**PHILADELPHIA** – Just when you think you've seen everything a Cowboys-Eagles game can provide … you get reminded that you've never seen it all when it comes to this rivalry?
Snowballs thrown at the opposing head coach? Yeah that happened. A bounty placed on some of the opposing players? Yep, same year actually.
A player running free without a helmet? Or the countless comebacks and last-second heroics for both teams.
Yeah, seen it all … except for the one where the star quarterback and the star defensive tackle get into a spitting match and Philly loses the best player on the field before a single snap was taken.
When that happened, you just knew this was going to be yet another wild encounter – and it was. Thrown in the fact that there was an hour weather delay, and it just made for an even more craziness.
Oh, but through all of that … the Cowboys could've won this football game. You might even argue they should've won. We'll get back to that one in a second.
But all week leading up to the game, when it's time to start making predictions or statements, all I could point back to was one thing:
_I have no idea what's going to happen and that seems to be by design._
We really didn't know what the Cowboys were going to do with this new offense and Schottenheimer calling the plays. We didn't know what the pass-rush or defense overall was going to look like without Micah.
And we damn sure had no way of knowing just how much of the gap, if any, has been closed with the Eagles, who hung their Super Bowl banner from last year, which included two blowout wins over the Cowboys.
So what do we know now after four quarters of yet another strange episode in this crazy rivalry?
I know the Cowboys have returned to Philly's level – something that was not the case last year, getting blown out to a combined 75-13 in the two regular-seaosn games.
This time around, with Dak now back in the mix the Cowboys know they've got a team that can contend with the defending champs. Of course, just competing isn't going to be good enough. They can't moral-victory their way through the season.
And as Brian Schottenheimer said after the game, "this is no moral victory." And I'm not arguing with him and calling it one, but I know this – the Cowboys probably have a lot more confidence in their team after this game than they did beforehand.
And I'm pretty sure the fans and the media and anyone else who talks about this team would agree, the Cowboys exceeded expectations – to the point they should've won the game.
But that's where they are right now. They were once again, coming up short in a game they had every right to win.
You score 20 points in the firste To say the Cowboys should've won is to say they were the better team. I don't know if I'll go that far because the Eagles made the necessary plays and the Cowboys didn't.
No, their star receiver barely even caught a pass, as the Cowboys WR1 had a much better stat-line. But when they really need a big play, or two, CeeDee Lamb came up short. Three drops, arguably a fourth drop at the end for CeeDee? This guy won't drop four more passes all season long.
But he did on this game. And Miles Sanders? Breaks off a 49-yard run but couldn't outrun the linebacker. That tackle led to an eventual fumble by Sanders in the red zone, wasting yet another chance to score.