5 Eagles vs. Cowboys Games We Can Watch Over & Over Again

There’s nothing like Dallas Week. The raw energy and nerves of millions of Eagles fans are at their highest when playing their most hated rival.

But this year’s Eagles vs. Cowboys game is the most lackluster since their meaningless Week 17 games in the 2016 and 2017 seasons. The Eagles maybe struggling with a 2-4-1 start and going through the usual plethora of injuries, but the Cowboys are having a FAR worst season so far. They were already struggling with a shockingly bad defense and had one miraculous win over the Falcons before their Dak Prescott suffered a gruesome injury that’s put him on the shelf for the season. Things may have seemed okay with veteran backup Andy Dalton under center, but it only got worse with blowout losses to the Cardinals and Washington Football Team. Bad luck struck again with a dirty hit knocking out Dalton for this upcoming game in Philly.

Dallas’ situation right now is a dumpster fire to say the least, as even their most reliable offensive weapons are struggling to perform. So the odds are that this upcoming Eagles vs. Cowboys game won’t have the drama or intensity as some of their bigger match-ups than before. So if Sunday’s game gets boring (boring as in an easy Eagles win), we can always go to Youtube and tune in to some of the more fun Eagles and Cowboys games like these:

1980 NFC Championship Game

Revisionist history says that the game where the Cowboy’s great run under Tom Landry ended was against the San Francisco 49ers in 1981 with Dwight Clark’s “The Catch.” But the first crack of that run of NFC dominance ending actually occurred the year before when losing to the same division rival they used to yawn at in the ’70s.

Before 2/4/2018, this was the Eagles biggest win of the Super Bowl era. The high of beating Dallas to go to the Super Bowl was huge that it kinda explains why they fell flat in Super Bowl XV. But forget about that, watching this game with Wilbert Montgomery’s legendary performance and a wild Veterans Stadium crowd brings back wave upon wave of Philly nostalgia.

The Groundhog Day Game

The Ray Rhodes Era is a forgotten one in Eagles history. His tenure bridged the Birds transition from the Kelly Green Era of the early ’90s to the Andy Reid Midnight Green Era of the late ’90s and early ’00s. But the highlight of the Rhodes Era was this memorable Cowboys game while they were still in the height of their ’90s dynasty.

The signature moment was Cowboys head coach Barry Switzer going for the win on 4th and 1 and Emmit Smith getting stuffed. However the 2 minute warning clock had occurred and the play didn’t count. So Dallas could’ve fixed that mistake and punted, but instead they decided to run the same play and Smith got stuffed again. The Eagles kicked a winning field goal as John Madden went crazy on Barry Switzer in commentary. Sure the Cowboys still went on to win the Super Bowl that season, but that boneheaded mistake was the first crack of the dynasty falling apart.

T.O.’s Return

While Terrell Owens gets more appreciation from Eagles fans today for his wonderful 2004 season and valiant performance in Super Bowl XXXIX, in 2006 no one was more hated in Philly than T.O. Following the Super Bowl loss the T.O.’s drama with the Eagles and Donovan McNabb became a Soap Opera the NFL has never seen before nor since. His beef with McNabb divided the locker room and turned the defending NFC Champions into a 6-10 disaster in 2005.

Owens was released following the season and, of course, signed with the Cowboys. On the day of his return the Philadelphia Inquirer’s Sports page had a feature called “81 Reasons to Hate T.O.” There had never been an Eagles regular season game with as much hype as this one. But this isn’t just remembered as the T.O. Returns Game, it’s also known as the Lito Sheppard Game. Lito was key in holding Owens to only three catches and his game-sealing Pick-Six off of Drew Bledsoe (yes, that Drew Bledsoe!) remains an iconic moment in the history of the Linc. The Lito song can still be heard to this day.

44-6

https://youtu.be/IjbnRe_Bkl0

Lets be honest, when the Eagles play the Cowboys we don’t wanna beat them in a back-and-forth dramatic game. We want to blow them out in the most embarrassing of ways. The only game where the Eagles did that perfectly was in the 2008 regular season finale. The hype of that game intensified throughout that day as suddenly NFC Wild Card playoff spots were open and the winner of the Eagles/Cowboys game would get to sneak into the 6th seed.

It should have been a competitive game between two teams on the verge of the playoffs right? Nope. The Birds who were up-and-down that season suddenly played like their 2004 version and whooped their butts in what turned out to be every Eagles fans second favorite final score, 44-6. It also turned out to be Brian Dawkins’ last home game as a Philadelphia Eagle, and no one could have asked for a better game for Weapon X’s home-field finale.

Week 16, 2019

After winning the Super Bowl in 2017 the Eagles were inconsistent in the 2018 and 2019 seasons and had struggled against their arch rivals. By the time they lost to the Miami Dolphins in Week 13 of 2019 their season looked to be over. However something unexpected happened, they started turning things around and defeated the Giants and Washington the next two weeks, setting up an NFC East title match against Dallas. The Cowboys struggled in 2019 too, but still had enough talent on their roster to defeat an Eagles team riddled with injuries.

But when it came time to play, they shockingly couldn’t find their way into the end-zone. Carson Wentz didn’t dominate but didn’t commit a turnover and managed the game well in arguably the biggest win of his career. Jim Schwartz and the defense gave their finest regular season performance in holding the Cowboys to 9 points. The Eagles went from looking done into Miami to on the verge of the playoffs, something they sealed with a win over the Giants the following week.