My Thoughts on Eagles v. Cowboys

At the end of the first half, I said to myself & the bartender at the downtown Courtyard (since I'm staying downtown for a few days), "As bad as the Eagles played, they're lucky they're only down by 4 (10-6 at half)". Unfortunately, the Eagles must have thought the same thing.

The Eagles came out blazing in the 3rd quarter and took a 13-10 lead. However, it was almost like they figured they took the lead & they would coast the rest of the way - WRONG!! At least they played that way. While the Cowboys were doing nothing special to win, the Eagles let them hang around by continuing to make stupid penalties & decisions.

The interception thrown by McNabb I think really started to turn the momentum of the game. The Eagles could have made a big play there as Maclin had a step on his defender, but Donovan under threw the ball & to add insult injury, Maclin grabbed the facemask to make the tackle. I thought that play was a perfect microcosm of the game: the Eagles had a great opportunity to put some distance between themselves & their opponent & they came up short.

I have to admit, I had no problem with Andy Reid making the first challenge. Even the second one was probably worth it when you consider the importance of the play & it being a change of possession issue. My problem with Andy continues to be his play calling. Most of the time when I think he should run, he passes & vice versa. It drives me nuts. Also, why send a kicker in to try a 52 yard FG with 4 and a half minutes left when you're down by 7 and you have no timeouts left? It means, even if you do make the long kick, you still have to stop their offense from getting one first down and the way Marion Barber was running the ball on us, I had little faith that was going to happen.

I have one other bone to pick with the coaching in the final two minutes. How do you not put someone from the jump on Jason Witten on 3rd and short. Dallas knew the 2 minute warning was going to stop the clock anyway, so why not throw a pass. And who is the one person who continued to give the Eagles fits - Jason Witten. I would have lined someone like Quentin Mikell on him from the line of scrimmage and forced him to beat one on one coverage. Instead he got a free release from the linebacker and Mikell was forced to chase him. No surprise Tony Romo found him for the first down & the ball game.

One final note - in my prediction, I said I liked the fact that the offensive line was finally giving Donovan time to throw. That did not happen tonight. Too many times he had the defenders in his face, unable to make a clear read. This inconsistency, along with Donovan's, is the one thing that needs to get fixed if they are going to make a legitimate run at a division title.

Next up - @ San Diego who just beat the Giants. So it's not going to get any easier. Here's hoping that inconsistency (& Brian Westbrook) get corrected soon!