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It's Eagles vs. Cowboys
Dallas will be out to avenge last season's 44-6 rout
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Published: November 8, 2009
PHILADELPHIA
The Philadelphia Eagles and Dallas Cowboys have played each other with a Super Bowl and a playoff spot at stake.
They have had the "Bounty Bowl," Emmitt Smith getting stuffed, Eagles fans cheering for a motionless Michael Irvin, and Terrell Owens stoking controversy for each side.
Dallas and Philadelphia have lined up against each other 99 times in forging one of the most heated rivalries in the NFL. It seems fitting that the 100th meeting has something significant on the line. The teams are tied for first in the NFC East at 5-2, and the Eagles have yet to lose to a division opponent.
"I know the crowd is going to be out of their minds," Coach Andy Reid of the Eagles said.
The fans are always hostile when the Eagles and Cowboys play, especially when more than bragging rights are at stake. Last season was no exception. The finale turned into a do-or-die game for the final NFC wild-card spot, and the Eagles rolled 44-6 to make the postseason -- and eventually reached the NFC title game.
The Cowboys left Lincoln Financial Field in shambles but will return on a three-game winning streak and playing their best football of the season. They haven't forgotten how they were thoroughly dominated in that second series game last season.
"We're going to watch it on tape, we're going to correct the things we didn't do well and come up with a way to attack these guys," quarterback Tony Romo said. "We're going to go out there and be a better football team than we were that played that day…. There's motivation in the sense that is an important game."
Romo has thrown eight touchdown passes without an interception over the last three games and has put aside Roy Williams' grumbling to find a favorite target in wide receiver Miles Austin, who has 21 catches for 482 yards and five touchdowns during the winning streak (and his first three NFL starts).
The Eagles want to end that hot streak -- and keep theirs going.
They have rolled to victories the last two weeks over division rivals Washington and New York. Philly will have running back Brian Westbrook back after he sat last week because of the lingering effects from a concussion.
"I am excited to get to play again. It really doesn't matter at this point who we are playing against for me," Westbrook said. "It means a little bit extra because it's Dallas, but I just want to be able to go out there and play a football game."
The game means extra to almost any player who was ever worn either uniform. Reid recalled how the magnitude of the series truly hit him his first season in Philadelphia in 1999 during a stop at a fast-food restaurant for breakfast.
"There was this little old lady, she had to be 80 years old, and she came up and she said, ‘Hey, make sure you kick their'... and she threw a few out there. This looked like everybody's grandma," Reid said. "I just went, "Whoa, this means a lot.' "
"That's the way it's been. I think the fans here are passionate about playing and welcoming in the Dallas Cowboys, and I know the players feel that way and the coaches feel that way. I know it's the same way on their side."
Dallas and Philadelphia have split the season series the last two years, with the Cowboys winning both early-season games and the Eagles winning both rematches.
With a national TV audience watching, this game could have a hard time matching some of the great games over the first 99. The Cowboys lead the series 55-44 and once won 11 straight (1967-1972).
For most Eagles fans, a win over the Cowboys is second only to winning a Super Bowl -- a feat the Eagles have yet to accomplish.
One of the biggest wins in Eagles' history came at the expense of Dallas in January 1981, when the Eagles beat the Cowboys 20-7 to advance to the Super Bowl for the first time in franchise history.
Eagles fans once cheered the ambulance that drove Irvin off the field after he went down with a career-ending neck injury. And any die-hard Eagles fan remembers the "fourth-and-1" game in 1995, when former Cowboys coach Barry Switzer ran Emmitt Smith into the line on consecutive plays in Dallas territory late in the fourth quarter. Smith was stopped both times as the Eagles went on to win 20-17.
Now it's time for Romo and Donovan McNabb, Austin and DeSean Jackson to make No. 100 a game to remember.
"It's a nice rivalry to have," Reid said.
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