What They’re Saying About the Eagles


Here’s a roundup of what the local and national media are saying about the Eagles this week.

If the NFL season ended today, the playoff picture shows that the Birds would be the second seed in the NFC.

According to Calvin Watkins of ESPN Dallas, Dez Bryant feels the Eagles were “kinda cheap” and he can’t wait for the rematch in two weeks:

“I’m really not mad at all,” Bryant said after the Cowboys’ 33-10 loss on Thursday. “They beat us and I’m going to accept that, but [expletive] can’t wait, but not looking past Chicago [on Dec. 4], but I cannot wait to go up there and play [Philadelphia] again. Cannot wait.”

Bryant finished with four catches for 73 yards and no touchdowns in the loss. He got into several confrontations with the Eagles’ defensive backs that he said led to him sporting a busted lip. Bryant also said he was elbowed in the hip.

Cowboys WR Dez Bryant called the Eagles “kinda cheap” and said he can’t wait to play them again.
“They were being kinda cheap,” Bryant said. “That’s another story. It is what it is. I’ll get it cleaned up and I’ll be fine.”

Les Bowen of the Daily News tweets that Nick Foles is now able to step up his strength training:

Marc Sessler of NFL.com offers his takeaways from the Eagles’ 33-10 win over Dallas:

1. The Cowboys were worried about Philly’s fast-break offense, and with good reason. The Eagles set the tone immediately with a whirlwind opening march that chewed up 80 yards over nine plays in just three minutes. Philly would never look back. Excorcising ‘butt fumble’ ghosts, Mark Sanchez passed for 217 yards and deftly led an attack that piled up 464 total yards. Under the tutelage of Chip Kelly, Sanchez is worlds beyond his Jets days. The misreads and mental gaffes still bubble up, but he doesn’t force throws and he’s more precise on designed rollouts and passes outside the pocket.

5. Eagles players told FOX’s Troy Aikman that they felt well-conditioned for the short week and certain of getting away with a stripped-down game plan by tiring Dallas out. It worked. The Cowboys looked gassed by the end of the first quarter, triggering Dez Bryant to roam up and down the sideline bellowing at Dallas defenders. The dressing down had no effect.

Peter King of MMQB on the Eagles’ win:

3. LeSean McCoy is heating up, and that could override the mediocrity of Mark Sanchez. The Eagles crushed Dallas with Sanchez being just a minor factor. For the fourth time in the past seven games, McCoy exceeded 115 rushing yards (he ran the ball 25 times for 159 yards in the rout of Dallas) and he convinced Chip Kelly that the Eagles don’t have to be great at quarterback to win big games. Now, let’s look at the future. Imagine Detroit (8-4), Dallas (8-4) and Seattle (8-4) vying for the fifth and sixth playoff seeds; those are three teams deserving to be playing in January. The last four weeks of the season will be compelling and bloodthirsty.

Chris Burke of SI.com offers his take:

1. Philadelphia wins up front.
The Cowboys’ offensive line has been one of the season’s most dominant position groups, from Tyron Smith continuing his progression as a star left tackle to Zack Martin generating Rookie of the Year buzz.

3. No Dez, no help, no chance:
From the earliest moments of the game, Dez Bryant was extremely animated on the sidelines. FOX’s cameras caught him on several occasions trying to spur on his teammates — an exercise that appeared to swing from excitement to frustration.

David Helman of Fox Sports Southwest reports that Jerry Jones thought the Cowboys lacked passion:

“We had a bad day, and there’s a lot of specific reasons for having that bad day,” he said in a radio interview with 105.3 FM The Fan.

The Cowboys turned the ball over three times, they mustered a mere 267 yards of offense and they allowed the Eagles to run wild for 464 total yards. On top of that poor performance, Jones said it looked like the Cowboys were flat for the nationally televised games — not that he could pinpoint why.

“We didn’t execute, we may not have played with the passion that you would expect in a game like that,” Jones said. “Don’t ask me why — and I guess if you can’t ask me, who can you ask?”

Matt Cassidy is a journalism student at Temple and an intern at Birds 24/7.