Eagles' big win over Dallas is just that, right now

I AM NOT SURE what happens behind the midnight green curtain, but publicly Chip Kelly was as unflappable after the Eagles pulled their season off the brink as he had been while they were putting themselves there.

Perhaps that is because the Birds' gutty, 33-27 overtime victory on Sunday in Dallas is nothing more than that.

The history of this season limits it to being an isolated incident. It does not mean the Eagles have found themselves, turned a corner or kicked it into gear.

It was an isolated victory that pulled them to 4-4 and breathed life back into the season. It was not a crushing loss that would have just about killed off all hope.

At the midway point, the Eagles are still mediocre, an average team without consistency whose season can swing either direction.

"It means absolutely nothing, because you lose next week and it didn't carry over," Kelly said Monday at his day-after-game news conference of what the win over the Cowboys means going forward.

To be fair, Kelly's assessment was not anything different from what he has said since he took over as Eagles coach in 2013. He has been asked that question a dozen different ways, and his response is always the same.

"I'm not deflecting it when people say, 'Was that a big game for you?' " Kelly said. "Every game is a big game.

"If we don't do something after this victory after Dallas, then this game wasn't a turning point in the season. We can't just say, 'Hey, we played a good game last night, that's our turning point; let's go kick our feet up.' "

Kelly referenced another win in Dallas to drive home his point.

"I'll just take you back to a year ago at Thanksgiving," he said. "We beat these guys to go 9-3. Then what happened? We go 1-3 down the stretch, so that wasn't a turning-point game for us."

The Eagles had what looked like a turning point when they won at the New York Jets to break the two-game losing streak to start the season.

Then they played awful in a 23-20 loss at Washington.

The back-to-back thrashings of the New Orleans Saints and New York Giants gave hope that the Birds had gotten things together in October.

Then they went to Carolina and got their feathers handed to them by the Panthers.

There are good reasons for Kelly not to extrapolate any more from Dallas than that the Eagles won the game.

There are no guarantees anything will transfer to Sunday's game against Miami at Lincoln Financial Field.

"I never look at things like that," Kelly said. "It's always about the next challenge. We talk about that all the time.

"The next thing for us is to have a real good day on Tuesday. What we realized is we had a really good week of training last week. If we have a good week of training, there's a carryover in the game.

"It's always what you do next, and that's why I try to make that reference for."

That might be the best way to view a season, but it is certainly not the most fun way.

At the risk of contradicting most of what I just wrote, some things from Dallas indicate a brighter outlook moving forward.

Quarterback Sam Bradford had his best game for the Eagles. He looked more like a leader than he ever has.

It's significant that Bradford marched the Eagles 80 yards for a game-winning touchdown in overtime.

Until a quarterback engineers a game-winning drive, there is no way to know whether he can. It could be a moment that rallies a team.

Kelly said Bradford has improved with each game.

"We're in Game 8," Kelly said. "(Bradford was) better in Game 8 than he was in Game 1. I think he's more comfortable in terms of what we're doing."

Considering the number of new players the Birds brought in at some high-profile positions, maybe that applies to the team as a whole.

"I think it can be said for anybody," Kelly said. "We do have some new players here, so to think that, on Day 1, they're just going to step in and plug-and-play, it doesn't happen.

"This is a league where you have to practice, you have to train, and you have to get in sync with the other guys that you're working with.

"I think all those guys are just starting to feel more comfortable."

At the midway point, the Eagles' record says they epitomize mediocrity, but dang if they did not do some good things against the Cowboys.

Perhaps this was the moment. Maybe it just took half the season for them to get it together. There is still a lot of time to accomplish some good things.

The win over the Cowboys could be the start of . . .

"Maybe as you write a story at the end of the season," Kelly said, "(then you can think) what the turning point was when you go back."

Columns: ph.ly/Smallwood