Cedric Thornton (72) and Mychal Kendricks will be in Romo’s face all night.
By David F. Cohen
Which Eagles team will show up Sunday night:
The juggernaut that waxed the Cowboys 33-10 on Thanksgiving or the softies that rolled over to the Seahawks 24-14 last Sunday?
“I think they’re going to do what they do, and we’re going to do what we do,” coach Chip Kelly said. “Hopefully we can be as successful again, but I know they’re going to give us their best shot. I think that will be a really interesting matchup, their O-line versus our D-line.”
The defensive front got the best of Dallas’ offensive line in the first meeting, as the Eagles sacked Tony Romo four times and held NFL rushing leader DeMarco Murray to a season-low 73 yards.
That pressure allowed Mark Sanchez to win the quarterback duel with Romo. Sanchez, in his fourth start since Nick Foles went down with a collarbone injury Nov. 2, was 20 of 29 for 217 yards with one touchdown and no interceptions.
Sanchez, however, failed to carry the momentum from that victory as Philly fell 24-14 to visiting Seattle last Sunday. The offense sputtered to 139 total yards – the team’s lowest mark since Oct. 9, 2005 – with the blame falling on both sides of the ball.
Sanchez notched his lowest passer rating of the season (76.8), while the defense allowed the Seahawks to hold the ball for a franchise-record 41 minutes, 56 seconds.
“We’ve usually done a better job cleaning the pocket. But I think he missed a couple of throws, too, and he’ll be the first to tell you that,” Kelly said. “In everything, I think when you play a game like this, it doesn’t fall on anybody’s one shoulder. It falls on everybody and collectively we have to own it.”
The Birds’ offensive struggles are unlikely to continue against the Cowboys, who rank 25th in the NFL with 251.9 passing yards allowed per game and – despite a serviceable run defense (113.1 ypg) – surrendered 256 yards on the ground to the Eagles in Week 13.
Instead, Philly can expect an improved Dallas offense, which produced one of its two sub-300-yard performances in the past 19 games in the last meeting.
“We are a running team that makes it difficult because we can throw it at a high rate, and we can be aggressive with it,” Romo told the Cowboys’ official website. “We have a very good nucleus, and these guys have to put their egos at the door for us to really be successful. And, they all have.
“It’s a really special thing because it’s not always that way.”
Murray, who has 1,606 rushing yards, enters off a season-best 179 in a 41-28 win at Chicago last Thursday. Still, he has never topped 100 yards in four career matchups with the Birds.
Dallas believes that the fresh memories of the Thanksgiving loss should play a role in improving this time around.
“The tendencies and things that you learn from all those previous games are already there, so you’re just building on top of that,” center Travis Frederick said. “It might even give you an advantage, because they can’t have changed that much in two weeks. There are going to be adjustments, but the team is the team at this point.”
The Cowboys have clinched their first nine-win season since going 11-5 in 2009, the last time they won the NFC East.
Lincoln Financial Field has served as a welcoming host for the Cowboys. They’ve won two straight and four of five there, and this season own a 6-0 record on the road.
“That game on Thanksgiving means nothing to this game right now,” Eagles defensive coordinator Bill Davis said. “Every team that has beat us so far this year, we’d love to have another shot at, because we believe if we play better we can beat anybody.
“And they believe the same thing coming into this game.”
