Rookies get taste of an old rivalry

"For me, it's just like any other team," Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb said earlier this week. "I don't get caught up in the whole rivalry aspect of it. It's just like playing any other team. Whatever is on your schedule, that's who you have to play and you have to do whatever to win."

Despite McNabb's platitude, there is extra meaning to the prime-time centenary edition of the NFC East rivalry. Both teams, seemingly playing their best football, are 5-2 with first place in the division on the line. And Dallas enters with the sting of last December's 44-6 road loss still fresh in the mind of many a Cowboy.

"We know what happened last year," linebacker Bradie James said to Dallas reporters on Wednesday. "I am not going to sit here and tell you we haven't."

Still, there are plenty of players on both sides that had nothing to do with that season finale that propelled the Eagles into the playoffs and dashed the Cowboys' chances of playing another week. There have been free-agent signings, trades and a batch of rookies added since then.

For the Eagles, perhaps more now than ever under coach Andy Reid, many first-year players have played pivotal roles so early in the season.

Top draft pick Jeremy Maclin has started at wide receiver since Week 3 and is the Eagles' third-leading receiver. Running back LeSean McCoy leads the team in rushing and has steadied the ship whenever starter Brian Westbrook has been injured. Macho Harris started the first six games at free safety and, even though it appears he has lost his job, will rotate with Sean Jones. Free-agent rookie Antonio Dixon has joined the defensive tackle rotation. And strong-side linebacker Moise Fokou will earn his first career start tomorrow if an injured Chris Gocong can't go.

"The only thing 'rookie' means is that it's your first year playing," Maclin, 21, said yesterday. "I don't think that just because you're a rookie you're not capable of doing certain things."

Maclin conceded that he doesn't have it all figured out, nor does he imagine he will this season. He said the first year is the hardest for a reason, because you're not only adapting to the NFL and a new lifestyle, but you're also learning "how to become a man."

"When some guys come out of college they think they're invincible, and you have to make sure that they understand that they're not," McNabb said.

According to Reid, there are certain experiences a rookie just can't prepare for, and one of those is Cowboys week.

"As long as every day is a new adventure here and they haven't walked in those steps, then to me they're a rookie," Reid said. "He hasn't been through this, so every week there's something new for him. Whether it's just the length of the season, to the different looks from the different teams that some of the guys have played several times."

Brown, now in his eighth season, remembered his first Dallas game and how former defensive coordinator Jim Johnson flipped the switch as soon as preparation for the Cowboys began.

"I can remember Jim's intensity," Brown said. "Jim was like insane. The way he practiced and the verbiage, for a young player it was crazy."

Speaking of crazy, the rookies have already gotten a smidgen from Eagles fans of their distaste for America's team. Before the season, Harris was discussing the schedule with a group of fans.

"And when they talked about the division part the only team they talked about was Dallas," he said. "And I was like, 'They're in Texas. What about Washington and New York?' They were like, 'We hate Dallas.' "

And what have the veterans said about the Cowboys?

"There's a rivalry, but you don't take it to a different level as far as that other stuff," Harris said. "There's a game, but it's business as usual."

Contact staff writer Jeff McLane

at 215-854-4745 or jmclane@phillynews.com.