IRVING – Those NFC East champion hats and T-shirts can remain in the boxes, forgotten under the Christmas tree for another year.
With one game left in the regular season, the Cowboys still have a chance to win the division. But it is remote at best, which is why Monday's 23-7 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles at Texas Stadium was so disheartening.
"It's the worst feeling in football," cornerback Terence Newman said. "We're at home. On Christmas. Everything was set up for us to look pretty good going into the playoffs, and then we come out and play like that.
"All I know is, next week is going to be a long week, and if we play like we did today, we might as well hang it up next weekend and not even play in the playoffs, because the way we are playing makes no sense to me."
Two weeks ago, the Cowboys had a chance to lay claim to a potential first-round bye but were blown out by New Orleans. On Monday, they had a chance to win their first NFC East title since 1998, guaranteeing them at least one home playoff game, and were smothered by the Eagles.
"For a long time, we've been chasing them," tight end Jason Witten said. "They were chasing us today, and we let that go. That's what hurts really."
While the division chances were dealt a rib-busting blow Monday, any chance at a first-round bye was lost. The Cowboys are probably staring at a wild-card trip to defending NFC champion Seattle on Jan. 6 or 7.
With one game left, the Cowboys (9-6) have only one hope to win the NFC East.
They have to beat Detroit on Sunday at Texas Stadium and have Philadelphia, winner of three straight division games on the road, lose at home to Atlanta.
They have to hope the defense (the Eagles had 426 yards) can fix its problems stopping the big play through the air and the ground-chewing on the ground that have hit it the last month.
They have to hope the offense's woes (201 yards) were just a one-game problem and not the beginning of an end-of-the-year funk.
"A game like this indicts us at the top just straight through," owner and general manager Jerry Jones said. "It's disappointing ... I'm disgusted. I really am."
While the defense's woes have come to be expected, for the first time all season the Cowboys failed to score 17 points in a game. For the first time all season, Marion Barber, the NFC leader in rushing touchdowns with 13, was stopped at the 1-yard line on three straight plays, changing the game's momentum.
Temporarily juiced over an Anthony Henry interception, the Cowboys found themselves at the Eagles' 1 to open the second quarter. Stopped up the middle on two runs, Barber took a pitch to his right, but Quintin Mikell sprinted by fullback Oliver Hoyte and stoned Barber for a 3-yard loss.
"We had a walk-in touchdown right there," coach Bill Parcells said, "and the guy runs right by his man. Runs right by him."
Even after cutting the Eagles' lead to 10-7 with 36 seconds left in the second quarter on a Tony Romo-to-Terrell Owens touchdown pass, the defense did not respond, allowing Jeff Garcia to direct the Eagles to a 45-yard field goal.
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LOUIS DeLUCA / DMN Tony Romo (center) suffers one of his three sacks. |
Philadelphia scored on three of its four first-half drives and opened the second half with a 21-yard field goal by David Akers and a 16-7 lead.
Needing something to get going, the Cowboys nearly had a big play by Owens on the ensuing drive, but Romo's pass slipped through his fingers. Three plays into the fourth quarter and still trailing by nine points, Romo forced a deep ball to Owens in the end zone that safety Brian Dawkins intercepted.
The Eagles turned in their third scoring drive of at least 12 plays, ending in Correll Buckhalter's 1-yard score for a 23-7 lead with 6:54 to play.
The chance for a first-round bye was gone, the division title was all but gone, and, perhaps most important, so was the Cowboys' playoff momentum.
"I told them they can either be judged by this game or they could come back ready to go next week and have a chance to compete for the championship," Parcells said. "We will know next week at this time which way we are going to go."
E-mail tarcher@dallasnews.com
| DROP-OFF ON DEFENSE |
| The Cowboys were 7-4 after 11 games but have split their last four games. A look at some key defensive statistics during both spans: |
| RUSHING |
| FIRST 11 | LAST FOUR |
| Yards allowed | Yards per game | Yards allowed | Yards per game |
| 958 | 87.1 | 616 | 154 |
| PASSING |
| FIRST 11 | LAST FOUR |
| Yards allowed | Yards per game | Yards allowed | Yards per game |
| 2,111 | 191.1 | 1,118 | 279.5 |
| TOTAL YARDS |
| FIRST 11 | LAST FOUR |
| Yards allowed | Yards per game | Yards allowed | Yards per game |
| 3,069 | 279 | 1,734 | 433.5 |
