Saturday, January 9, 2010

Eagles-Cowboys Postgame Analysis


The Cowboys look very, very, very scary.

That is what I thought after I watched them overpower the Eagles en route to a 34-14 victory, and frankly, I think that that's what everyone watching this game thought.

Of course, I was also thinking similar thoughts when I saw them beat the Eagles on the road in Week Nine.

They then proceeded to lose three of their next five games to the Packers, Giants and Chargers.

But they have now won five games in a row since losing to the Chargers four weeks ago, and seem to have become the team that we thought they'd be last year.

They look solid on offense and are making plays on defense from their front three-to-the-secondary.

They made the Eagles offensive line look like a Pop Warner team, handled the Eagles blitzes with a solid performance from their offensive line, and put up 426 total yards on offense while also possessing the ball for nearly 40 minutes.

True, Tony Romo did get away with a Brett Favre-esque throw or two.

Correct, their secondary allowed Donovan McNabb and Michael Vick to throw for a combined 284 yards and two touchdowns.

And yes, they did get some lucky breaks in this game, most notably an interception by Romo that was overturned and a fumble by the Eagles' Leonard Weaver inside the two-minute mark when McNabb and co. were in Cowboy territory.

But Wade Phillips' team already had a 17-point lead when that fumble occurred, and while McNabb may have thrown for a lot of yards, in general Dallas' secondary played well.

And Dallas also went 9-16 on third down conversions, while the Eagles went a mere 2-11 in comparison.

Beating the Vikings in the Metrodome will be a far more difficult task for the Cowboys than beating an Eagles team that they had already beaten the week before in Jerry's World.

But as ESPN quoted Jones as saying after the game, 'The Demons are gone!'

The Cowboys may have lifted a monkey off of their back tonight after winning their first playoff game since 1996, and more importantly, failing to choke like they did against Seattle and the Giants a couple of years ago.

Because of that, it is plausible that they can ride their confidence to a Super Bowl just like the Giants did in 2007 after facing a similar amount of media scrutiny thanks to their discombobulated performance the following year.

Dallas can beat Minnesota if they can get the same solid pass rush on Favre that Saints quarterback Drew Brees experienced in Week 15 and McNabb faced last week and tonight.

Taking advantage of a dumb Favre decision and getting a big game out of receivers not named Jason Witten will also be needed, as I don't expect Felix Jones to rush for 148 yards against Minnesota's sturdy defense.

It will be tough, but a Cowboys victory over Minnesota is very possible, especially considering Favre's history of bad performances in the playoffs.

Romo hasn't played great in the playoffs as well, but I think that that has changed after the magnificent performance that he put on tonight.

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