I live for Dallas Week

It’s Tuesday, but I’m still riding high from Sunday. Along with our fearless leader Brandon Lee Gowton and some wonderful BGN readers and listeners, I hung out at Pistola’s Del Sur in South Philly for the Eagles/Washington game. For our first meetup of the season, we couldn’t have chosen a more erratic game that completely encapsulated the whirlwind of emotions that come with the territory of being a fan of the Philadelphia Eagles.

Sunday certainly wasn’t the most encouraging performance ever, but I loved what I saw from some of the fresh skill players. Greg Ward Jr. made the play of his life when he came down with a season-saving touchdown catch with less than 30 seconds left in the fourth quarter. Boston Scott caught seven balls and totaled 65 yards from scrimmage as a change-of-pace back. Miles Sanders continued his electric (and unheralded, frankly) rookie campaign, rushing four 120 yards on the ground with a tuddie and making one of the best catches you’ll ever see from a running back in the end zone on an absolute dart from Carson Wentz. Imagine if this team’s receivers moved as well when plays broke down all season the way Sanders did in Washington?

Those guys have the juice and I’d certainly rather ride out with them instead of the likes of Mack Hollins, Nelson Agholor and Jordan Matthews.

Let’s not undersell the most important thing going on right now though: Dallas Week means something! The Eagles have staved off irrelevance and elimination the last two weeks, surviving ahead of this upcoming Sunday’s matchup against the Cowboys, ostensibly the NFC East Championship Game. You simply haven’t lived if you’ve never been at the Linc mere seconds before kickoff of an Eagles/Cowboys game. It’s somehow cathartic and chaotic and awe-inspiring all at once.

It was always going to come down to this. Yeah, the season went wrong a million different ways before the Birds found themselves in this position, but it was always about the Cowboys in Week 16. The clock is moving excruciatingly slow right now. I need it to be Sunday. I need to be in the Jetro Lot at 10 a.m. wearing a dog mask and hitting a Cowboys pinata filled with vodka shooters [I will seriously be doing this. Hit me up on Twitter or shoot me an email (shamus j clancy at gmail dot com) if you want to come hang out and tailgate this week].

I’m ultimately just glad this game means something and we can live through Dallas Week. A month ago, I didn’t think we’d get here, but we did. Just get me to Sunday.

On the latest episode of From the Bleachers, I talk about the juice of Greg Ward Jr., Boston Scott and Miles Sanders before turning all of my brain cells towards the detestable Dallas Cowboys and their mutant fan base. Thank you for listening to me talk about the Birds all season. I’m so happy I can do this and I hope you’re all as amped for Sunday as I am.

I’ll close with this quote from Dick Vermeil that I love dearly:

Never allow anyone to take you for granted. I get the feeling the Dallas Cowboys are taking us for granted right now. We’re here because we earned the right to be here. If the Dallas Cowboys are going to take us for granted, we’ll whip their ass.

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