EAGLES NEWS

It was not a fun sunday night for the Eagles. Up to this point in the season the Eagles defense had been having a solid year, consistently holding teams under 20 points and under 300 yards. Tonight, however, they were picked apart by the Cowboys, to the tune of 434 yards and 38 points, including 7 catches for 174 yards and a TD by Terrell Owens, and 324 yards and 3 TDs by Tony Romo. The Eagles offense meanwhile, was able to move the ball down field well with 316 yards of their own, but once again they were unable to put up a lot of points, and turned the ball over 3 times, which proved to be the difference, as the Cowboys turned those gifts in 14 points. Donovan Mcnabb set the tone for the night, on the first play of the game, as he was sacked and fumbled the ball away. Dallas recovered and turned it into 7-0 lead on a 2 yard run by Julius Jones. Mcnabb kept his composure though and on the Eagles next possession, after a long drive, Brian Westbrook took it in from 3 yards out for a 7-7 tie. Romo struck back late in the 1st quarter with a 1 TD pass to Tony Curtis for a 14-7 lead. Then late in the 2nd quarter the Cowboys were seemingly on their way to a 21-7 lead, when Romo was intercepted by Lito Sheppard on the 10 yard line. Unfortunately, 3 plays later Ken Hamlin intercepted it back from Mcnabb on a desperate 3rd and long toss. From there, Dallas drove down to the goal line and Marion Barber ran it in from 5 yards out for a 21-7 halftime lead for the Cowboys. Early in the 3rd quarter Romo fired a 45 yard TD pass to T.O for a 28-7 lead. The Eagles could only answer with a David Akers field goal to cut the lead to 28-10. Late in the quarter Romo fired a 20 yard TD pass to Jason Witten for a 35 - 10 lead and that was about all she wrote for the Eagles. Dallas tacked on a field goal early in the 4th quarter for a 38 - 10 lead and then Eagles finally started getting aggressive but it was too little too late. Mcnabb hit Hank Baskett for a 10 yard TD pass with just under 6 minutes to play to cut the lead to 38-17. After forcing a three and out, the Eagles got the ball back with 3:30 to play, and Mcnabb drove the Eagles into Dallas territory, but with 1:30 to play he was intercepted again and Dallas ran out the clock for a 38-17 win. So the Eagles drop to 3-5 and now must win next week against the Redskins or their season is all but over.