Kellen Moore back to Cowboys?; Dallas Goedert’s TD was all-Philly; Josh Harris’ big Sunday: NFL wild-card weekend

As soon as news broke that Mike McCarthy was divorcing Jerry Jones, the NFL information network started buzzing. The most buzz surrounded Jones courting Eagles offensive coordinator Kellen Moore to replace McCarthy.

Moore, 36, was a backup quarterback in Dallas from 2015-17, served as QB coach in 2018, then became offensive coordinator from 2019-22. He was Jones’ Golden Boy, but he wasn’t McCarthy’s. McCarthy inherited Moore when Jones hired McCarthy as head coach in 2020, then McCarthy scapegoated Moore after the 2022 season, firing Moore and saying Moore’s desire “to light the scoreboard up” hurt the Cowboys’ efforts.

Moore landed as OC with the Chargers last year, was swept out with overmatched Brandon Staley’s staff after 2023, and the Eagles couldn’t get their hands on him quickly enough.

Two league sources expect the Cowboys to request an interview with Moore immediately. One said, via text, “Jerry still loves him. I think the job is his if he wants it.”

In Moore’s only season with the Eagles, running back Saquon Barkley ran for the eighth-most yards in a single season (2,005), quarterback Jalen Hurts recorded the best passer rating of his career (103.7), and three offensive linemen joined Barkley as Pro Bowl selections. After very publicly assigning offensive autonomy to Moore and stripping powers from head coach Nick Sirianni, the Eagles finished 14-3, earned the No. 2 seed in the NFC, and beat the Packers in their wild-card game Sunday evening.

Perhaps most significantly, as a teammate, position coach, or coordinator, Moore was part of the development of Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott in Prescott’s first seven seasons in the NFL, helping an anonymous, fourth-round pick develop into a $260 million franchise quarterback.

Jones reportedly failed to convince McCarthy to remain at The Star because McCarthy wanted the sort of long-term deal he is sure to get at his next stop, likely in either New Orleans or Chicago.

Even if Moore doesn’t go back to Big D, he might still be leaving South Philly. Moore reportedly already has interview requests submitted from New Orleans and Jacksonville.

He’s from South Dakota, but his moment was all South Philly. South Philly tough. Philadelphia Eagles tough.

The Eagles won a playoff game Sunday because they were more physical and because they were tougher than a very physical and tough Packers team. For a blue-collar town that prides itself on toughness, resilience, selflessness, and grit, Eagles tight end Dallas Goedert was the perfect vessel in which to carry that pride Sunday.

And man, did he carry it.

“You have to do it with the way you run with the football in your hands,” said coach Nick Sirianni. “Nobody in this league is as violent and as physical as Dallas Goedert with the ball in his hands.”

With one 24-yard touchdown catch-and-run, Goedert entered the annals of Eagles legend. Think DeSean Jackson’s Miracle at the Meadowlands II, the punt return in 2010. Fourth-and-26 in the divisional round against these same Packers after the 2003 season. Or, dare we say … Super Bowl LII, the “Philly Special?”

OK, maybe not the Philly Special. But it’s up there.

Goedert caught a pass at the Packers’ 23. It was a bad pass, low and slightly behind him, but a great catch. That would have been enough to make it a good play … but there was more.

» READ MORE: Eagles grades: An opportunistic defense wore down the Packers in a wild-card win

Carrington Valentine tried to tackle him at the 20. Goedert stands 6-foot-5 and weighs 256 pounds. Valentine is 6-foot, 189. No chance. Goedert ran right through him.

That would have been enough to make it a great play … but there was more.

Full credit to Valentine. He stuck with it. He caught Goedert at the 15. Goedert stiff-armed him in the face like a big kid punking his little brother. Undaunted, Valentine caught Goedert again at the 5. Goedert punked him again and rumbled into the end zone.

That was enough to make it a legendary play.

Goedert stood alone in the end zone like a conquering god, perhaps unable to process his own power and might. He spiked the ball hard enough to make the center of the earth tremble. Saquon Barkley, the resident beast on offense, ran over and lifted Goedert to the sky, as beasts will do when they rejoice.

All Valentine could do was grimace and roll his eyes. He knew he would be an internet meme for the rest of his life.

Goedert’s touchdown late in the third quarter was the signature play in the Eagles’ 22-10 wild-card win over the Pack. It made the score 16-3, so it was the winning score, as things turned out. There was more to it, though.

It punctuated a weak offensive showing on a day the defense forced four turnovers, or five, if you count a late turnover on downs. The bench went as crazy as the rest of Lincoln Financial Field.

“You could see the spark it gave to the sideline,” Sirianni said.

» READ MORE: A.J. Brown and the lessons from ‘Inner Excellence’ sideline book reading: ‘Clear mind and unburdened heart’

It announced the return, in earnest, of Goedert, who this season lost seven games to injury. By the time he returned last week, in a meaningless game, he’d become the forgotten man in an Eagles attack that featured Barkley, receivers A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith, and, of course, quarterback Jalen Hurts, not to mention four Pro Bowl-caliber offensive linemen.

He’s a forgotten man no more.

“First, do no harm.”

That isn’t part of the Hippocratic Oath, contrary to popular belief, but Greek physician Hippocrates did, in fact, include the axiom in another of his writings. At any rate, it should be part of a Quarterback Oath. On complete and gifted teams like the Eagles, it certainly bears adherence.

» READ MORE: David Murphy: The 7 seconds that showed why the Eagles are a strong bet for the Super Bowl

Jalen Hurts was kind of awful: 13 for 21 for 131 yards, and two workmanlike touchdown passes. Nothing special. Except this: He didn’t turn the ball over. And he won.

Jordan Love threw three interceptions. He lost.

Hurts missed the previous 11 quarters with a concussion suffered early in Game 15. He hadn’t thrown a pass in a game in 20 days. He was gun-shy, and he was rusty. He also was smart.

“I think that’s an important aspect of playoff ball, being able to be explosive, but also maintain the ball and win the turnover battle,” Hurts said. “Ultimately, the goal is to create explosive plays and not turn it over.”

In his last 11 complete games, Hurts is averaging slightly less than 205 yards. He has no 300-yard games. He has exceeded 250 yards just twice.

» READ MORE: Jeff McLane: Jalen Hurts keeps winning, or the Eagles won in spite of him; either way, is it postseason-sustainable?

He also has a passer rating of 110.3. He has thrown 17 touchdown passes and just one interception.

And he’s 11-0.

Between engineering the worst trade in franchise history for Andrew Bynum and Process-ing the 76ers into an NBA punch line, billionaire investor Josh Harris, a Penn grad and a Maryland native, had a pretty good Sunday.

» READ MORE: Mike Sielski: Zack Baun and the Eagles defense save the day

In the morning he backed out of a wildly unpopular downtown arena deal that would have cost him and his partners at least $1.3 billion and threatened the Chinatown neighborhood, then backed into co-ownership of an arena near the current one in South Philly. He attended a press conference at City Hall on Monday announcing the new deal. he looked bleary-eyed and sounded rough. Understandable: After all, on Sunday night he’d been in Tampa watching his Commanders, the team he rooted for as a kid, win their first playoff game since 2005.

Love him or hate him, like Ice Cube in ‘93, you gotta say it was a good day for Harris.

General disdain for Harris in Philadelphia goes far beyond the mismanagement of the basketball team. He also owns the New Jersey Devils, one of the Flyers’ hockey rivals, and, in 2023, he and a team of investors acquired the Commanders, one of the Eagles’ rivals.

» READ MORE: Marcus Hayes: Eagles ‘D’ wins ugly, Sixers pivot on arena, Cutter Gauthier sent packing by Flyers: A glorious sports weekend in Philly

As snakebitten as Harris seems to be with the Sixers — Ben Simmons and James Harden refused to play for him, Joel Embiid and Markelle Fultz suffered weird injuries while in his employ, and general managers Sam Hinkie and Bryan Colangelo were negligent in both their acquisitions and behaviors — he seems positively charmed in D.C. His Commanders won their seventh game of the year on the last play of the game; this time, a field goal that deflected in off the right upright.

Would Harris’ luck hold in Philly? We might find out.

If the Commanders upset the Lions in Detroit on Saturday night, and if the Eagles win their divisional game Sunday, the teams would meet in Philadelphia for the NFC championship the following week.

» READ MORE: ‘Nasty’ Nolan Smith sacks Packers’ Jordan Love twice and sets the tone for the Eagles defense in a playoff win

It looks like Mike Tomlin will survive in Pittsburgh for a 19th season despite losing a team-record sixth straight playoff game. … The Bills will host the Ravens on Sunday night in a battle of MVP candidates between playmaking Bills quarterback Josh Allen, the favorite for most of the season, and reigning MVP Lamar Jackson, who made a late push for his third award. … It will be interesting to see how the Buccaneers regard Todd Bowles after another quick playoff exit. The Bucs have won the wretched NFC South in each of his three seasons, but he’s now 1-3 in the playoffs after a home loss to the Commanders. … The Texans beat the visiting Chargers and now travel to Kansas City for the second time in four weeks for the 4:30 p.m. game Saturday. The Texans lost by a touchdown on Dec. 21, but they led in the second quarter, trailed by one point in the third quarter, and never trailed by more than eight points at any time.