will again start rookie Jalen Hurts at quarterback, while Washington is unsure of whether it will be veteran Alex Smith or back-up Taylor Heinricke, who replaced starter Dwayne Haskins in the second quarter of the loss to the visiting Carolina Panthers last week. Haskins has since been released, so the club is now down to two quarterbacks, one still recovering from a calf injury (Smith) and the other (Heinricke) with much less experience.

Hurts, who became the starter midway through the season, followed fellow former Oklahoma quarterbacks Baker Mayfield (now with the Cleveland Browns) and Kyler Murray (now with the Arizona Cardinals) in 3-straight years as Heisman Trophy finalists, and finished as the runner-up after both Mayfield and Murray back-to-back got to cart off the winning trophy,

“There’s no way we want them to celebrate on our field,” he said. “With the COPID-19 restrictions, there may not be many fans there, but we would be there and so we are playing to avoid this, go out as winners.”

If the Giants win in the day game and Washington loses at night, the tiebreaker would go to New York with its 3-1 record against the Footballers and Cowboys. They swept Washington and lost the earlier game in Dallas. But the same could occur if Dallas won at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey and then Washington was upset later in Philadelphia.

That would put the Cowboys at 7-9, Washington at 6-10 and the Giants at 5-11. If it’s the Giants clinching, they would be 6-10 with the tiebreaker that favors them, and Washington and Dallas would also conclude at 6-10, but will instead be packing their gear and maybe viewing the postseason on the tubes.

How they finish also decides where each team would pick in the college draft. Currently, the Jacksonville Jaguars (1-14) have the No. 1 pick and the New York Jets (2-13) the second selection. The Giants could wind up with the No. 3 pick, or it could be the Eagles. Same with Washington and Dallas and it depends on their final record.

The Giants began at 0-5, became 1-7, and could get to 6-10 after losing their first three games. Versus Dallas, they already lost, 37-34, n the tilt at Dallas’ AT & T Stadium in Arlington,Tex.,and have also  lost seven-straight times to the Cowboys, who now have former Cincinnati Bengals’ starting quarterback Andy Dalton running the offense and New York will again start Daniel Jones, who apparently appears to have recovered from a hamstring that was followed by an ankle sprain.

This would be the third time an under..500 team gained the playoffs, with the 2010 Seattle Seahawks and 2014 Panthers then winning first-round wild card games. Yes, it’s been an improbable season now switching to the time of emotion, who gets to hoist the division trophy and wear the championship hats.

One thing about the virus restrictions, no fans in the stands or just a limited amount takes away the home field advantage that goes to the home team, this time involving the Eagles and the Giants Sunday.