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Eagles-Cowboys Recap

Back in the dark ages for the Eagles—the late ’60s and early ’70s—beating the Cowboys was somewhat able to ease the pain of not making the playoffs for Eagles fans. This year’s model can’t finish better than 8-8, but they did somehow manage to beat the ‘Boys on the road 10-6 this afternoon, despite the usual offensive struggles. And, yes, even if the win hurt their drafting position next year, it did feel good to see the Birds batter Dallas—even if the score didn’t suggest a battering, the Cowboys’ inability to score a touchdown for the first time in 54 games showed that the defense banged the ‘Boys around today. Part of that success is owed to playing press coverage on Terrell Owens, who was left frustrated and minimally productive. Owens did beat Lito Sheppard deep once (and Brian Dawkins was fooled into thinking a shorter throw was coming), but Tony Romo overthrew him. One noticeable time Sheppard did play Owens soft—giving a seven-yard cushion on a 3rd-and-4—he used it to bait Romo into a short throw that Sheppard jumped and picked off.

In a rarity this season, the Eagles didn’t give the game up late, despite a couple of questionable pass calls on the final two drives that were unsuccessful except for stopping the clock. After a screen pass that Donovan McNabb threw into the ground instead of doing anything to keep the clock moving, he redeemed himself with a strike down the middle to Brent Celek on a 3rd-and-seven. Brian Westbrook then ran the ball down to the one on the next play, but instead of taking the easy touchdown, he dropped to the ground—with the Cowboys out of timeouts, that effectively, if curiously, ended the game.

Kudos to the defense for forcing three picks, shutting down the run, and once again playing remarkably in a goal-line stand. The offense did just enough to win, but still struggled to find a rhythm.

That the Eagles have beaten the best NFC team and nearly toppled the best NFL team are pretty remarkable, but that only makes the number of close games the team has bungled this year all the more frustrating. Why can the Birds play so well on the road against Dallas and New England, yet struggle so much more at home? If it’s a “backs-to-the-walls” type thing, then how can we bottle that attitude for other games? I don’t have good answers, and clearly neither does the coaching staff or even the players. But they’re going to need to find those answers next year, or we’ll be back to a win over the Cowboys being the only solace for an unsuccessful season once again.

This entry was posted on Sunday, December 16th, 2007 at 8:59 pm and is filed under Postgame Thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.