And to give you an idea on how long this drought was, I was working at a deli at Tom Thumb the last time the Cowboys won a playoff game.
I remember because I was listening to the entire game. So it's actually been about 15 years since I've actually watched the Cowboys win a playoff game. Which in my case, it was Super Bowl XXX.
Getting back to the here and now, I wasn't really surprised in the least by the result. OK, a little bit, since I called it 24-10 in favor of the Cowboys. They had 27 by halftime and that was largely due to the Eagles self destructing with critical turnovers at the end of the first half.
But the domination? Nope. Not in the least.
The 7-0 record that the Eagles had brought into Cowboys Stadium tonight in opening playoff games in the Andy Reid era meant absolutely nothing. That record was built largely through a unit that was truly feared and a mastermind of a defensive coordinator.
The last two weekends, the Cowboys showed no fear of this unit while their own defensive unit is going to give Mr. Noodle and Brett Favvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvre many things to worry about next weekend.
But that IS for next weekend.
Tonight, the Dallas Cowboys organization and it's fans get to enjoy the fruits of their labor. And 44-6 truly has been erased from the consciousness of this team. I can't tell you how big of a mental hurdle this was and important it was to clear it.
A few other thoughts:
* I hate to start off with officiating, but the Eagles and Cowboys set an NFL record for combined penalties with over 240 yards. And I'm convinced that Ed Hochuli's crew actually set out to set the record by calling every chintzy penalty that they could, starting with that joke of an offensive pass interference penalty against Jason Witten. It reminded me of the ridiculous PI call on Witten in the first meeting against the Eagles.
And they capped off a dreadful performance in the first half by waiting a good 3 to 4 seconds after the play clock had expired. Had the Eagles' defense not pointed this out, I'm convinced they would have missed the call completely!
* I suppose you could call this a turning point if only from the standpoint that it marked the point in the game where things started to roll downhill for the Eagles. Even if they get this call, I'm still convinced Dallas comes back and wins rather handily.
But Philly had just tied the game on a catch and run by Jeremy Maclin (on a play where he pushed off to gain separation on Mike Jenkins). After the ensuing kickoff, Tony Romo's throw to Miles Austin sails high and the pass appears to have been picked off by Sean Jones at the Dallas 34. He gets up and runs another 20 yards before getting pushed out of bounds.
Wade Phillips pulls out the red flag, waits a few moments to let his coaches upstairs look at the play, and he decides to challenge it. Ed Hochuli looks at the replay, determines the ball hit the ground AND that Jones used the ground to gain control of the ball.
With a second life, Romo leads the Cowboys 85 yards in 10 plays culminating with a Tashard Choice TD to retake the lead. Dallas tacks on 13 more points unanswered in the second half and puts it in cruise control from there.
Again, I still think Dallas would have won the game. But I'd be lying if I told you I wanted to test that theory.
* Make that 13 times out of 20 that one team's been able to sweep a divisional rival twice in the regular season and then been able to cap it off with a third win in the playoffs. Sooner or later, people will realize it's not that hard to beat a team three times in one season.
* I still think Chris Collinsworth is a moron. But he's 100 times better than Joe Thiesmann, who NFL fans had to suffer through during NBC's early game today. Not to mention, Tom Hammond makes me want to gargle lighter fluid every time I hear him
Anybody got a match?
* I'll give Mike Jenkins a pass for fumbling after he picked off McNabb in the third quarter. But I won't be so forgiving for Ken Hamlin.
Seriously, what the f**k was he thinking tonight? First, he nailed a defenseless Brent Celek on a completely unnecessary hit. Then he got into it with Jeremy Maclin, picking up 30 yards in penalties all because of his stupidity, on the lone Eagles' TD drive of the second half.
I expect Roger Goodell to dock him at least $7,500 for his hit on Celek in the first. If not more.
* Dallas Mavericks' owner Mark Cuban grabbed some headlines earlier this week when he blasted the NFL's decision to schedule tonight's Eagles-Cowboys game opposite the Jazz-Mavericks game. Yes, he's right that the NFL doesn't give a whit about the little Mavericks.
But so what? The NFL's job is to find the most appealing matchups of the first two weekends of the playoffs for it's broadcast partners and schedule them accordingly.
Which along those lines, there's rumblings that the Cowboys-Vikings game could be scheduled in the early game timeslot next Sunday.
The Mavs are also playing on Sunday as well at Toronto. Guess what time the game tips off? Oh, at about the same time the Cowboys and Vikings could be playing each other.
Showing posts with label Philadelphia Eagles. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Philadelphia Eagles. Show all posts
Saturday, January 9, 2010
I Don't Get All the Love for Eagles
One of my favorite daily blog reads is Uwe Blog. It's cleverly named and very well written with thoughtful analysis on everything going on in the DFW sports scene.
I highly recommend you add them to the list of blogs you peruse on a daily basis.
That having been said, I read Chip's analysis of tonight's Cowboys-Eagles preview and I can only assume he thinks Brian Dawkins and Lito Shepherd still patrol the back end of Philly's defense.
Yes, I know the failures of this team when the pressures been on have been well chronicled. I know parallels have been drawn all week between the failure in 2007 and this matchup with the Eagles, knowing that Andy Reid is 7-0 in first round games.
But I have to take umbrage with the statement below, and not just because he predicts a Philly win:
They're not. Especially on the defensive side of the ball for Philly.
Like I said at the beginning, Lito Shepherd and Brian Dawkins are no longer providing that shut down defense on the back end of the field. And to take it a step further, Jim Johnson, God rest his soul, is no longer putting together the blitz packages that made this unit one of the most feared defensive units over the last decade.
As they've proven in the first two games, the Cowboys can generate big plays on this defense when they need to.
In the first matchup, they stemmed the tide twice with long throws to Patrick Crayton on their final drive of the first half and a 3rd and 14 conversion to Miles Austin for a 49 yard TD in the fourth quarter that broke a 13-13 deadlock.
Then last week, they proved they can methodically drive down the field on the Eagles en route to a 24-0 win that, in spite of what some mediots might suggest, was not a case where Sean McDermott intentionally pulled back on his blitz packages because of the rematch this week.
Philly had a first round bye and home field in the second round on the line so you can kiss that theory good bye. Rather, they played back because Dallas burned them in the first meeting.
On the other side of the ball, I will concede that Philly's wideouts and Donovan McNabb have had chances to make big plays.
In the first meeting, Jeremy Maclin had a chance to extend a drive on third down but let a ball slip right through his fingers. Last week, Desean Jackson got behind Terence Newman but McNabb over through him for what surely would have been a game tying TD...in the first half.
But what else ya got?
Because to hear some mediots tell it, the Eagles offense was dominating the Dallas defense in the first two meetings. They just weren't putting up the points to show for it.
If only DeSean had hauled in that catch and taken it all the way or Donovan hadn't have bungled that snap at the Dallas 20 in the first half, the Eagles would have surely won.
That's assuming the Eagles defense would have instantly found a solution to slowing down the Cowboys' offense.
Now about those parallels to 2007, I'd submit to you that the Cowboys team that is entering these playoffs is vastly different from the one that limped in two years ago.
Against the Giants, we were hoping to see the Cowboys flip the switch on offense and it never happened.
This time around, the Cowboys offense which struggled for much of the year has scored a touchdown on it's opening drive of the game in three straight games. The switch is definitely on.
And it's definitely on on the defensive side of the ball where the Cowboys, for the first time in franchise history, posted back to back shutouts against the Redskins and Eagles. No small feat to be sure.
They also don't have Jacques Reeves playing opposite Terence Newman. And they certainly don't have Roy Williams sucking the life out of the defense at strong safety.
What they do have is a nice replacement in Gerald Sensabaugh and Mike Jenkins, whose gone from being the guy who won't try to lay a finger on Brandon Jacobs as he strolled into the end zone at the Meadowlands last year to being a ball hawking, play making corner, as evidenced by his momentum stopping pick against the Eagles back in Week 9 with Philly leading 13-10 late in the third quarter.
What this game boils down to is two offenses.
One that's really hitting it's stride and shown in the past two games that when a play needs to be made, it can make that play versus another offense that's banking on it's ability to break out. Because, you know, that's what they did against the lesser lights of the NFL.
I'm obviously taking Dallas tonight and I don't really think it'll be all that close.
Cowboys 24, Eagles 10
I highly recommend you add them to the list of blogs you peruse on a daily basis.
That having been said, I read Chip's analysis of tonight's Cowboys-Eagles preview and I can only assume he thinks Brian Dawkins and Lito Shepherd still patrol the back end of Philly's defense.
Yes, I know the failures of this team when the pressures been on have been well chronicled. I know parallels have been drawn all week between the failure in 2007 and this matchup with the Eagles, knowing that Andy Reid is 7-0 in first round games.
But I have to take umbrage with the statement below, and not just because he predicts a Philly win:
Prediction
Eagles 27, Cowboys 23
All I can say to Romo, Phillips, Jones and Co. is "prove it!" The Eagles have over the last decade. Forget what's happened the last four weeks and consider the last 10 years. Or what happens tomorrow night. If a 13-3 Cowboys team can lose to the underdog Giants, an evenly-matched Cowboys team can lose to the Eagles.
They're not. Especially on the defensive side of the ball for Philly.
Like I said at the beginning, Lito Shepherd and Brian Dawkins are no longer providing that shut down defense on the back end of the field. And to take it a step further, Jim Johnson, God rest his soul, is no longer putting together the blitz packages that made this unit one of the most feared defensive units over the last decade.
As they've proven in the first two games, the Cowboys can generate big plays on this defense when they need to.
In the first matchup, they stemmed the tide twice with long throws to Patrick Crayton on their final drive of the first half and a 3rd and 14 conversion to Miles Austin for a 49 yard TD in the fourth quarter that broke a 13-13 deadlock.
Then last week, they proved they can methodically drive down the field on the Eagles en route to a 24-0 win that, in spite of what some mediots might suggest, was not a case where Sean McDermott intentionally pulled back on his blitz packages because of the rematch this week.
Philly had a first round bye and home field in the second round on the line so you can kiss that theory good bye. Rather, they played back because Dallas burned them in the first meeting.
On the other side of the ball, I will concede that Philly's wideouts and Donovan McNabb have had chances to make big plays.
In the first meeting, Jeremy Maclin had a chance to extend a drive on third down but let a ball slip right through his fingers. Last week, Desean Jackson got behind Terence Newman but McNabb over through him for what surely would have been a game tying TD...in the first half.
But what else ya got?
Because to hear some mediots tell it, the Eagles offense was dominating the Dallas defense in the first two meetings. They just weren't putting up the points to show for it.
If only DeSean had hauled in that catch and taken it all the way or Donovan hadn't have bungled that snap at the Dallas 20 in the first half, the Eagles would have surely won.
That's assuming the Eagles defense would have instantly found a solution to slowing down the Cowboys' offense.
Now about those parallels to 2007, I'd submit to you that the Cowboys team that is entering these playoffs is vastly different from the one that limped in two years ago.
Against the Giants, we were hoping to see the Cowboys flip the switch on offense and it never happened.
This time around, the Cowboys offense which struggled for much of the year has scored a touchdown on it's opening drive of the game in three straight games. The switch is definitely on.
And it's definitely on on the defensive side of the ball where the Cowboys, for the first time in franchise history, posted back to back shutouts against the Redskins and Eagles. No small feat to be sure.
They also don't have Jacques Reeves playing opposite Terence Newman. And they certainly don't have Roy Williams sucking the life out of the defense at strong safety.
What they do have is a nice replacement in Gerald Sensabaugh and Mike Jenkins, whose gone from being the guy who won't try to lay a finger on Brandon Jacobs as he strolled into the end zone at the Meadowlands last year to being a ball hawking, play making corner, as evidenced by his momentum stopping pick against the Eagles back in Week 9 with Philly leading 13-10 late in the third quarter.
What this game boils down to is two offenses.
One that's really hitting it's stride and shown in the past two games that when a play needs to be made, it can make that play versus another offense that's banking on it's ability to break out. Because, you know, that's what they did against the lesser lights of the NFL.
I'm obviously taking Dallas tonight and I don't really think it'll be all that close.
Cowboys 24, Eagles 10
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