Bring on Round 3 of Eagles-Cowboys with Winner-Take-All Stakes

The Christmas Eve loss may feel like a lump of coal, but there is plenty of good to take away from the 40-34 defeat in Dallas and reason to look forward to a postseason rematch

If this was a snapshot of a playoff game to be played in the not-too-distant future, sign me up.

I’m all in for Round 3 – Eagles-Cowboys; the winner moves on, loser goes home.

This 40-34 loss in Dallas may feel like a lump of coal in Eagles fans' stockings, but, for entertainment value, it doesn't come much better than what unfolded on the floor of AT&T Stadium on Saturday.

“It’s part of the game,” DeVonta Smith said to reports in Dallas. “You’re not going to win them all. Yes, we expect to win, but it is what it is, it comes with the game and things like that. 

"Chop it up and onto the next one. You can’t just sit here and feel sorry for ourselves for the way we played.”

Sure, the “good guys” didn’t find a way to win, blowing a pair of 10-point leads with two fumbles and two interceptions as the main culprits, and one horrendous defensive play on third-and-30, but there’s plenty to like about a loss like this.

The Eagles went toe-to-toe with the Cowboys with their backup quarterback, Gardner Minshew, and lost by six.

You wonder had Jalen Hurts with his ability to protect the ball been able to play, could the Eagles have scored 50?

The defense rang up another six sacks and is one short of tying the club record of 62 put up in 1989.

The offense pushed DeVonta Smith over 1,000 yards receiving, and the second-year receiver was, once again a magician with his feet toe-tapping to stay in bounds here, skying to haul in a pass there, and breaking free a few other times to score two touchdowns for the second time in his career.

“I mean, I expect myself to make those plays,” he said. “I’m pretty sure the guys on the team in the receiving room expect me to make those plays. Those are just routine catches that you just have to make.”

In just his second season, Smith now has 79 catches for 1,014 yards and seven touchdowns this season after putting up 113 yards on eight catches with two touchdowns against the Cowboys.

“We lost, so I don’t care for it too much, for real,” he said.

Couple Smith's numbers with A.J. Brown’s 103 yards on six catches vs. Dallas to get to 80 receptions for 1,304 yards with 10 scores this year, and the Eagles now have two receivers with more than 1,000 yards receiving in the same season for the first time ever in their history.

Most of all, though, this was one game, one loss in a season where the Eagles still lead the league with 13 wins, and it was just the second loss at that.

The fact it took them until Christmas to lose their second game is rather remarkable.

Brown called Saturday’s tilt a “heavyweight battle.”

The Eagles had the chance to land the last punch, driving to the Cowboys’ 19 with 20 seconds to play down six. The knockout blow never came. Rather, three incomplete passes did after a first-down spike by Minshew.

“Those are the games we live for, game on the line, we had an opportunity; ball in our hands,” Brown said to reporters. “That’s what you dream of as a kid. But there’s so much to learn from. No need to be down. That’s a learning experience right there. That’s not a loss. That’s a learning experience.

“That was a playoff atmosphere, playoff game. And I was telling the guys coming out at halftime, ‘every drive matters.’ It is so important. Every drive matters. Sometimes, we turn the ball over or fumble the ball. We get prepared for the playoffs, and you can’t do that in the playoffs. You gotta put teams like that away.”

Brown is right about it being a learning experience but wrong about it being a playoff game.

Hopefully, that playoff game between these two rivals will come in the new year.

Ed Kracz is the publisher of SI.com’s Fan Nation Eagles Today and co-host of the Eagles Unfiltered Podcast. Check out the latest Eagles news at www.SI.com/NFL/Eagles or www.eaglesmaven.com and please follow him on Twitter: @kracze.