Eagles-Panthers cheat sheet: Matchups, storylines & predictions

The NFL season is still young, but the league has to be happy about two 4-1 teams going head-to-head on Thursday night. Perhaps, for an evening, actual football can distract from the Shield's bumbling of protests by its players, assistant coaches allegedly doing cocaine on video, and whatever unseemly story hits the wire tomorrow morning.

On the field, this looks like a matchup with playoff implications. Of the two teams, the Panthers have the most impressive win, on the road in New England, but also the uglier loss, at home to New Orleans. Amid blowback to his ignorant comments about a female reporter, Cam Newton has played at a high level the last two weeks, throwing for 671 yards on 10.8…