Five straight scoring drives in second quarter propel Cowboys past Eagles
ARLINGTON, Texas -- Jerry Jones exclaimed, "demons are GONE!" Keith Brooking pretended to pull a monkey off the back of coach Wade Phillips.
And Tony Romo waxed poetic about the process, about getting better every game and hoping for a reward at the end.
Home Sweet Home
The
Yankees opened a new stadium and promptly won their first World Series since 2000. The
Cowboys are hoping their new digs grant them similar luck. Here's a comparison of the two teams this season:
Yankees Cowboy s
Stadium YankeeStadium
Cowboys Stadium
Cost $1.5B $1.3B Seasonwin pct. .636 .688
Div. finish 1st 1st
Playoffs WonSeries ?
In a way, each of their reactions was pretty appropriate considering all the ramifications of the Dallas
Cowboys' 34-14 victory over the Philadelphia
Eagles on Saturday night.
The
Cowboys won their first playoff game since Dec. 28, 1996, ending a 4,760-day drought, easily the longest in the club's proud history. The skid included six losses; a seventh would've set an NFL futility record.
Phillips was 0-4 in the playoffs as a head coach, covering stints with Denver and Buffalo, too. Romo was 0-2, with bizarre circumstances surrounding each. Fittingly enough, Phillips' defense was a huge reason for this victory, and Romo broke the game open with five straight scoring drives in the second quarter.
Fast Facts
• The
Cowboys beat the
Eagles for the third time this season and will face the
Vikings in the divisional round. The
Cowboys are 2-0 all-time when facing the
Vikings on the road in the divisional round.
• It was the
Cowboys first playoff win since 1996, when they beat the
Vikings in the wild card round, only to go on to lose to the
Panthers in the divisional round.
• Felix Jones rushed 16 times for 148 yards, the third-highest rushing total in
Cowboys playoff history behind performances by Tony Dorsett and Emmitt Smith.
• Tony Romo got his first playoff win after losing his first two appearances, going 23 for 35 for 244 yards and two touchdowns.
• Wade Phillips got his first career postseason win in his fifth game. He had lost games previously with the
Broncos,
Bills and
Cowboys.
• Blog thread
-- ESPN Stats & Information
"It's just ... rewarding," Romo said. "It makes me proud of the guys in there -- fighting, grinding, staying committed to the approach. I'm happy for the guys, happy for Wade, happy for Jerry."
The
Cowboys have dominated their last four games, scoring early and never trailing in any of them. The defense has been the backbone, with the offense coming through with plenty of points and few turnovers. It's the way Dallas used to play this time of year back in the days of Roger Staubach and Tom Landry, and Troy Aikman and Jimmy Johnson.
Now, it's finally happening again under Romo and Phillips. Next up for them is a trip to Minnesota on Sunday, with Romo taking on childhood hero Brett Favre.
"This team has hung together all year, got stronger at the end of the year and is playing our best football," Phillips said. "I think we're playing as good as anybody right now."
The
Eagles are one-and-done in the playoffs for the first time under coach Andy Reid. Philadelphia had been 7-0 in playoff openers with Reid and 6-0 with Donovan McNabb at quarterback.
But they finished 0-3 against Dallas this season. The
Eagles lost 24-0 last weekend and couldn't change much. They got Michael Vick back from an injury and used him in place of McNabb for a few plays. He threw a 76-yard touchdown pass to Jeremy Maclin on his first snap, tying it at 7 early in the second quarter, but also messed up a handoff deep in his own territory, setting the
Cowboys up for the touchdown that made it 24-7.
Dallas stretched the lead to 27-7 at halftime. A 73-yard touchdown run by Felix Jones made it 34-7 going into the fourth quarter.
"They were better all the way around," Reid said. "When you get your tail kicked, it's not a great feeling. No one expected it."
The
Cowboys limited the
Eagles to 18 snaps in the decisive first half. Philadelphia gained only 140 yards in that span -- or, 64 on all plays other than Vick's TD.
McNabb wound up 19 of 37 for 230 yards, with a touchdown and an interception. DeSean Jackson, who tweeted "we gonna sting [them]" this week, was kept without any huge gains for the third time by Dallas, although he had a 4-yard touchdown catch early in the fourth quarter.
Dallas' DeMarcus Ware had two sacks, Bobby Carpenter had two fumble recoveries and Mike Jenkins recovered from allowing the 76-yard TD by breaking up a long pass and intercepting one. This performance by the defense virtually assures that Jerry Jones will pick up the team option on Phillips next season, since he's the defensive coordinator as well as the head coach.
"We have something to really build off of," Brooking said. "With the talent we have [and] we have those types of intangibles and I don't think there are a lot of teams in this league that can beat u
