Cowboys Put Away Eagles on late rally | Eagles, Cowboys put seasons on line tonight

Cowboys Put Away

The Texas Longhorns lost the Bowl Championship Series title game on Thursday night, on Alabama, football fans in the Lone Star State were taken down a peg or two.
They may not have invented the sport around here, but they like to think they have mastered it on every level — from high school to the elite professional product, which is presented as a spectacle.
So they climbed back on their high horses Saturday after their Cowboys impressively defeated the Philadelphia Eagles, 34-14, in a National Football Conference wild-card game.
It was the first postseason victory for Dallas since 1996. The Cowboys, who will visit Minnesota next week, need three more victories to capture their first Super Bowl title since the 1995-96 season.
But if any of the 92,951 fans left Cowboys Stadium, their glittering new palace, dreaming about a championship, quarterback Tony Romo and Coach Wade Phillips were not about to discourage them.
“We definitely wouldn’t be in this position if we didn’t think we were capable of such things,” Romo said. “You’ve got to be thinking you have a chance. The tournament’s begun and we’re off to a good start.”

Phillips, who won a playoff game for the first time in his career, said: “We’re playing as good as anybody right now. I think we’re a very good football team and we’re on a roll.”
They think big here — big as the gigantic video screens looming over the field, big as the smiles and the hair on the dancing cheerleaders who decorate the video during almost every timeout.

There were big shots everywhere, too, including former President George W. Bush, who smiled to the fans from the private box of the Cowboys’ owner, Jerry Jones.

There was even big noise before the game, when the senior rocker Ted Nugent performed a long and screeching guitar rendition of the national anthem that could have come with its own two-minute warning.
After his echoes faded, the Cowboys took a 7-0 lead and followed it with a play that seemed to suggest, in microcosm, the tone of the night.

On the ensuing kickoff, returner Macho Harris was hit low and hard by the Cowboys’ Kevin Ogletree in a way that caused Harris to cartwheel and land upside down.
This drew loud cheers from the fans, and Harris left the game with an injury.
Although the Eagles scored a touchdown on the ensuing drive — a 76-yard pass-and-run play from Michael Vick to Jeremy Maclin — the kickoff hit left an impression that the Cowboys were about to whip their visitors in intimidating fashion.
And they did. The Cowboys jarred two fumbles out of the grasp of the Eagles, who looked like the best team in the N.F.L. until last week, when the Cowboys shut them out, 24-0, in their final game of the regular season.
The Dallas defense seemed to rattle Donovan McNabb, the veteran Philadelphia quarterback, who threw one interception and completed 19 of 37 passes for 230 yards while under constant pressure.
The early ouster of the Eagles is certain to raise questions in Philadelphia about the performance and future of both McNabb and Coach Andy Reid.
“Obviously, right now is not that time to talk about my future,” McNabb said. “There were a lot of things that we did wrong.”
Over the long term, both have helped elevate the Eagles to among the league’s elite teams. But the failure to win a Super Bowl will leave their demanding fans wondering whether McNabb and Reid can accomplish that objective.
Reid said his team was outplayed and outcoached.
“When you get your tail kicked, it’s not a great feeling,” Reid said. “I wasn’t expecting it. I saw us slip as a football team in the last two weeks.”
Other, younger Eagles spoke more bluntly. One was DeSean Jackson, the brilliant receiver who caught only three passes for 14 yards, one of them a 4-yard touchdown with 90 seconds left.
“It’s embarrassing,” Jackson said. “We never planned to lose like this. We kept shooting ourselves in the foot. It’s going to be a long off-season.”
This was Dallas’s third victory against Philadelphia in three games this season. The Cowboys led at halftime, 27-7, but another signature moment came late in the third quarter.
It was a 73-yard touchdown run by Felix Jones that gave the Cowboys a 34-7 lead. Because Marion Barber was hampered by a bruised leg, Jones got 16 carries and gained 148 yards.
Romo completed 23 of 35 passes for 244 yards and 2 touchdowns. If the Cowboys have a statistic to worry about, it could be the 14 penalties for 112 yards.
“We still have to clean up some stuff,” Romo said. “We still have a long way to go.”

In landslide vote, Peyton Manning wins record fourth NFL MVP award

Peyton Manning

Peyton Manning became the first player to win The Associated Press NFL Most Valuable Player honours four times. The Indianapolis Colts' sensational quarterback romped to the award Saturday in balloting by 50 sports writers and broadcasters who cover the league.
He received 39½ votes to 7½ for Drew Brees of New Orleans. Only four players - all quarterbacks - earned votes. The other two were Philip Rivers of San Diego (two) and Brett Favre of Minnesota (one).
Manning also won in 2003, 2004 and 2008, breaking a tie with Favre at three MVPs.
"I'm very humbled and grateful to be honoured with this award and I really feel like it is a reflection of our team," said Manning, who guided the Colts to a 14-0 record before they rested starters in the second half of two games and finished 14-2.
"I have to believe that starting 14-0 and having seven comeback wins has a lot to do with this award coming our way, and I'm very grateful to all the players and the coaches and our fans, who were a big part of it. There were a number of other extremely deserving candidates."
The Colts play in the divisional round next week and have home-field advantage throughout the AFC playoffs. The Super Bowl is Feb. 7 in Miami, the same place they won it three years ago.
Manning threw for 4,500 and 33 touchdowns this season. Perhaps most impressive, he led the Colts to all those comeback victories. The 33-year-old quarterback has started every game in his career, 192 in the regular season and 15 in the playoffs.
He is durable and dynamic, dependable and decisive. In other words, most valuable.
"He's been such a highly accomplished performer year in and year out. Just when you think you've seen his best, he improves upon it," said Jim Caldwell, who succeeded Tony Dungy as coach and benefited from the same kind of performances Manning gave Dungy. "This year is one of those in terms of when you look at his numbers and how he's been able to play consistently well over a long period of time. It's been remarkable.
"I think a lot of it has to do with his drive. He just has an innate sort of will to excel. He never gets bored with it. That, I think, is highly unusual."

Manning joined the truly elite of team sports: Wayne Gretzky (nine), Barry Bonds (seven) and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (six), the leaders for MVP awards in their sports.
"I'm not comfortable having my name on that list or drawing comparisons to those guys," Manning said Saturday. "I think all of those people would probably echo the sentiments that I had before about being very humbled, especially in football which I think is the ultimate team game."
Manning, the 2007 Super Bowl MVP when he won his only league championship, noted the support and stability he's enjoyed in his career.
"I've been the beneficiary of having the same owner, the same team president all four times," he said. "I've received great coaching from our head coaches and assistants and a number of different teammates who have all had a huge impact on me."
But even when Dungy turned over the coaching to Caldwell last year, Manning and the Colts adapted.
"This off-season brought more change than any other year around here," he said. "We have had that consistency till this year, with losing a head coach and Marvin (Harrison), sort of replacing by committee with a group of young receivers.
"I think dealing with those changes says a lot."
Manning lost his longtime favourite receiver, Harrison, this season. Harrison's replacement, Anthony Gonzalez, went down with a right knee injury in the opener.
Manning simply turned to his latest fave, Reggie Wayne, who had 100 catches for 1,264 yards and 10 touchdowns. And to Dallas Clark, who joined Tony Gonzalez as the only tight ends with 100 receptions in a season when he grabbed exactly that many for 1,106 yards and 10 scores.
Plus, Austin Collie tied for the rookie lead in receptions with 60 and scored seven times. Pierre Garcon, nurtured in dozens of passing sessions with Manning, developed into a prime deep threat and averaged 16.3 yards on 47 catches, with four TDs.
"What he's been able to do this year with Pierre and Austin - and obviously Dallas had a year that will go down in the record books," linebacker and defensive captain Gary Brackett said. "And I think it really says something when you can work young guys like that."

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