What should have been a comfortable victory for the Eagles turned into a last-minute comeback for the Birds? A 12-7 victory over the lowly Dallas Cowboys clinched the home-field advantage for a third straight year, guaranteeing that the road to the Super Bowl in the NFC will go through Philadelphia. Donovan McNabb was not sharp on this afternoon as he only had a QB rating of 62. He completed 20 of 35 passes (57.1%) for 233 yards. He also threw 1 TD pass, 2 INT’s and fumbled the ball away on the Eagles 23-yard line as he was being sacked. If not for that sack and fumble, the score would likely have been 13-0 at worst. Also, after the Eagles scored their first points on a 2-yard pass to Chad Lewis, David Akers had the extra-point blocked. It was his first career blocked extra-point in the NFL. Thanks to these two mistakes and the 2 terrible McNabb interceptions, the Eagles found themselves trailing 7-6 with only 6:03 left in the game. The Dallas Cowboys were not in South Philly to lie down and die, but they were here to spoil the Eagles party. And they almost succeeded.

The Eagles and Donovan McNabb persevered through all the bad plays; bad weather conditions and the injury to Terrell Owens. The offense was out-of-sync even before Owens got hurt. Time and time again, the Dallas defense found ways to stopping the Eagles. They forced 5 punts, 2 INT’s and caused a fumble, which was recovered by Greg Ellis on the Eagles 23-yard line. That fumble led to the Cowboys only points all game long. With 6:03 left in the game, McNabb was determined to drive the team downfield to victory. The Eagles got the ball on their 36-yard line, thanks to Billy Cundiff’s missed 46-yard FG. The missed FG would have given Dallas a 10-6 lead. McNabb quickly connected with LJ Smith on a 13-yard completion. Smith had a pretty good game, catching 4 passes for 41 yards. Both Smith and Chad Lewis will become more important targets for McNabb, now that T.O. will miss the next 4 games (including 2 playoff games). After a running play to Westbrook went nowhere, McNabb used his legs on 2 straight plays; running for 12 & 19 yards respectively. Two plays later he completed a short pass over the middle to Westbrook who gained 11 yards and set up the Eagles first-and-goal on the 8-yard line. Dorsey Levens was called upon and gained 6 yards on first down. Then he plunged into the end zone from 2 yards out that finally regained the lead for Philadelphia. The Eagles failed on the 2-point conversion, thus leaving them with a 12-7 lead and 1:52 left on the clock.

It was now the Eagles defense turn to finally finish off the Cowboys. Thanks to a very stingy defense, the score remained 7-6 most of the afternoon. They sacked Vinny Testeverde 3 times. Last time in Dallas, Jeremiah Trotter had the lone Eagles sack. This time, Sheldon Brown, Ike Reece and Corey Simon each had a sack. That now makes 4 total career Eagles sacks on Testeverde. The Philly-D forced Vinny into a worse game than even Donovan had. Vinny completed 16 of 28 passes for 176 yards with 2 INT’s and 1 TD. The last INT ended the game for the Dallas Cowboys. Lito Sheppard intercepted an overthrown pass with 1:42 left in the game. Levens ran the ball twice more with a first down and Donovan added two kneel-downs and that completed a hard-earned win for the Eagles. The Eagles are now 13-1, have the home-field advantage throughout the playoffs and now can rest some of the injury-plagued players if they wish. The Eagles defense held Dallas to only 237 total yards and they held the highly touted rookie running back Julius Jones to 80 rushing yards on 25 carries. The Eagles defense will have to step it up even more when the playoffs begin, especially since T.O. will probably miss the rest of the season and playoffs. He could return for the Super Bowl, but for now that is a stretch. But this game was saved once again by Donovan McNabb and even when he is having a rough day, he could still get it done in the clutch. He has done it in the past, like in Green Bay last year; in New York the year before and he may have to do it again in the playoffs. At least we know this team will not give up and will play their hearts out to prove to the rest of the country, that even without T.O. that these Philadelphia Eagles are a team that can win the NFC.