Phil Sheridan: Eagles' road to playoffs goes through Dallas

One week after the big two-part grudge match against New York - and just days after the Phillies' dismissal from the World Series - the Eagles face the NFL equivalent of those Damned Yankees.

Yes, the Eviler Empire. The Dallas Cowboys, the self-styled America's Team with the blustery owner and the brand-new gazillion-dollar stadium, come to Lincoln Financial Field tonight for a game that could help define the season for both participants.

To juice it up, ESPN.com's NFC East blogger, Dallas-based Matt Mosley, mined a quote from a new book about the Eagles. In Game Changers: The 50 Greatest Plays in Philadelphia Eagles Football History, veteran beat writers Reuben Frank and Mark Eckel interviewed former Eagles assistant John Harbaugh about the rivalry with the Cowboys.

"Andy Reid is the guy who ruined the decade for the Cowboys," said Harbaugh, now head coach of the Baltimore Ravens. "Think about it - they've been trying to get back to where they were the whole decade, and the Eagles have been the ones keeping them from getting there. They've stuck daggers in the Cowboys year after year."

That would be plenty of bulletin board - or is it message board? - material to get the folks in the Metroplex riled up. But Harbs went on:

"Why is that? Because what Andy Reid and his program stand for is the opposite of what the Cowboys stand for. The Cowboys are a star system. It's all about building around individuals first and collecting talent, collecting great players. And over the long haul, it's a team sport, and one of the greatest examples of that is what's happened with the Eagles and the Cowboys over the last 10 years. The Cowboys stand for everything that's wrong in the NFL."

Is it quibbling to point out that the New York Giants are the only NFC East team to win a Super Bowl in the last decade?

Indeed, it is the Eagles' odd distinction to be the best team in the NFC East during the division's longest championship-free stretch. Since the AFL-NFL merger, NFC East teams won two Super Bowls in the 1970s, three in the '80s, and a remarkable five of six in the first half of the '90s.

The 2007 Giants won the division's lone Super Bowl in the last 13 years.