Cowboys, Eagles Reach 100

November 8, 2009

By Michael Tillery

HGSTAR1NEWS

Staff Writer

In the 100th meeting between the Dallas Cowboys and Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday night, one play was the difference. Miles Austin is averaging a league leading 22.7 yards a reception and made big on his one opportunity with a 49 yard TD run and catch that put the Cowboys ahead to stay late in the fourth to win 20-16. All week the focus was on the big play making ability of Austin and DeSean Jackson and both defenses took away the aforementioned deep threats by rolling coverage all game long. Austin made a spectacular double move on Sheldon Brown to get free and split the defense after the catch to score the game winner. Tony Romo on what the Cowboys were looking for on that particular play:

"I tried to give him a little pump on the play. I thought they had been jumping it a little bit throughout the game, so we went with it. I tried to sell the fake for a while, and they bit, a couple of guys went to it, and I just gave him the ball-and he did the rest."

Miles Austin was patient and never seemed frustrated despite not getting the ball as much as he had the past few weeks: "It did not matter to me when they came to me but I knew I would make the play when they did.  Right now I am not concerned how much I get the ball because I just want to win games. If it had been another receiver that won the game I would be happy right now. My goal for us on offense is just to make the plays and win games."

On the other hand, the Eagles’ primary threat, DeSean Jackson, said with frustration in his voice that he understood teams are going to attempt to eliminate his production:

"All I can do is go out there, play my hardest and leave everything out on the football field. I just have to do what I need to do to make big plays and help this team win football games. Sometimes it's not going to be that way. Sometimes I am not going to get that opportunity to go out there and do that. That is understandable. Teams are going to try to take me out of the game and double-team me. It may be frustrating, but as a player and as a team, you just have to fight through it and be patient. Like I said, it's just a disappointing feeling right now."

As a result of Dallas' coverage on Jackson, Donovan McNabb threw his way a mere five times. "They were rolling coverages and double-teaming DeSean." McNabb explained. "That's what teams are going to do. We faced it a little bit against Tampa, so he knows that's going to happen. We move him around and try to get him opportunities to get some catches. He had a great catch on the deep 18 or 20-yard reception. That's what we're going to do, move him around. That means everybody else has to elevate their game. The [TE] Brent Celeks, [RB LeSean] McCoys, [FB Leonard] Weavers, [WR Jeremy] Maclins, we all have to elevate our game and get him out of that so we can get him more involved."

In a game where statistically there wasn't a huge disparity, the game became a game of inches. "This was the game of the shoestring tackle." McNabb said after barely being tripped up before the first down marker on a late drive.

There were two unsuccessful Philadelphia challenges of spots on third and fourth downs where the Eagles spent their final timeouts. This came back to haunt them in the end as Dallas ran out the clock to best their most hated rivals.

On one play in particular in the 4th quarter, Donovan McNabb appeared to get a first down on a quarterback sneak but the referee viewing the replay, saw differently. McNabb was less than diplomatic when asked about the huge call:

"I felt like half of my body was past the marker which I've seen. I landed on top of one of our guys and just slid and kept on moving. When you, I guess the question, you probably replay it, I guess you may have felt that I did get it.  We thought we had the first down, but unfortunately I guess twice we didn't."

His coach, Andy Reid, took responsibility for the sub-par way Philadelphia played. "There were some good things and there were some bad things. There were some things that were very close that I felt could go either way, and they didn't go our way. We had a couple of turnovers that [Dallas] capitalized on for 10 points. The [replay] challenges, I guess if hindsight is 20-20, I'd like to have those back because they didn't go the way I anticipated. Hats off to the Cowboys because they got us today. We're going to rebound and get ourselves right. We made too many mistakes and things we can work on. That's my responsibility on that."

Dallas Head Coach Wade Phillips has been criticized for not getting his team ready for big games. Last night, his team did what it took to win:

"It was a hard-fought win.  We knew it would be that way here.  We knew it was going to be a tough game. Our players left history in the past. This was a new team; I said it all along.  It's a new year.  We came in here to play our game and I thought we did a good job of that.  I thought, overall, we played the way I hope we would play.  We've been pretty consistent the last several games and I thought we played the same kind of game.  I told them going into the game that we needed to play like we have been playing.  We didn't have to play super-human, but we had to play well.  I thought we played well in this game.  We knew it was going to be a tough game, we knew it was going to be a close game.  Our guys came through."

After being pummeled by the Eagles here in Philly last season 44-6, the Cowboys were the aggressors offensively and defensively. There seemed to be a spark and Dallas had to be ignited by such a disappointing overall team performance. Tony Romo had a horrible game in that meeting but atoned today with 307 yards passing, one pick and the big touchdown to Austin. The Cowboys were also 7-for-15 on third down conversions. The Eagles wound up going 4-for-12: "It's funny because you go through so many different games over the course of your career, there's always going to be a game here or a game there you want back, but you can't look back, in my opinion. It's not something that we sat there and said: ‘Hey, we gotta make amends for something. I mean, that was last year. That was their year, compared to ours. We're trying to make this year our year, and so far the process has been the right way with the guys with the commitment and level of intensity."

Each team committed too many penalties [a combined 19 for 152 yards in losses] but the Eagles’ gaffes helped determine the outcome. On the second half kickoff, Philadelphia’s Ellis Hobbs had a long touchdown return nullified by a hold. "Any time you have homerun balls like that, any time you have a big play, a large pass or interception, and there's laundry on the field. Anytime there is a big play especially in this league, mistakes have to be minimal. It's hard to get those plays back because they don't come very often, especially a return like that."

Other miscues included false starts and procedure penalties in critical moments that didn't help the Eagles sporadic play. Give credit to the Cowboys' defense, which kept pressure in McNabb's face and kept him off balanced. Hobbs also spoke to the importance of missing such a great opportunity to take charge in the very competitive NFC East: "It's tough. It's a divisional game, it's at home, and with the Eastern Division being known as a tough division to win in going into November and December, everything counts right now. Each game is going to have high stakes and higher risks. We definitely couldn't afford it tonight."

Being that this was a nationally televised game in front of a raucous Philadelphia crowd with teams looking to make a dent in the top-heavy NFC, the Dallas Cowboys took advantage and claimed first place in the division at 6-2 at the halfway point. Next week, Dallas heads into Green Bay to face the 4-4 Packers. The Eagles head west to face a San Diego Chargers team with an identical record of 5-3.