HISTORY HAS shown us that the Eagles and the Dallas Cowboys are rarely good at the same time. Usually, the two franchises are like runaway trains speeding headlong in opposite directions.
It happens on nights like last night, with one side or the other imposing its will in a significant way. You feel the whoosh, and you look behind you at the disappearing image, and you recognize what has happened and mark the spot for future reference.
Last night was like that.
Wave goodbye, everybody.
There is almost nothing left to say about the Eagles at this point, after watching the Cowboys completely outclass them at Lincoln Financial Field. The final score was 38-17. This was not about a play or two here or there, as many NFL games are. This was about a dozen plays, maybe two dozen. The beating was quite thorough.
We are left with little. There is a half-season to play yet, but there seems little purpose for this team other than pride, and survival. Excellence seems out of the question. Greatness is a faded memory.
The coach, though, is in denial. The Eagles' record is 3-5, but Andy Reid insists they are better than a 3-5 team, even though they really have played substandard football for almost the whole season.
"I think we are [better than 3-5]," Reid said. "I know we are. When we get the thing changed around and get a little momentum going, we'll be fine. We've got to back-to-back some games here and get some momentum going here."
They are three games out of an NFC wild-card playoff spot with eight to play. The length of the odds is obvious. It is a ridiculous league anymore and it is dangerous to write off anybody until the last bead of the abacus has clicked over, but still . . .
Besides, there are the questions that won't go away, the questions that do not have a satisfactory answer right now. They have nothing to do with Reid and his two sons being in jail and the tumult of his personal life. To grab onto that would be for this organization to make a serious mistake. The questions are more fundamental:
What can this Eagles team lean on in the second half of the season? What is the rock upon which they can build their comeback?
If the answers are there, somewhere, they are buried deep beneath the rubble. The Eagles have not played well very often this year. They might look good for a drive, or a quarter, but then they become engulfed again in their malaise. This is not about bad bounces. This is about bad.
