Aboard The 'Flight From Hell:' Cowboys Grounded In Philly
PHILADELPHIA - Amateur comedians who learned late Sunday night of our plight in Philadelphia - starting with the Dallas Cowboys' incompetent 17-9 loss to the Eagles - had a "the-jokes-write-themselves'' field day with my initial report that the charter airplane scheduled to take the team back to Dallas-Fort Worth was "not viable'' ... and that therefore the traveling party was stuck sitting on buses in The Linc parking lot for two hours.
"The Flight from Hell''? That was the sort of gallows humor used by some of us to stay amused at the events of the day, which began with the Cowboys "in control of their own destiny'' but ended with a loss that places them on the outside looking in at the NFC East title and a playoff berth ...
And included an airplane deemed for a time "not viable'' to fly.
This weekend is really about a loss in which Dallas once again failed to score a touchdown, and not about a "touchdown'' of a different sort, which did indeed happened, a few hours late, just after 1 a.m. CT. But the Cowboys' part-surly/part-defeated mood surely was not buoyed by the travel inconvenience.
"What else could go wrong?'' one player told me, rolling his eyes at fate.
Once media members not included in the traveling party learned of the 777's eventually-resolved "mechanical failure,'' some swarmed out to The Linc parking lot to film our misfortune.
And yes, that includes a shot of Cowboys head coach Jason Garrett, who has likely just about reached the end of his time in Dallas, looking as exhausted by it all as the rest of us.
At about 11 p.m. ET, after morbid joking about "peanut rationing'' and "cannibal movies,'' we finally managed to get on board and off the ground, with the Cowboys soon to turn their attention to Week 17, when they must defeat Washington at home (in a game flexed to the late afternoon) while the Eagles must simultaneously lose to the Giants if they hope to advance to the NFL Playoffs.
How can the Cowboys still push their hugely disappointing season into January?
They need to quit insisting that they're "a good team.'' (There is no such thing as a "good 7-8 team,'' or a "good team that is 4-8 in its last 12'). They'll need some luck. And they'll need to fix an assortment of football versions of "not viable'' and "mechanical failures.''
At the same time, they will need the Giants to beat the Eagles. New York is just 4-11, but has won its last two against Miami and Washington. Rookie quarterback Daniel Jones returned after missing two games with a high ankle sprain to throw for 352 yards with five touchdown passes in the Giants 41-35 overtime victory in Washington. He did not turn the ball over once.
Saquon Barkley, who suffered a high ankle sprain in the third game, had not been explosive until the last two weeks after he sat out three games. He had 189 yards rushing against the Redskins, which included a 67-yard touchdown, and 90 yards receiving, including a 33-yard touchdown.
There is no better way for the Giants to end their dismal season than by knocking the Eagles out of the playoffs. The downside for New York is that would allow the Cowboys into the playoffs if they beat Washington.
If this scenario works out for the Cowboys, at least they won't have to fly to their first playoff game. As the No. 4 seed, they would host a wild-card game.
