Eagles football. Sunday night. NFL Week 14 brings the first rematch since the Cowboys finished their hat trick 2010-09 season sweep of the Eagles. (video below courtesy CBSSports.com)
The Cowboys hammered the Eagles to death last year. 3 times last season. To add insult to injury, the last two losses ended the regular season and the post season. After that, and with Vick and Kolb as QBs of the future, Howie Roseman and Andy Reid decided to fully revamp a team that two years prior had been to the NFC Championship game.
Those weren’t just losses. They were two crushing statements that something was deeply wrong with this team.
The Cowboys jumped on top in both games, and the Eagles didn’t fight back. They couldn’t fight back.
So Eagles head coach and soon-to-be General Manager Howie Roseman tore apart the roster.
Yeah, they dumped McNabb. But they also either traded or released ineffective or disinterested veterans like Darren Howard, Jason Babin, Will Witherspoon, Chris Clemons, Sean Jones, Kevin Curtis, Chris Gocong and Reggie Brown.
They cut ties with Brian Westbrook, Jeremiah Trotter and Sheldon Brown – three of the team’s best players of the past generation.
They got rid of half the team. Some 29 players who spent time on the roster last year are no longer with the organization – 13 of them were starters at some point in 2009.
Michael Vick is having his best regular season ever so far. McCoy is on his way to a very impressive year. D Jax and Maclin have become a prolific receiving tandem and may both break 1000 yards this year. The defense in some situations has been tops, but awful in the Eagles red zone, especially without Asante Samuel (who will miss his third game in a row this Sunday). The offensive line has been solid, but starting right tackle Winston Justice will be replaced by reserve tackle King Dunlap. Overall, the Eagles are a team no one will not get amped to play and the Cowboys are a team who is currently playing above their record.
The last place Cowboys have plagued by injuries have suffered more from a general lack of discipline that may have been remedied with the ascendancy of interim head coach Jason Garrett. There is no better way to start off the last stretch of the regular season than Eagles beating the Cowboys.
If the Eagles beat the Cowboys, they will have defeated every division opponent at least once and will take control of the race to the NFC East division title and there will be much less apprehension in Philadelphia as people will begin to wonder how far the Eagles can go in the playoffs. If the Eagles lose a fourth game in a row to the Cowboys, then most fans will wonder what else needs to change to get the team back on track.