Dallas succeeds in bottling up Eagles wideout DeSean Jackson

He can be electric. He can be a game-changer.

"I'm not always going to be able to do that," Jackson said. "Teams are going to do a great job to take me out of the game."

There was no relief.

No one stepped up - not dangerous rookie Jeremy Maclin, not budding star tight end Brent Celek, not Brian Westbrook, who missed his second consecutive game with concussion repercussions.

There was no Jackson, so there was no offense.

And no win.

By design.

"We came out and played a lot of man," said Cowboys cornerback Mike Jenkins, who saw a lot of both Jackson and Maclin. "We pressed a lot. Being as those guys don't have much size, we tried to use that to our advantage."

The Eagles managed 297 yards, 208 in the air. Quarterback Donovan McNabb, without his lethal weapon, bumbled to a 61.4 passer rating, his lowest of the season, with two interceptions, twice as many as he entered with.

Hard to believe, then, that the Cowboys' pass defense was considered mediocre. That might change today.

"A lot of people doubted our secondary coming into this game. We didn't sweat it at all," Jenkins said. "As long as that keeps going on - people keep disrespecting us - it's going to turn out like this."

Jenkins made sure it turned out poorly for the Eagles. It was his prescience that led to Donovan McNabb's second interception, near the end of the third quarter, which, in turn, led to the Cowboys' tying field goal.

McNabb tried to find Maclin deep. Jenkins was not fooled.

Maclin seemed too painfully obvious in his preroute jog, Jenkins said.

"I knew something was fishy," Jenkins said. "He's kind of fast, so I took an angle and tried to stay on his top shoulder. I undercut the receiver and took it from him."

Maclin, in turn, expected the throw on his other shoulder.

It was that sort of night.

McNabb's first interception went off Maclin's face.