So here we are, two weeks into the NFL season, and the Dallas Cowboys are 1-1, a game ahead of the winless Eagles in the NFC East. The green half of Penn State is in despair.
For three seasons, the Eagles have owned the Cowboys. Every meeting between the two has been a chance for Philadelphia revenge after nearly a decade of Dallas dominance. Recently, when the Eagles have played the Cowboys, they haven't just won, they've beaten them with perverse pleasure. Who can forget when the 'boys trotted Ryan Leaf out onto the Texas Stadium turf in 2001 and Gang Green effectively snuffed out the flickering candle that was his NFL career, beating him and the rest of America's team 36-3? Or just last season when the Eagles won by scores of 44-13 and 27-3?
Luckily for Eagles fans everywhere, those games were all filmed and preserved for posterity. Be sure to hold onto those tapes and memories with purpose, because the Eagles brief show of dominance over the Cowboys is history. All because of Bill Parcells.
To call the Cowboys better than the Eagles at this point is ridiculous. After all, the only thing between Dallas being 0-2 and sharing the division cellar with Philadelphia is a disastrous mistake by the Giants' Matt Bryant in the fourth quarter of Monday Night Football. Had Bryant simply kept his kickoff in bounds, the game would have ended in a 32-29 New York victory and logic would have won out.
But Bryant's kick did manage to roll out at the one-yard line and the Cowboys were given the chance to grow up in front of the entire nation.
Had this scenario been presented, ball on their own 40, 11 seconds left, needing three to tie, to the Cowboys last season and Dave Campo was on the sidelines, no way would Dallas have the guts to get into field goal range and then hit it.
Without Parcells, no way would Dallas have the drive to keep going in overtime. The confidence would not be there. The belief would not be there. The will to win would not be there. Parcells brought all of those things with him into Big D and he is beginning to impart them into his players.
The cast of characters, for the most part, that led Dallas to victory on Monday, were all veterans of Cowboy futility. Sure Dan Campbell, Terrance Newman, Richie Anderson, Terry Glenn and some others are new and helped the cause on Monday, but it was the holdovers like Quincy Carter, Troy Hambrick, Greg Ellis and Dat Ngyuen that were at the heart of the victory.
Physically, those guys are the same as they have been. The difference is in how they are led and how they are motivated. All of that goes back to Parcells.
There is no way an objective observer of the NFL can call the Cowboys better than either the Eagles or the Giants at this point in time. Both those teams have established stars at quarterback, Pro Bowl running backs and playoff experience. They also, in Andy Reid and Jim Fassel, have good coaches.
But they don't have Parcells and, over time, that fact will catch up with them. There won't be anymore 44-13 victories or Dallas capitulation when the 'boys and birds meet in the future.
Dallas should be headed to a third or fourth place divisional finish this year. Over the course of the season, deficiencies in personnel and inexperience will drag them down. The overall quality of Philadelphia and New York will win out. Also, the Redskins are beginning to play well under Steve Spurrier and should contend in football's toughest division.
But those three teams cannot be complacent. As Monday Night shows, Dallas is not only getting better, they're already good enough to beat one of the NFL's top teams. That's something that should worry anyone, not just the Philly faithful.
