Eagles-Cowboys rivalry: Remembering 5 regular-season games when the teams clashed while riding high

This will be just the fifth time in the 63-year history of the Eagles-Cowboys rivalry that they will meet in the first half of the season with each team at least three games over .500. Or, more simply, these teams don’t often see each other this early when they’re both pretty good.

Here’s a look at similar early-season meetings and how things turned out.

What happened: Ron Jaworski threw a touchdown pass late in the fourth quarter and Dick Vermeil cried afterward as the Eagles took another step toward contention with a grinding 17-10 win. Two days later, the Phillies won their first World Series on the same Veterans Stadium field. It was a wild time for Philly sports.

What it meant: The Eagles went 2-18 against the Cowboys from 1968 to 1978. They beat Dallas in 1979, and winning this showdown instilled a confidence rarely seen in the Eagles since the 1960 title team. It also put the Eagles in position to win their first NFC East title, which they’d seal in the final week of the season (in a loss at Dallas) on an obscure points-differential tiebreaker. They hosted the NFC championship game three weeks later and beat the Cowboys in the rivalry’s most significant meeting. None before nor since has ever had a Super Bowl berth hanging in the balance.

What happened: The Eagles defense led the way by forcing Troy Aikman into four turnovers for a 31-7 win in front of an (ahem) enthusiastic Monday night crowd at the Vet.

What it meant: Not much, actually. The Eagles gave up the division lead by losing their next two games. “We’ll play them again, and we think it will be a different story,” Dallas defensive tackle Tony Casillas said that night. Boy, was he ever right.

What happened: A 20-10 Dallas win turned on a Cowboys goal-line stand early in the third quarter. “We felt once we held them out, that momentum shifted and we felt we could dominate,” said Casillas, who had a huge tackle on Herschel Walker on third down. “We continued to do that the rest of the game. That was the turning point.”

What it meant: It also was a turning point in the rivalry. Dallas would beat the Eagles seven times in a row and would win the Super Bowl three times in the next four years.

What happened: The records were the same, but Dallas was on a different level than the rest of the division — and most of the rest of the league. The score was 24-13, but the Eagles didn’t have much of a chance once the Cowboys defense warmed up. Randall Cunningham was sacked four times and committed five turnovers.

What it meant: The Eagles were not as good as their record. They closed with a seven-game losing streak, Cunningham was benched for Bubby Brister, and Rich Kotite was fired. Dallas, meanwhile, would go on to lose to the 49ers in the third installment of a terrific trilogy of NFC championship games.

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What happened: The Eagles were sloppy and paid for it, especially when a couple of replay challenges didn’t go their way. The second denied the Birds a first down on a fourth-and-short sneak by Donovan McNabb in the fourth quarter. Dallas scored a touchdown on the ensuing possession and wound up with a 20-16 win, much to the Sunday night disappointment of the 69,144 at Lincoln Financial Field

What it meant: Dallas rolled to a 24-0 win in the rematch in the final week of the season to force a tie for the NFC East championship. Since the Cowboys won both meetings, they claimed the division on a tiebreaker and got to host a playoff game. They easily beat the Eagles in the wild-card round in a game that could have been in Philadelphia.

If history is any indication, Sunday night could be the first of three games against Dallas for the Eagles this season. A playoff game at the Linc against the Cowboys? That would be fun.