NFL - Cowboys v Eagles

9 January 2010

Preview By Tipster Jumbo (New Zealand)

This seasons NFL Play Offs are for me the most intriguing of the last 5 years and are perhaps the most even, not so much in this weekends matches but from next week on many things will take our attention, For me the biggest thing about this seasons play offs are that the old Guard of proven performers are here again in Manning, Farve, Warner and Brady but this time the next Generation of NFL QB’s are making a stand, Bress, Rivers, Rodgers and Romo have really proven their worth and this could be the season when the new Breed makes a stand, Personally I fancy the Chargers to go all the way behind the arm of Phillip Rivers, but another guy who has really stepped up is Romo and he has the Cowboys on the charge entering this Post Season, he has a lot of Cowboys recent history to overcome if the Cowboys are to even make it through this first up match, but based on what he has shown over the last 3 weeks, History could be about to rewrite itself for this Cowboys outfit.

Dallas who dominated the 1990s with three Super Bowl titles is in position to win a playoff game for the first time since 1996. Philadelphia, meanwhile, has been in the postseason seven times in that span and has advanced past its first game every time under Reid, reaching five NFC title games including last year's run. Sounds like a great game doesn’t it?

Dallas seeks to end its 13-year drought without a playoff victory Saturday night by defeating Philadelphia for the third time this season. While The Eagles return to Dallas this week after the Cowboys clinched the NFC East crown with a 24-0 victory Sunday. The Eagles would have earned a first-round bye with a win, but instead is seeded sixth for the second straight season. This game could represent Dallas' best chance to advance. Philadelphia finished fifth in the league with 429 points, but managed one touchdown and 16 points in two games against the Cowboys. Last week was a low point for the Eagles, who had a six-game win streak snapped in emphatic fashion. Dallas' dominant defense held Philadelphia to a season-low 228 yards and Donovan McNabb was sacked four times.McNabb’s completion percentage against the Cowboys this year is at 54.5 after he topped 60.0 for the third straight season. Dallas enters the playoffs with consecutive shutouts to boost the job security of Phillips - the only coach also serving as defensive coordinator. Phillips though is 0-4 all-time in the playoffs, Phillips' defense has done an excellent job of containing Eagles Pro Bowl wideout DeSean Jackson, who has five receptions for 76 yards and three punt returns for 18 yards with no touchdowns against Dallas this season. Jackson had 11 TDs - nine receiving - and eight of his scores went for at least 50 yards.This will be the third playoff game for Tony Romo, who threw for 311 yards and two touchdowns in last weekend's victory. Romo is trying to reverse a poor playoff history in which he has a 53.8 completion percentage and a total of 390 yards passing.

Dallas are 6-4 in their last 10 against the Eagles and lead this seasons series of matches 2-0, The Cowboys are 5-5 ATS in their last 10 against the eagles and of the last 5 games played in Dallas the Cowboys have won 3 of them. There have been 19 previous occasions in which teams have met in the playoffs after one swept two regular-season match ups. The team with two victories has completed the sweep 12 times, although the Cowboys have failed both times they've faced that scenario, including two seasons ago when they lost to the eventual Super Bowl champion Giants. The rivals will meet for the fourth time in the postseason. Philadelphia won the NFC title game in 1981 to reach its first Super Bowl while Dallas won divisional-round match ups en route to Super Bowl titles in 1993 and 1996.

The Cowboys have scored 17 or more in their last 5 matches and have allowed 17 or more in those last 5 most recent matches, However they have not allowed a single point in their last 2 games against the Eagles and Redskins, Meanwhile the Eagles have scored 27 or more in 4 of their last 5 games and have allowed 20 points or more in 3 of their most recent 4 matches. The Cowboys have also had no negative turnovers in their last 5 matches.

The Eagles rank 5th in Overall scoring with an average of 26 ppg, but face a Dallas defence ranked 2nd in the League allowing only 15ppg, The Eagles should hit their season average passing wise this game averaging 227 against a Dallas Pass defence that is ranked 23 allowing over 230 ypg on their season, But the ground attack is different with the Dallas defence ranked 4 against the run allowing only 85 ypg against an Eagles Rushing attack ranked 23rd in the league with an average of 97ypg, On the other side the Cowboys rank 14th in Overall scoring averaging 22ppg against an Eagles defence ranked 19 allowing 21 ppg, The Cowboys rank 2nd in the league at home rushing the football and average 165 ypg, through the air at home the Coweboys rank 15th in the League gaining 237 yards.

The Cowboys have some real steel about them heading into this match and they look to be firing on all cylinders, their last 2 matches they have held the sides they have faced to zero, they have not allowed over 100 yards rushing wise in their last 5 games, In fact their last 2 they have not allowed more than 43 rushing yard per game, They have not allowed over 200 passing yards in their last 2 matches either and have held both sides to less than 238 Total yards on offence, all which is only good news to the Cowboys heading into this game today.

The Eagles aren’t as bad as well all might think after last weekend debacle but are they good enough to beat this Cowboys outfit in their biggest game of this season to date?? I have my doubts, the Eagles showed nothing last weekend after te game was gone at half time and they just went through the motions to finish the game off, I think that was the right choice, but here's the thing, the eagles had it all to play for last weekend and came up well short, they have now lost twice this season to the Cowboys and although they have a great deal of talent in their ranks they are up against it here.

4 points on the Cowboys seems big, the second half of last weeks match really showed us nothing, the eagles stopped playing and Dallas did also, but the momentum here is with the Cowboys and I’ll stick with them, the Eagles are just giving away to many points and the Cowboys are just playing to well to fuck this up now, Iffy on the start here as I really think this could be a very hard game with points coming at a premium, The Eagles aren’t as bad as they showed last weekend but I don’t think they are good enough to win this game either and so I’ll take the Cowboys by 12 or less as the winner bet…Good Luck.