The real Eagles finally show up
Eagles 34, Cowboys 7
The real Eagles finally show up
Rich Hofmann, Daily News Sports Columnist
Ladies and gentlemen, your Philadelphia Eagles.
The team that was praised too early and also buried too early -- just impossible to figure in another confounding NFL season -- arrived Sunday night against the Dallas Cowboys lugging a 2-4 record and all of the imperatives such numbers suggest. They showed up for a game in a stadium filled with people who were wondering if they would ever see the team that they expected/anticipated/salivated over with each new free-agent signing in August.
Then, this:
Eagles 34, Cowboys 7.
It was a night when Chas Henry did not punt until the middle of the fourth quarter. It was a night when the Cowboys’ vaunted run defense was mutilated by Shady McCoy. Cowboys defensive coordinator Rob Ryan was the coach who got all of the ink during the week, but it was Eagles offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg who ended up being the evening’s unquestioned master. And Michael Vick was a sharp as we have seen him.
All of that, combined with a pass rush that set an early, terroristic tone, turned an expected drama into a farce. It also undoubtedly caught the attention of skeptics who have tut-tutted for weeks now about how the Eagles assembled talent in the off-season but did not assemble a team, and about how there was no way so much roster turnover, combined with so much turnover on the coaching staff, could ever have resulted in the kind of expectations that the Eagles carried into Opening Day.
All of it, as we now know, is just conversation -- the Dream Team stuff, the snap-back against the Dream Team stuff, all of it. What we are left with is a team struggling to make up an early deficit, yes, but also a team with a lot of ability that is continuing to blossom. They have been good all year on offense, really. They started coming together defensively 2 1/2 games ago, during the loss at Buffalo.
This is the result.
The question: how much of it can they sustain?
A lot of us spent the bye week doing the math. There was no way around the notion that the Eagles were going to have to beat the Cowboys in this game, no realistic way to make the numbers work with a loss.
That was pretty much accepted by everyone. What follows is conjecture: that the Eagles probably have to win seven of their remaining nine games. Is it doable? Yes. A guesstimate on the Las Vegas odds is that they could very well be favored in just that many games, seven of nine. But it is all about showing up every week. It is the NFL’s biggest challenge and it is the thing Andy Reid teams are best at, especially in the second half of the season.
So, we’ll see. The NFC East has been reduced to this: the Giants are 5-2 and the Eagles, Cowboys and Redskins are all 3-4. Watching the events of the day -- the Giants surviving at home against the winless Dolphins, the Redskins getting shut out by the Bills, the Cowboys getting obliterated by the Eagles -- it is not hard to envision this: four teams, with four knives, locked in a room with a hearty “good luck” and the expectation that only one of them will emerge.
But which?
The Eagles, for the first time in a while, looked like a team with a chance to do just that. If this did not get the attention of the rest of the league, nothing will. What the Eagles did in this game, more than anything, is demonstrate to the world how good they can be.
The next few weeks will tell us if they showed up in time.
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This comment has been deleted.— VeritasVeritas- I don't know what you mean to accomplish by this rant, but it seems you also have 'a diseased mind'. If your idea of 'integrity and decency' is this horrible piece of ill-will, I have no doubt that the people around you consider you as much a sociopath as Vick (behind your back, of course, for fear of getting stabbed or something). Most Philadelphians don't exactly consider Vick a model citizen either, but none of us with any 'core values' can so casually wish such horrors on him, or any other person. — goeagles87
- Means nothing if they don't beat chi. One game at a time.
- Great win over Cowgirls! Agree with phillyfan777. Why in the hell would you still have Vick and McCoy playing in the last quarter of a game that was over? How big of an idiot would Reid have felt like if either one of them went down. DUMB!— Bud Dry
- mccoy is the real— murdock101
- PETA has their parrots. Now vick has his. Deal with it!
- veritas. dogs arent humans. its not murder. animal rights people have real issues. please go talk to your animal lovers, and let us talk about sports. ok thanks. have a good night.— JRoL24
agree um-miester. It was a nice win that they HAD TO HAVE. it didnt matter whether it was by 24, 44, or 4. everything went right for Andy and Marty tonight. it Was Andys Superbowl tonight. Like the 50+ point skins game last year that meant nothing when they couldnt score in the 4th quarter againt the packers, or like at all, against the vikings. If they lose to Chicago next week it means almost nothing. Great win as I was there, but they still gotta beat CHI next week, and ARI, minimumn, to have any chance at all. CHI will watch the tape and there wont be any surprises on them, there wont be 2 weeks to prepare this time.beat If they beat CHI then I might be impressed. Always great to kill the cowboy- Only been to one game at the linc. Div playoff vs minn. Must have been crazy. Gotta disagree with u a little here. The skins game last yr was the beginning to the end for vick. As usual, Reid went back to the long ball and that offense was never the same. Vick had a qb rating of 58 bs the blitz coming in. Teams are taking away the deep ball. Tonite was more like he way this offense is supposed to be ran. Still like to see that ball come out quicker more often. Props to peters,herm and the o-line.
- Veritas Veritas sooooo SAD hahahahahhaahahhahaha...It is still only one win...Long way to go... Just a little EXTRA SWeeeeettt since it was the 'GALS'... ... I guess Juan Castillo defense is safe for one more week haahaha Juan's D stoppped the run...Say it ain't soo hahahaah... The Eagles #1 rushing offense in the N.F.C... Hmmmm "DOMINATION"...If this is what this team plays like without penalties and turnovers for a whole 60 minutes...I LIKE IT... Chicago is Next... Go Eagles.— trinieagle
- To Hell with those damn dogs, they are a menace to society. Didn't one of those beloved Pit Bulls rip a woman's ear off last week in West Philly and a few weeks prior killed one owner in Phila?
Personally I think the entire breed should be whipped from the face of the Earth.— Dexter - Kevin Kolb?????????...... ROFLMAO! Stop it you're killing me! Larry Fitzgerald is pissed in Arizona. A wasted talent playing decoy in the desert. The Ravens fronted Kolb and Fitzgerald two touchdowns yesterday in Baltimore. Kolb only completed one pass in the entire second half.
— Dexter - The Eagles don't run a WCO any longer, they are playing from a spread formation. Tonight the difference was shorter routes to negate the blitz. Do some of you actually watch the Eagles formation before the ball is hiked or notice the receivers in their routes?
Vick was burning the blitz before last night he's been wonderful all season against the blitz one major difference as I stated was tonight finally the Receivers were running shorter routes, instead of 7 and 15 yards, they were turning in at 3 and 5 yards and Dallas was playing their safeties deep leaving the middle of the field between the hash marks exposed.
Pittsburgh and New England does the same thing, Pittsburgh exposed New England yesterday by playing press coverage. Dallas can't do that to the Eagles.— Dexter - dear dexter. you're clueless. look dude vick has not been burning the blitz all season. he had a 58 qb rating vs the blitz coming in.
-now peters coming back helped. but so did the play calling as was vick being on the money with his passes. no, 61% is not on the money. cp% should be 65% plus with this talent on o-line.
-the west coast offense by design spreads you out. the key is well designed crossing routes. and that's what the eagles did yesterday.
