Eagles lick their wounds while still in position to clinch the NFC East division title and No. 1 seed

ARLINGTON, Texas — There were alternate realities here, somewhere. One where even just one of the four turnovers don’t happen. One where the Cowboys don’t convert a third-and-30 to stay alive. One where Gardner Minshew saves Christmas, instead of one where Dallas spoils it.

In an alternate universe, the Eagles left Texas late Saturday night having accomplished their regular-season goals with two games left on the schedule — and they then play their remaining two home games worry-free, giving Jalen Hurts every last second he needs for his shoulder to be healed.

This isn’t a fantasy land. The Eagles lost Saturday night, 40-34. But despite some of the sullen sounds from the visitors locker room inside AT&T Stadium, the reality the day after is sort of the same as the reality of the day of.

To clinch the NFC’s No. 1 seed and home-field advantage throughout the playoffs, the 13-2 Eagles need to win one of their remaining regular-season games. There are two of them left. They host the Saints on Sunday, and then end the regular season with a home game vs. the New York Giants on Jan. 8.

» READ MORE: Merry Christmas, Cowboys: Without Jalen Hurts, Eagles gift-wrap a win

These Eagles were very aware of that reality in the immediate aftermath, but it was hard to escape the fact that this one slipped away.

“We still got a lot of stuff in front of us, but we really wanted this one,” said running back Miles Sanders, who fumbled with 2 minutes, 7 seconds left, on the Eagles’ first play after Dallas took a 37-34 lead.

“I don’t think any of us are really worried about the [controlling] destiny portion,” center Jason Kelce said. “You just go out there and try to win out and not focus on any of that other stuff. You try to go out and win the game and everything else takes care of itself. We had an opportunity to win this game. We played well at times, and obviously the turnovers really killed us.

“There’ll be a lot to learn from it.”

First, the Eagles need to learn how beat up they are.

Avonte Maddox left the game after sacking Dak Prescott on Dallas’ first play of the second quarter. His absence helped enable CeeDee Lamb to run free most of the night. Maddox has a left toe injury and was wearing a boot in the locker room after the game. Jordan Davis left the game with a head injury.

Lane Johnson exited in the fourth quarter. He was wearing a wrap around his midsection after the game.

Then there’s the Hurts situation. He could miss two games with his shoulder injury, and as of Friday night, ESPN reported his status for the Saints game was “uncertain.”

» READ MORE: The Eagles and Gardner Minshew missed an opportunity in Dallas, but they’re keeping the faith

Minshew is capable of delivering the win. The backup quarterback did make a few mistakes Saturday night, but he also threw for 355 yards and two scores and had the Eagles 20 yards away from a potential game-winning touchdown.

The Saints, whom the Eagles have extra motivation to beat given they own New Orleans’ first-round pick, are 6-9. They’ve won two straight and have a formidable defensive unit that has allowed just 48 points over its last four games.

The Eagles have an extra day to figure out how to crack that code, but coach Nick Sirianni wasn’t ready to take comfort in the fact that their destiny was still in their hands. At least for now.

“You don’t think about that yet,” Sirianni said. “We gotta take these lumps that they gave us, that we created ourselves and sit on them for a little bit. When you sit on them for a little bit and identify what happened and what went wrong, that’s how you get better. That’s all we crave to do is just get better. We’ll think about the Saints after we fix the problems with this game.

“We win together, we celebrate together, and we pick each other up together. Everything is together. Together, together, together.”

It seems like they wouldn’t have it any other way.

“I love this team,” tackle Jordan Mailata said. “When adversity strikes, it’s not like guys are saying, [bleep] you!’ Guys are positive. We reinforce that. Guys here are different. We’ll be all right for next week. With the locker room that we have, I have no worries.”