Cowboys 'Pride' at Halftime: Could Dallas Lose to Titans Junior Varsity?

The Dallas Cowboys secured a 40-34 win over the Philadelphia Eagles on Christmas Eve with owner Jerry Jones proud of the team's efforts. But this work at Tennessee? As of halftime, not so "prideful.''

For the Dallas Cowboys, this week moved so fast that there was no time for public pronouncements from inside The Star warning against "eating the cheese.''

Rather, from owner Jerry Jones on down, there was great pleasure in the 40-34 win over the Eagles on Saturday that moved Dallas to 11-4 ... and there was the hope - if not the assumption - that it would carry over to "Thursday Night Football'' in Nashville against the mail-it-in Titans.

It hasn't quite worked out that way.

Dallas at the half holds a slim 10-6 lead, with a 1-yard Ezekiel Elliott TD the foundation of it all. But the Cowboys are playing against the Titans Junior Varsity here, and there is no way this lead is as satisfying as last week's was.

Speaking on 105.3 "The Fan"  Jones couldn't hide his happiness at the Cowboys win over the Eagles.

“I was so proud of this team and my hope was we would go out as a team and show up and do things like we do, " Jones said.

But the carryover "hope'' is that the Cowboys, good enough to overcome double-digit deficits twice in the game to reel the Eagles in, would be able to pound the Titans into submission. Instead, the Dak Prescott-led offense coughed up a pair of first-half interceptions and the Cowboys are up 10-6 .. having played what we bet Jones will concede has been uninspired football.'

The Cowboys, hoping to overtake the Eagles in the NFC, need to win this game, and favored by 13, they probably will. They don't need to win by 13 to be a contender to win playoff games; that thought is about the psyche of the fan base, not the team itself.

Maybe the Cowboys should've discussed that aforementioned "cheese.'' Or maybe they simply need to survive this late-December preseason game and advance to something that matters.

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