Dallas Cowboys Win First Playoff Game Since '96, Drill Philadelphia Eagles

NFL News - January 10th, 2010 - Written by Bryan

Philadelphia vowed to return as a completely different team, but it looked eerily similar to a week ago.

Same boring offense. Same weak defensive pressure. Same blowout loss.

For the second week in a row, the Eagles were trounced by the Dallas Cowboys, 34-14, giving Jerry Jones' team it's first playoff win since 1996 and covering the 1 1/2-point spread. And just like that, head coach Wade Phillips got the key win he had been waiting for since taking over the club three years ago. Everything appears right in Dallas, at least for today.

"It's just...rewarding," Tony Romo said. "It makes me proud of the guys in there -- fighting, grinding, staying committed to the approach. I'm happy for the guys, happy for Wade, happy for Jerry."

There was poetry in the Cowboys eliminating Philadelphia in these NFL Playoffs, for it was last year that the Eagles eliminated Dallas on the regular season's final day to keep their rivals out of the 2008 postseason. Phillips had been 0-4 in the playoffs over his coaching career, and Bodog was giving a -130 payout on a prop bet if the Cowboys lost and he was fired thereafter. But that's history, as Dallas ended it's longest stretch without a playoff win ever.

Romo broke his two-game interception streak, throwing for 244 yards and two touchdowns. But it was Felix Jones that did most of the damage to the Eagles. A week after recording a franchise-record 247 return yards in the 24-0 win last week, Jones led all rushers with 148 yards and a touchdown, and averaged nearly 10 yards a carry. Most of those yards came on his 73-yard score in the third quarter with the game already in hand.

"All I could see then was green--green grass, and I took it," Jones said about the run.

Dallas outrushed the Eagles 198-56, and won the turnover battle 4-1. Whenever those two things happen together, there's little chance the Cowboys lose.

"This team has hung together all year, got stronger at the end of the year and is playing our best football," Phillips said. "I think we're playing as good as anybody right now."

Miles Austin led his Dallas with 82 yards, but eight different receivers had at least one catch.

The Eagles had never lost a playoff opener with Donovan McNabb at quarterback, but he was up and down all night, and completed only 19 of 37 passes for 230 yards. He did manage a four-yard touchdown pass to DeSean Jackson, but it came early in the fourth quarter when the game was already a laugher.

Mike Vick had the other score for Philadelphia, connecting on a 76-yard pass to Jeremy Maclin in the second quarter to tie it at seven. The original pass was only about a 20-yard out, but Maclin's defender over pursued in attempt to knock down the pass. When he fell to the turf, the rookie wideout was clear to zip up the left sideline untouched.

But that's when Dallas took over. Those who picked "yes" in Bodog's prop bet asking whether a team would score three unanswered times were paid off handsomely with a -180 return because the Cowboys played as big as their new home, scoring five unanswered times in the second and third quarters.

Tashard Choice kicked his team in gear with a one-yard run to make it 14-7 after Vick's touchdown.

Then, Austin's six-yard score was sandwiched between two Shaun Suisham field goals to take it to 27-7.