Gap Between Cowboys and Eagles? It's 'Even-Steven' in NFC
The Philadelphia Eagles made it all the way to the Super Bowl in 2022. The Dallas Cowboys were bounced from the playoffs before the conference championship game ... again.
But veteran Dallas observer Mickey Spagnola writes on DallasCowboys.com that the gap between the two organizations is actually "pretty even-Steven."
"The two teams had identical 4-2 records in the East. The Cowboys had the higher strength of victory winning percentage, .485 to .460, and a higher strength of schedule, .507 to .474," Spagnola writes.
Well ... maybe he's onto something. Dallas may have won two fewer games than Philly in 2022, but the quality of the Cowboys' regular season wasn't far off from the Eagles.
If you exclude the playoffs from last season, the gap certainly isn't wide, as Dallas' DeMarcus Lawrence has noted. But what happens when the playoffs are factored in?
"This here is key, too. The Eagles won the same East that the Cowboys did in 2021 and received the first-round bye in 2022," Spagnola noted.
The Eagles had a bye, the 9-7-1 Giants and a quarterback-less San Francisco team standing between themselves and the Super Bowl. The Cowboys had to get through Tom Brady and the Brock Purdy buzzsaw. ...''
Again, maybe Spagnola is getting somewhere with this.
"And if you believe in the 'black-cat jinx,' remember no NFC East team has won consecutive division titles since the Eagles from 2001-04, for what that's worth. Wonder if they are fretting that in Philly," he concluded.
It could be as Dallas' Micah Parsons' said, the Cowboys "turn.'' From Micah: "It’s our turn this year. You gotta capitalize on your opportunities and this is our year."
And so it is. If history has taught us anything, the Eagles will not win the East in 2023 because of, among other things, the way the pendulum swings. ... and the Cowboys are "big dogs'' enough to break the "even-Steven'' tie and again chase the division title and that precious bye.
