The Dallas Cowboys badly needed to take advantage of the Philadelphia Eagles and get a win on Sunday, as the NFC’s current No. 1 seed was without star quarterback Jalen Hurts.
In his place was wildly popular backup quarterback Gardner Minshew, who simply could not be a better fit for the city of Philadelphia.
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Remember when the former Jacksonville Jaguars starter notched his first win with the ‘Birds? It happened to be last December and the special moment Minshew shared with his father was the type of chills-inducing scene that sparks an instant love affair with a fanbase.
Even the biggest Eagles’ haters on the planet had to appreciate this moment for what it was.
While Minshew and Co. came up short in Dallas by a final score of 40-34, it did not come without a fight, one that lasted until the final seconds.
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There likely wasn’t a Cowboys fan in attendance or watching at home who wasn’t already seeing an all-time heartbreak flash before their eyes.
Alas, Dallas escaped with a fourth down stop and saved themselves a week of incessant mockery.
Did it take some miraculous plays, like an absurd third-and-30 conversion, for this win to actually become a reality?
It most certainly did. And they would be crazy to think something like that will be duplicated come playoff time, but it happened when it absolutely needed to happen.
That’s one hell of a first catch for T.Y. Hilton, who made his Cowboys’ debut.
Sports world reacts to Dallas Cowboys beating Philadelphia Eagles
ESPN’s Kevin Negandhi — a devout Eagles fan — summed things up rather nicely.
A win is a win, but boy did it take a lot of things to happen in the Cowboys’ favor for them to pull off the victory.
This could be interpreted in two ways. First, the Cowboys are a bit of a mess and have many things to sort out in order to be taken seriously. Second, the undermanned Eagles still showed up and put a stamp on the fact they will be a very tough out in the NFC playoffs.
Robert Griffin III also made a fair point. Philly took down the Cowboys when Dak Prescott was out and Dallas returned the favor.
Thankfully, this one did not involve cursing out the other sideline when the clock hit zero.
Naturally, Skip Bayless shared some thoughts going by his standard procedure of all “caps lock” all the time.
As usual, it’s not entirely clear what football game Bayless was watching. But it was not the one Kevin Negandhi expertly described.
To balance out such madness, Josiah Johnson came through a perfectly fitting meme.
Pro Football Focus gave us the most succinct and accurate game summary.
The Cowboys survived. That’s literally all they did.
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This was not a win that confirmed anything about this team, and likely provided more questions than it did answers.
Christmas sure did come early. Nice to see such surprising and open self-awareness from a team owned by Jerry Jones.