Los Vaqueros vs. Filthadelpia Foul - Rd. 2

Last year taught me a valuable lesson about Filthadelpia...never count them out. Just about everyone that I knew of, counting me, did just that last year when McNabb was lost for the season and the Eagles were on shaky ground to start with. But the Eagles, behind Jeff Garcia, went 4-0 in December including 3 road games vs. NFC East opponents and ended up winning the NFC East in the process.

I actually went to the Christmas day game that between Dallas and Filthadelpia and came away pretty dejected because I just knew Dallas was going to dismantle the Eagles. It turned out the other way around. The result - Filthadelpia Foul 23, Dallas Cowboys 7. Romo had, arguably, his worst game as a Cowboy only throwing for 142 yards and he had 2 INTs to boot. The defense didn't exactly put up a great fight either as they surrendered 204 rushing yards and pretty much seemed disinterested in playing most of the day.

Really, only one player on the whole Filthadelpia team scares me and that is Brian Westbrook. He can beat any team in a myriad of ways...he is a strong runner, he catches well out of the backfield, he can return punts and he is a good team leader. If Dallas can stop Westbrook, they can beat the Eagles. It's really that simple.

However, Dallas didn't show a great fire on defense last week when they played Detroit so I'm curious to see what kind of game they have today. Terrance Newman is a little banged up so if he has problems, it could be a long afternoon. Also, the rush defense last week spit the bit, so to speak, and if that happens again the Eagles will have a good chance of beating Dallas. Westbrook is strong, elusive and fast and all he needs is just a seam and he will take it the distance. With the way the defense has gotten better this year, sans last week, I'm willing to give the defense the benefit of the doubt that they just had a bad game last week. If they repeat their horrid performance from last week today, then we got problems.

I think Dallas will do enough to win today although I don't think it will be a blowout like it was on Nov. 4th in Philly. I think the game stays relatively close most of the game and Dallas pulls out a win by 5-8 pts. My prediction: Dallas - 28, Filthadelphia 20.