Cowboys pay back Eagles, putting past December woes behind them

PHILADELPHIA – The traditional dogs of December came off the field woofing.

"Merry Christmas!" a couple of the Dallas Cowboys yelled at jeering Philadelphia Eagles fans as they departed the scene of their crucial 38-27 win here over the rivals who trashed them only two weeks ago.

Inside the locker room, there was more barking.

"We don't care about those fans," Dallas defensive back Orlando Scandrick said. "They just talk. Hey, they beat traffic today. We commend them on their commitment to jerk-ness."

We're all so used to the Cowboys folding at this time of year, winding up as a punch line for hecklers at 8-8. But this team has 10 wins and, more significantly, zero road losses. The very adversity that crushed the Cowboys in prior seasons seems to ignite them now. They've gone to Seattle and won. Now they've gone to Philadelphia and won, pushing the Eagles to the brink of elimination in the process.

"One thing I knew," said Cowboys defensive end Jeremy Mincey, "is that we're better than them."

That belief sprouted immediately after the drubbing the Cowboys took on Thanksgiving Day. Wide receiver Dez Bryant called the Eagles "cheap" and then clammed up, deciding instead to wait for the rematch before saying anything more. On Sunday night, he had three touchdowns and said almost nothing inflammatory after the game. "I knew that my teammates were raring to go," he said. "We had to keep each other calm because a lot of us were anxious for this one. We stayed calm. We stayed focused."

When asked if he was bothered by the single coverage on him throughout the evening, Bryant grinned and said, "I'm gonna leave that one alone."

Scandrick was a little more forthcoming.

"They were foolish," he said, "if they thought they would get the same team."

Instead, the Eagles got the same team that has mostly shown up since an opening home loss to San Francisco. The Cowboys' offensive line, which was owned on Thanksgiving Day, pretty much mauled the Eagles in the first quarter, vaulting Tony Romo to a 21-0 lead before Philadelphia gained a single yard.

"We just talked about being together," said guard Zack Martin, "playing on the road."

Eagles fans tried their tactics, including reportedly chucking eggs at the Cowboys' buses before the game. And the stadium here shook when Philadelphia roared back from that early deficit to briefly take the lead in the third quarter, 24-21.

Those moments felt all too familiar to onlookers who expect Romo and Co. to wither, but these Cowboys are different. They marched down the field and rode a DeMarco Murray touchdown to a 28-24 lead, and then J.J. Wilcox picked off Mark Sanchez on the next drive. Bryant's final score, early in the fourth quarter, basically ended it.

"We never lost focus," said Bryant, who has been known to lose focus. "It's the NFL. You go through some bad and good things, you overcome it."

So then what happened two weeks ago, when Dallas looked so dreadful?

A couple of the Cowboys pointed to the London trip for a game against the Jaguars, followed by two games against division opponents over the course of five days in late November.

"I don't like excuses," Scandrick said, "but we walked through that whole week."

Mincey backed him up: "We looked slow. It was a load, man. I couldn't even tell you."

And of course Romo looked downright elderly on the holiday, collapsing to the ground to avoid being hit by the oncoming Eagles pass rushers.

Not the case here Sunday. Romo was spritely, scanning the field and stepping into his throws in a way that told everyone the week-and-a-half rest following the win over Chicago did him wonders. The Cowboys are still in a lot of trouble if Romo doesn't heal from week to week, but their opponents are in a lot of trouble if this team is healthy in the playoffs. Take away the losses to Philadelphia and Washington, in which Romo left the game with his back injury, and it's difficult to find a poor performance all season. And it's impossible to find a poor performance away from Jerryworld, which says a lot about how playoff-ready this playoff-allergic team is. Asked what a 10th win means to this consistently mediocre franchise, Scandrick said, "Nothin'. Nothin'. Just closer to 11."

Closer to 11 means closer to a possible home game in the playoffs. Perhaps the Cowboys should elect to defer, considering how fearsome they've been on the road.

Jerry Jones, after hosting New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie in his private box during the game (and probably ending his presidential ambitions by doing so across the river from a ton of South Jersey Eagles fans), at first avoided speaking to the media out of superstition. He eventually gave in – what did you expect? – and called the third-quarter Eagles comeback "a nightmare." Then he said the season has already exceeded expectations. He also said he didn't wear a sweatsuit on the team plane like his players because "I'm the daddy."

Jones' mood swings are as wild as the price of crude over the past few weeks, but his team just keeps drilling. Sure, the Cowboys could be setting the table for another December rug-pull, losing to either Indianapolis or Washington and watching the playoffs on television once again. But if this is the same old house of cards, the implosion probably would have happened here on Sunday. It didn't.

Don't look now, Cowboys fans, but it might be a Merry Christmas in Big D.