EAGLEMANIACAL.com

SUNDAY 8:30 Lincoln Financial Field – Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

SHOWDOWN

THIS is the biggest game of the regular season. Not because it’s against the Cowboys, but because it’s one of three division games at the end of the season. As long as two teams in this division were still alive in the race to win it, there was ALWAYS going to be a fight somewhere during these last three weeks.

Personally, I’m glad it’s the Cowpies. If we can string this and the va-giants game into wins, we can rest our starters in Week 17. If it were us and the Foreskins, we’d have to run hot the whole time, which might burn us out for the playoffs.

EAGLES

Defense

Except for the inability to contain Russell Wilson last week, our Defense was what I expected it to be against the Seahawks offense. Dallas plays with a similar mindset (pound the ball, draw teams into the box, hit’em up top vs 1-on-1 coverage), but Dallas’s QB can’t run around anymore. Somewhere out there DE Vinny Curry and OLB’s Brandon Graham, Trent Cole and Connor Barwin are licking their chops.

Then of course there’s the fact that this Defense took away all of Dallas’s weapons last time we met. It’s not like the Cowboys had anyone out on injury or suspension when we did that. They weren’t playing on a slick field that hampered their running. Conditions will be similar this time around. Except colder. Windier. And the crowd won’t be neutral this time. It’ll be downright unfriendly. Expect the Defense to repeat what it did two weeks ago.

Offense

QB Mark Sanchez cut Dallas’s defense up like a fork-tender steak the last time he saw it. And RB LeSean McCoy ran through their defenders like he was coated in Ex-lax. The excuse from Cowpies fans last time around was that they only had 4 days rest. Translation:

Fuck outta here, you whiny bitches. It was the same 4 days of rest we had, plus WE had to travel.

If you take Dallas now having to travel east to play outside in cold air (making breath harder to recover, trust me, I know), and add it to the fast paced Offense we tired them out with two weeks ago;  it might have these guys on the sidelines wearing oxygen masks like they’re playing in Denver.

COWBOYS

Defense

Really? They have one?

Offense

My instincts say that with the colder, windier weather that will make the ball as hard as a brick, Dallas won’t want to throw the ball around too much. Especially if fans are loud enough to make it hard to hear in the huddle. (And just so you know: Run plays usually have short names like “23 Trap” or “31 Dive”; whereas pass plays have names like “Spider 2 Y Banana” or “Spread RT X Left Zoom Post 269”. So the louder fans are, the harder it is for an opponent’s passing game to be in synch.)

Basically this next game will be them attempting to get RB DeMarco Murray on track early. As long as we realize that and focus more on limiting him and don’t over-commit to stopping him altogether, we can throw a wet blanket over their whole offense again.

BOTTOM LINE

Dallas plays a style of ball that currently can’t beat us on offense and can’t keep up with us on defense. The only way we lose this game is if we’re careless with the ball and maybe not even then.

PREDICTION

EAGLES 40 – Cowboys 6