'Dream Team' Eagles show up, blow away Cowboys early

By Charean Williams

cjwilliams@star-telegram.com

PHILADELPHIA -- This wasn't what the Cowboys had in mind.

In a game owner Jerry Jones said he circled on his calendar the day the schedule was released as a "statement" game, Dallas got its helmet handed to it. In winning 34-7, the Eagles instead were the team that made a statement:

The Dream Team is back.

The Giants still lead the NFC East with a 5-2 record, a two-game lead over the other three teams, but the Eagles are coming. After a 1-4 start, Philadelphia has won back-to-back games over division opponents.

On the eve of Halloween, Lincoln Financial Field was the Cowboys' house of horrors. It had to remind Cowboys fans of the 44-6 loss here in 2008, a regular-season finale that kept Dallas out of the playoffs.

But it didn't remind the Cowboys of that.

"I am disappointed," Jones said. "There's no alarm. I want to be real clear: There is absolutely no alarm in me. We had a lot to gain. If we could come up here and win this ballgame, we had a lot to gain. We understand that. ... We did not play good at all. But they played outstanding.

"I give them their credit. They did what they had to do to be what we had in mind [that they were capable of]. But we're going to step right back out. I'm going to say one more time: Not a cause for concern."

What could go right did for the Eagles as they lived up to the "all-hype team" moniker Rob Ryan had slapped on them during training camp.

The Eagles had 31 first downs, only two short of being the most ever against the Cowboys, and 495 yards.

Michael Vick passed for 279 yards and two touchdowns in completing 21 of 28 passes, and he ran for 50 yards on seven carries. LeSean McCoy became the first 100-yard rusher against Dallas this season, rushing for a career-high 185 yards and two touchdowns. Receiver Jeremy Maclin caught three passes for 54 yards; receiver DeSean Jackson caught three for 31; tight end Brent Celek had seven for 94 and a touchdown; and receiver Jason Avant had five for 74.

"It's a terrible game plan," Ryan said. "I never gave our guys a chance. We got killed by the flash play over and over and over, did a lousy job adjusting to it. It's all my fault. I never gave our guys a chance."

The Eagles scored on their first six possessions before finally punting with a little more than nine minutes left in the game.

By then, the fat lady was hoarse.

On the second play from scrimmage, Vick hit Maclin on a slant for 24 yards. Six plays later, the Eagles were in the end zone for the first time.

In the first half, the Eagles had 20 first downs and 324 yards and held a 24-0 lead at intermission as they scored on all four possessions.

Dallas entered the game ranked seventh in total defense, including first against the run. It had allowed only five runs of 10 yards or more and only 17 passes of 20 yards or more in the first six games.

The Eagles blew up those stats in the first half alone.

They had four runs of at least 10 yards and four passes of at least 20 yards in the first 30 minutes as they finally lived up to their Dream Team tag. The Eagles added three more runs of 10-plus yards in the second half.

"If anybody expected this, they're probably in the wrong business," Cowboys defensive end Marcus Spears said. "...But they have game-breakers, and they showed up today, and we weren't able to contain any of them."

As bad as it was for the Cowboys' defense, it wasn't much better for the special teams or the offense.

"It was a pretty good butt-kicking in all three phases," Cowboys linebacker Keith Brooking said. "There's no one person more responsible. You've just got to be accountable and look at yourself and figure out what you can do better. This is one of those games where you watch the film, and you put it behind you. We've got to move forward. You can't allow it to be bigger than what it is."

The Cowboys avoided their first shutout since 2003 when Laurent Robinson beat safety Kurt Coleman for a 70-yard touchdown from Tony Romo with 12:44 left in the game. That cut the Cowboys' deficit to 27.

"We just needed a spark on offense," Robinson said of his first touchdown as a Cowboy. "That was a big play for us and tried to get going after that. I don't know..."

Before that pass, Romo had completed 8 of 16 passes for 62 yards and an interception for a 33.9 rating. The Cowboys' big-play receivers, Dez Bryant and Miles Austin, weren't even targeted in the first half as the Cowboys had only 18 plays. Bryant and Austin finished with a combined six catches and 55 yards.

The Cowboys had 267 total yards.

As if that wasn't bad enough, kicker Dan Bailey ended up punting. Punter Mat McBriar aggravated his left foot injury and left the game after three punts for a 37-yard average.

The Cowboys also lost inside linebacker Sean Lee (wrist) and cornerback Mike Jenkins (hamstring) for the game.

As bad as it was Sunday, and despite the fact that the Cowboys have lost three of their past four, the schedule gets significantly easier over the next month. Their next five opponents are a combined 11-24. Among that group, only the Bills (5-2) have a winning record.

Charean Williams

817-390-7760

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