Cowboys Catching Eagles? Sunday Could Provide Answer

Dallas needs an unexpected loss from Philly to make the NFC East interesting down the stretch.

The Dallas Cowboys are producing their best encore season after winning the NFC East since the days of Troy Aikman, Emmitt Smith and Michael Irvin.

But will it be good enough?

The Cowboys last won consecutive division titles in the midst of their dynasty, 1995-96. Since then they've won the NFC East seven times but were never able to repeat or have a record better than 9-7 the following season.

Considering that no team has repeated as NFC East champs since the Philadelphia Eagles in 2003-04, we knew this year was going to difficult for Dallas. At 8-3 entering Sunday night's home game against the Indianapolis Colts, it is putting together a division-title worthy season. Alas, there are the Eagles at 10-1.

Over the season's last six weeks, can the Cowboys realistically catch Philly?

Possible, yes. Probable, nope.

The deterrent to Dallas rallying to repeat occurred Nov. 13 at Lambeau Field. The Cowboys coughed up a 14-point, fourth-quarter lead to the 4-8 Green Bay Packers, who otherwise haven't won a football game since Oct. 2. That hiccup has left them with little or no margin for error down the stretch.

The Cowboys will be heavy favorites in their next three games against lowly opponents. Whether they add talented free agent Odell Beckham Jr. to the roster or not, they should get to 11-3 with comfortable wins over the dregs of the AFC South: the 4-7-1 Indianapolis Colts, 1-9-1 Houston Texans and 4-7 Jacksonville Jaguars.

Before the season, any Cowboys fan would have taken 11-3 entering a Christmas Eve home date with the Eagles. But Philly - as Dallas did in Green Bay - has to lose a game it is supposed to win to make this interesting.

Best chance for that comes Sunday. The Eagles are 5.5-point favorites to beat Tennessee at home. But the Titans have won seven of nine, play well on the road (evidenced by an overtime loss at Kansas City a month ago) and boast the NFL's second-leading rusher Derek Henry against the league's 24th-ranked run defense.

If Philly beats Tennessee, it's difficult to envision it losing two more games.

Outside of Sunday and Dec. 24 in Arlington, the Eagles close their schedule against the fading 7-4 (but fast-fading) New York Giants (twice), 3-9 Chicago Bears and 4-8 New Orleans Saints.

The Cowboys could very well enter Christmas Eve against the Eagles at 11-3. But Philly is also likely to be 13-1.

Great, but not good enough?

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