Dallas Again, and Again, and Again (originally posted on December 21, 2006)

It's that time of year again. When people like me who are normally incapable of any mathematical calculation beyond ninth grade arithmetic can calculate the NFL playoff tie-breaking procedures down to the seventh or eighth permutation. When football fans start thinking about how one game affects another game, and another game, and another game, and are planning so many moves ahead that our minds are buzzing like Bobby Fischer's times ten.

It's the time of year when Jeff Garcia spiking the ball in the face of Gibril Wilson is enough to send me into an apoplectic rage that still hasn't gone away.

The Eagles beat the Giants on Sunday. It was their third win in a row, but the first game since September that both their effort and execution was passable. They continue to be plagued by stupid mental mistakes, errors that come from foolishness and lack of discipline. The Eagles have been able to overcome those mental mistakes in part because of their character, and in part because the Panthers, Redskins, and Giants have failed to take advantage. Unfortunately, this week, they are playing an equally desperate team, one which will not fail to take advantage of any mistake the Eagles take, and shove such mistakes down their collective throats.

The good:

Brian Dawkins - Yet another superhuman effort. Even my superlatives are failing me.

Correll Buckhalter - 8 carries for 48 yards and a touchdown, easily his best game of the season, and especially gratifying to see after he missed the last 2 years with knee injuries. He was the Eagles running back of the future before injuries and the emergence of Brian Westbrook, and could have easily just walked away. Instead, he has slowly regained his form over the course of the season, and could be a vital part of the Eagles plans down the stretch. He is very quickly becoming one of the emotional centers of this team.

The run defense - Inexplicably, the Eagles have held Tiki Barber, a notorious Eagles-killer and Hall of Fame runner, in check for both games against the Giants, whereas the rest of the NFL has run roughshod over them. Hopefully this is the beginning of a trend, and not a fluke.

Trent Cole & Sheldon Brown - They were the goats of the first Giants game. Trent Cole was the perpetrator of the "alleged" late hit (which I still haven't ever seen - cough it up, NFL, if you actually have it) in the first Giants game that allowed them to drive down the field and kick a field goal to force the game into overtime. Sheldon Brown was burned by Plaxico Burress for the subsequent game winning touchdown. Last week however, they combined on the game clinching touchdown - a blitz by Sheldon Brown forced Eli Manning into an errant throw that landed right in the hands of Trent Cole, who graciously returned it for the final touchdown. Redemption can be sweet.

The bad:

Garcia's spike - The spike, the spike, a thousand times the spike. Continuing the annoying trend that has marred every game this year, an Eagle committed a stupid penalty that almost lost the game for them (or, on 4 occasions, DID lose the game for them.) It was a stupid gesture that almost cost the Eagles their season. Quarterbacks don't do that. Leaders don't do that. Garcia, to his credit, accepted responsibility, and overcame the mistake, leading the team to what was ultimately the game winning touchdown. Still…those penalties are why the Eagles are fighting for their lives instead of fighting for home field advantage. Those penalties are why Javon Kearse and Donovan McNabb are watching next week's game on television. These penalties can cost this team a season, especially when playing against a team that simply does not make those mistakes.

Which brings us to the Cowboys…always bigger, always faster, always better. In the early 90's, two very good Eagles teams were simply overrun by better Cowboys teams. Reggie White's last game as an Eagle was their playoff loss to the Cowboys in 1993, and Randall Cunningham's last game as an Eagle was their playoff loss to the Cowboys in 1996.

The Cowboy-inflicted misery continues even into the twenty first century. In the Eagles Super Bowl year of 2004, it was the Cowboys that marred a dream season when Roy Williams broke Terrell Owens' leg with a horse collar tackle. Would a fully healthy TO have been the difference between the Eagles winning and losing the Super Bowl that year?

Last year, the Eagles were leading the Cowboys comfortably in the fourth quarter, when Terry Glenn caught a long touchdown pass, followed by the very same Roy Williams returning a Donovan McNabb interception for a touchdown to win the game - intentionally running through McNabb on the return, and knocking him out for the year. The Eagles were sent into a tailspin from which they have not yet truly recovered.

And of course, there are the current Cowboys, who are almost custom built to beat the Eagles. Tony Romo is their best quarterback since Troy Aikman. They can claim two confirmed Eagle killers: Terry Glenn (metaphorically) and Roy Williams (all too literally.) Terrell Owens is lurking, still waiting to exact his revenge for a lost season. There are two young runners in Julius Jones and Marion Barber ready to pound the Eagles defense into submission. All of them healthy and desperate. And finally, there is Texas Stadium, that hateful place where dreams and eras go to die, ready to dash the hopes of a city, yet again.