Bird

A RLINGTON, Texas -  If the point of the season now is to look for progress from the kiddies, Sunday night's 38-33 loss to the Dallas Cowboys was a success. Yeah, this is the worst pass defense you ever saw. You knew that already, you just saw it underlined, in red. The Eagles' eighth loss in a row nonetheless represented a season high in points. Most important, it was a strong step forward for the rookie quarterback, Nick Foles, who carried a 100-plus passer rating well into the fourth quarter, helped by an offensive line that finally seems to be coming together.

So this is what it's like for fans of Kansas City and Jacksonville and all the other no-hopers of the NFL. They gather at this time of the year out of habit more than anything, looking for some glimmer that the next season won't be as useless as the current one. They wait until the schedule finally produces an opponent just as disorganized and dispirited as their own and maybe, just maybe, the outcome will go in their favor and they can drive home...

This story originally appeared in the Daily News on Sept. 10, 2008. We asked our writers who had covered Eagles-Cowboys games for their memories. THE STORY OF the Eagles-Cowboys rivalry has been told a thousand different ways since grudges and long memories began seeping into the bloodstream of this matchup between two lifetime members of the NFC East (and before that, the NFL Capitol Division). It's accepted that we get more whipped up about the series than the guys deep in the heart of Texas during the weeks that lead up to the two regular-season games.

Thanksgiving shopping took a noticeable bite out of Black Friday's start to the holiday season, as the latest survey found retail sales in stores fell slightly from last year. Saturday's report from retail technology company ShopperTrak finds consumers spent $11.2 billion at stores across the United States. That is down 1.8 percent from last year's total. This year's Friday results appear to have been tempered by hundreds of thousands of shoppers hitting sales Thursday evening while still full of Thanksgiving dinner.

Panthers (-2 1/2) over EAGLES OK. Double V is an idiot. After cashing four straight tickets betting against the Birds, we gave 'em a shot last week. Thought that the Eagles would rally around Nick Foles is his first NFL start. Yeah, some rally . . . Six whole points! Foles threw interceptions on the first two possessions and finished 21 of 46 for 204 yards. Add in four sacks courtesy of a smelly offensive line (33 on the season), and you see why 31-6 was the tally in the Monday paper.

LANDOVER, Md. – Turn off the searchlights. No superhero is coming down from the skies to rescue these Eagles. No miracle is coming along to save Andy Reid and his dreadful football team. At this point, Reid can only hope the Mayans were right and the world ends before the regular season. It has gone beyond embarrassing, past sad and is on the way to scary. It is bad enough the present is tarnishing Reid's past accomplishments as a head coach. But now we've reached the stage where the present dysfunction is also threatening the future.

IRVING, Texas - Cowboys inside linebacker Dan Connor said Thursday that he would use bulkier shoulder pads when he does return to the field to help guard against further stinger injuries. "It's something obviously I have to adjust my shoulder pads and stick with it," said Connor, the former Strath Haven and Penn State star. "It's a little bulkier of a shoulder pad. It's going to be better for me to stay healthy with this. " Connor suffered a slight stinger Oct. 21 at Carolina and then played the following week at home against the Giants.

The goldfinches have long since devoured the sunflower seed heads in my garden. Time to get out the feeders and go buy birdseed. Estimates are fuzzy, but at least 55 million Americans join me in this effort, says George Petrides Sr., managing director of the National Bird-Feeding Society. And we spend a hefty sum doing it. Expenditures on seed, feeders, birdbaths, birdhouses, and the like come to $4.5 billion a year, he said. Helping birds doesn't have to stop there. Two other consumer choices are important - paper products and coffee.

"What it really comes down to is if we still have the political will to be a great country. " - Dave Cote, chairman and CEO of Honeywell International Inc., one of more than 80 CEOs pressing Congress to reduce the federal deficit by raising taxes and cutting spending. "We shoot the birds as they go by. " - Ace Ltd. CEO Evan Greenberg, while advising analysts to "stay tuned" as the insurer weighs more acquisitions. "There's a very high bar for Surface that it's going to have to hit initially for it to have a real chance.

This is a post from Les Bowen on the Daily News' Eagles blog, Eagletarian. SO, DESPITE WHAT we were led to believe after the Monday practice, King Dunlap is back in at left tackle for the Eagles and Demetress Bell is out. If Bell is to be measured by his Oct. 14 performance against the Lions, this is good news - Dunlap can't possibly do worse than that. But as we've said before in this space, Dunlap has been around here since 2008, the rookie season he spent on IR. He served three seasons on the active roster before this one, without ever earning more than a brief stint as a starter.