Blogging The Boys
Who are you rooting for in the NFC Championship game between the Commanders and Eagles?
It may be hard to believe, but there are still NFL teams playing football this weekend. Four of them to be exact, meaning, of course, that Sunday’s games will determine who plays in Super Bowl LIX in New Orleans. A division rival of the Dallas Cowboys is guaranteed to be there as the Philadelphia Eagles host the Washington Commanders in the NFC Championship Game. For the Eagles, it will be their third appearance in this game over the last eight seasons. Representing a division well-known for not having any repeat winners for more than the last two decades, the Eagles have found some consistency in a place it matters much more - the postseason. The Commanders appearance in Sunday’s early game is their first since 1991, which officially made the Cowboys drought of not appearing a win away from the Super Bowl since 1996 the longest in the conference.
When the Eagles and Commanders square off for the third time this season, looking to determine a series winner after both teams defended home field in the regular season, it will be a matchup of former Cowboys coaches in Eagles OC Kellen Moore and Commanders HC Dan Quinn as well. While Dallas’ circus of a coaching search ended with internal candidate Brian Schottenheimer being hired, two of their former assistants have found the grass much greener on the other side.
As if the Cowboys going 7-10 and missing the playoffs entirely after winning the division a year ago didn’t offer enough potential for their front office to finally learn some hard lessons, the cherry on top has to be the two teams finishing ahead of them still vying for the Lombardi trophy.
The Cowboys are well aware that a rapidly growing number of younger fans are coming to know them more for their playoff failures since 1996 and not anything close to their own history of hoisting the game’s ultimate prize. The actual nuts and bolts, football-related reasons why the Cowboys have fallen off so much feel as far away as their Super Bowl XXX win, and unfortunately adding the Commanders and Eagles reaching this point with their former coaches hasn’t seemed to help much.
The Cowboys went a combined 1-3 against these teams this season, with a wacky, impossible to replicate fourth quarter win at the Commanders in Week 12. Aside from that the reasons these teams are better than the Cowboys on the field are obvious, and have been on display for the Eagles in playoff wins against the Packers and Rams so far, and likewise for the Commanders against the Buccaneers and top-seeded Lions on the road.
One of the results of being faced with an early start to the offseason in Dallas was supposed to be the jolt needed to actually address the future of the team. Instead the Cowboys appear just as rudderless as they were throughout a meaningless regular season...
