Three seconds. That is 3 seconds into the game. That's all it took to lose the game. At 14:57 of the first quarter, Cowboys special teamer Randal Williams caught an onside kick in mid-air and never looked back. 37 yards and 3 seconds later, the Cowboys had a 7-0 lead and no starting offense or defense had stepped out onto the field. A NFL record for fastest touchdown at the beginning of a game, ever! Did anyone say Dave Campo? How about Chan Gailey? I think Andy Reid out-tricked his own brain, as he must of thought one of these past idiotic coaches was still coaching the Dallas Cowboys. He couldn't have been more wrong. That was a Hall of Fame coach known to most as the "Big Tuna", alias Bill Parcells. You know he had the team looking for an onside kick. Three seconds. Three seconds to history. The wrong side of history for the Philadelphia Eagles! Said Reid afterwards: "If I had to do it again, I wouldn't." Jon Runyan added, "If you're willing to take a gamble like that, you have to deal with the consequences." This onside kick may have cost the Eagles the game and any chance of ever winning the division this year as the Cowboys took a 2 game lead and 4-1 record, while Philadelphia drops to 2-3 on the year.

Bonehead decision number two was made right before the end of the first half. The Eagles had great field position almost all the time during the first half of action yesterday afternoon. The Eagles failed to capitalize on possession after possession to convert these situations into points. The Eagles eventually scored a touchdown after some nice runs by Brian Westbrook. At the beginning of the second quarter, Philadelphia drove the field 55 yards on 9 plays to take a 7-0 lead. Westbrook had runs of 21 and 4 yards, which set up his 5-yard TD run and his 3rd in 3 straight games. Westbrook finished the day rushing 8 times for 37 yards before leaving the game with a hip pointer. Both defenses were dominating throughout the first half, keeping both offenses at bay. But with less than 2 minutes, Andy Reid's pass-happy offense did all they could to help the Cowboys take the lead before halftime. Starting on the 10-yard line, one would be inclined to simply run the clock down as much as possible. On second and third downs, McNabb threw 2 incompletions, stopping the clock on both plays. The Cowboys got the ball back with 1:17 and 2 timeouts. Just enough time to setup a 51-yard FG attempt for Billy Cundiff. With 12 seconds left, Dallas took a 10-7 lead. That's 10 FREE points. We are talking FREE because of 2 major coaching blunders, not turnovers. The Eagles should have had a 7-0 lead at the least. They would have probably gone on to win the game and had a share of first place instead of a last place showdown with the New York Giants next week.

Well anyway, the Eagles offense was dismal the entire game thanks to another bad performance by QB Donovan McNabb. He struggled all day long, completing only 11 of 26 passes for 126 yards and a touchdown. McNabb, playing with a sore thumb made no excuses about his play. "I hope it will get better", he said. "I just have to play the whole year with it and see what happens." McNabb's 11 completions were his fewest since the middle of the 2000 season, when he completed 10 against the Giants. Despite his latest woes and a Cowboys 17-7 lead 5 minutes into the second half, he threw a big pass to Duce Staley. Staley caught the pass and sprinted 52 yards for a touchdown. Then late in the fourth quarter, the Eagles took a 21-20 lead on a nice 20-yard scamper by Correll Buckhalter. On the following kickoff, special teams let the Philadelphia down again. The Cowboys rookie Zuriel Smith returned the ball 54 yards. From there, Dallas moved the ball into FG range and Billy Cundiff connected from 28 yards out. Dallas retook the lead 23-21 with only 1:11 left. It looked over. Thanks to James Thrash filling in for Brian Westbrook, he took the ensuing kickoff and returned it 41 yards to the Eagles 48-yard line. But once again, Donovan let the team down by being sacked and fumbling the ball away on the same play. The Cowboys, now at 4-1 are in total command of the NFC East. The Eagles and Giants, both at 2-4 and struggling will face off next week at the Meadowlands.