Of all the problems the Eagles had matching up with the Cowboys while getting outscored 58-14 in their final two games last season, one of the biggest, literally and figuratively, was Jay Ratliff. The Cowboys’ 6-4, 303-pound nose tackle helped shut down the Eagles’ running game and keep Donovan McNabb unsettled in the pocket. He symbolized Dallas’ superiority in the trenches. Ratliff, who was selected for his second Pro Bowl, would have been a tough matchup even for regular Eagles center Jamaal Jackson, but Jackson tore his ACL against Denver, right before the back-to-back with the Cowboys. Guard Nick Cole was the Birds’ center, thrust into a really unfortunate situation. “We had some
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Eagles know Cowboys’ Ratliff is ‘a special player’
“I don’t know what a tweet is,” Eagles coach Andy Reid said, “but that was a bad tweet.” Indeed, DeSean Jackson’s trash-talking entry on Twitter, in which he proclaimed that the Eagles would “sting they ass” before last season’s playoff game at Dallas, stung only the brash receiver and his team. The Eagles were swarmed by the Cowboys, 34-14, six days after the same team had shut them out. And Jackson was held to a humbling three catches for 14 yards. Jackson’s tweet (DeSeanJackson10) and some of the bulletin-board material he provided the week before ultimately had little to do with the loss. The better team won. But with the Eagles scheduled to finally play Dallas again this Sunday night,
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Jackson learns from last year’s experience with Cowboys
The Eagles’ rivalry with the Dallas Cowboys is a big deal for fans in Philadelphia. It is much, much less so for the players who will actually line up Sunday night in Jerry Jones’ gaudy monument to Jerry Jones. Michael Vick talked about the rivalry in the locker room Wednesday. But Vick took a handful of Wildcat snaps in the Eagles’ two season-ending losses in Texas last year. In his previous NFL incarnation, that storied Falcons-Panthers rivalry was about as bitter as it got. Vick was a kid when the Cowboys blasted the Eagles, 34-10, in a playoff game after the 1992 season. Jeremy Maclin and LeSean McCoy weren’t born when Tom Landry’s picket-line-crossing varmints embarrassed Buddy Ryan’s
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Eagles-Cowboys means more to Birds fans than players
REMEMBER WHEN this Eagles season was going to be all about trying to match up with the Cowboys? Almost a full year ago, they played two games in the brand-new Jerrydome in Arlington, Texas, 6 days apart. The Eagles went in 11-4, thinking about the Super Bowl. They exited 11-6, their season done after the first round of the playoffs. Cumulative score was 58-14. An offseason of dramatic change ensued, after Eagles president Joe Banner spoke of the need to close a “gap” between the teams. It’s good to get a refresher, because all that seems so long ago now, as the 8-4 Eagles prepare for a Sunday night visit with the 4-8 Cowboys, at the scene of last season’s crimes. Defensive tackle Antonio
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Eagles not looking back on three losses to Dallas last year
The skidmarks are still there right outside of Jerry’s World. They mark the spot where the Eagles’ 2009 season – and, not coincidentally, Donovan McNabb’s Eagles career – came to a jarring, crushing halt. You remember 24-0 and 34-14, the numerical evidence that the Eagles simply were not as talented, not as motivated, not as deep and not as good as the Dallas Cowboys. There was such an obvious gap between the division rivals that the Eagles made sweeping changes in the off-season, most notably jettisoning McNabb to the NFL hell that is the Washington Redskins. So it was odd to hear Jerry Jones on Sunday night. “It would really lift our spirits and make our arrow go up to beat
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Against Eagles, Cowboys want to play role of spoiler
The Dallas Cowboys have not quit. After losing seven of their first eight games, the Cowboys will not be going to the playoffs. Their season is essentially over, but they are not playing like it. Want proof? It was scattered all over the turf inside Lucas Oil Stadium on Sunday – effort and execution and turnovers and big plays and poise, all of the things you need to win in the National Football League. For the third time since offensive coordinator Jason Garrett replaced Wade Phillips as coach, the Cowboys won, beating the Indianapolis Colts, 38-35, in overtime. They are 3-1 post-Wade, and 4-8 overall with four games to go. The Cowboys will face the Eagles twice in the next four weeks,
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Resurgent Cowboys await Eagles after beating Colts in overtime
The Eagles are back in prime time, and this week the stakes are even higher. After using the big stage of Monday Night Football to announce themselves as Super Bowl contenders and make Michael Vick the biggest story in sports, the Eagles play Sunday night in a game that will determine first place in the NFC East. The Eagles and Giants are 6-3, tied for the division lead, and have not faced off this year. As the final weeks of November tick off the calendar, both have established themselves as members of the NFC’s elite. And then there are the teams’ proximity and fan animosity that add heat to any Eagles-Giants game. “When I first got here, I heard that the Cowboys rivalry was the biggest.
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High stakes in a big battle
Another week, another difficult tight end challenge for the Eagles’ defense. From the Packers’ tall and wide receiver-fast Jermichael Finley (four catches for 47 yards) to the Lions’ power-forward-strong Brandon Pettigrew (seven for 108) to the Jaguars’ big, fast and athletic Mercedes Lewis. “Most teams have invested in a good tight end,” said Eagles defensive coordinator Sean McDermott. “We’ve got to be able to hold up there.” Much has been made of the Murderer’s Row list of quarterbacks the Eagles have on their 2010 dance card. But the list of tight ends is every bit as imposing. Waiting for them down the road after Lewis is the Redskins’ Chris Cooley (twice), the 49ers’ Vernon Davis,
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Repeat after me: Eagles must stop the tight end
FOOTBALL COACHES spend countless hours scrutinizing game film, looking for their opponent’s soft spots and weaknesses. When Packers coach Mike McCarthy and his staff reviewed the defensive film of the Eagles’ last few games of the 2009 season, particularly their back-to-back, season-ending losses to the Cowboys and a harder-than-it-should-have-been, 30-27, Week 16 win over the Broncos, one of the things that no doubt jumped out at them was the Eagles’ vulnerability to the wide-receiver screen. Both the Broncos and the Cowboys had a lot of success with it, directing most of them to the left side of the Eagles’ defense, where Pro Bowl cornerback Asante Samuel resides. Samuel is one of the
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Packers will seek holes in Eagles’ screen coverage
Mentioning Anthony Spencer’s name to Andy Reid or Joe Banner is like mentioning Brad Pitt or John Mayer to Jennifer Aniston. Spencer, of course, is the linebacker the Cowboys selected with the 26th pick in the 2007 draft; a selection they obtained from the Eagles in a draft-day trade that year. He’s also the guy who notched three of the eight sacks of Donovan McNabb last January in the Eagles’ two ugly season-ending losses to the Cowboys, and the guy who finished with eight sacks in his last eight games, and the guy whose coach, Wade Phillips, recently compared him to Hall-of-Famer Rickey Jackson. As evidenced by the quote above, the Eagles say they have absolutely no regrets about making
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Spencer is Eagles’ gift to Cowboys
It seemed like such a simple request of the kids at Kevin Kolb’s second annual football camp. Yet, it was with reluctance that the 8- to 11-year-olds did what Kolb asked. “Go Eagles!” was more like “go eagles?” “I can tell you I’m the biggest diehard Cowboys fan there is,” said Kreg Kimple, a Stephenville coach whose son, Payton, was participating in the camp. “But for what Kevin does for the community here, I’m pulling for the Eagles for 14 games a year, and I want him to do well in the two games against the Cowboys. I just hope the Cowboys win.” Kolb might have a harder time converting his hometown into Eagles fans than he will of fulfilling a goal of becoming a Pro Bowl quarterback. The …
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Eagles quarterback Kolb has many fans in heart of Cowboys country
If there was some sort of shift in the Eagles’ war room after the Cowboys drafted wide receiver Dez Bryant, the team’s high command did not show it. General Andy Reid and his lieutenants stuck to their attack even though their NFC East rivals were dropping bombs all around them. The Redskins snatched franchise left tackle Trent Williams. Boom! The Giants plucked explosive defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul. Blast! The Cowboys grabbed Bryant, another tall ball-catcher. Look out below! “This is what we do,” Reid said Saturday after the conclusion of the NFL draft. “We try and take the best football player. I don’t get real concerned with anybody but us and what we need to do to become a better …
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The NFC East and the Eagles’ draft
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