You'd have to be pretty greedy to ask for Sunday's game between the Giants and Eagles to have worked out any better for the Cowboys.
For those of you who missed the festivities, a quick rundown: The Giants blew a 14-0 lead and fell behind 16-14, they should have been down more, but Andy Reid still treats savvy short yardage offense like health food and handed them a short field after coming up short on fourth down. Victor Cruz caught a second touchdown pass (although it seemed like it should have been overturned on replay) and then the Eagles folded when Michael Vick left the game with a broken hand.
When all was said and done, the Giants were 29-16 winners. Vick is out several weeks with the hand injury and consumed with whining about how often he gets hit. The Giants are puffing their chests and patting themselves on the back like Week Three falls sometime in January. And the Cowboys should like every last bit of it.
Obviously an injury to Vick makes the Eagles very vulnerable in the weeks to come, something that can't make them breathe too easily now that they have a 1-2 record. Jeremy Maclin also came down with an injury, giving further cause to doubt Philly's ability to stop the bleeding quickly and completely.
On top of that, the Eagles vaunted secondary looked awful on Sunday and they weren't much better in the key parts of the loss to the Falcons. Their linebackers shuffled their positions, but the result was still a group that simply can't make plays when they unfold right in front of them. And Reid showed that he's still unable to avoid shooting himself in the foot with his play calling at the biggest moments of a game.
You'd think the Giants showing their most complete game of the young season would work against the Cowboys, but these are the same Giants that have spent the last three years never being less dangerous than when they build a winning record. The Giants snapped their hex against the Eagles, now they need to prove they can snap their curse of the second half.
Until they do, the Giants will remain a far more dangerous team in September and October than the overconfident bunch that folds in December. The Cowboys play them twice in that final month, so it only helps them to have the Giants do their winning now so that they have them right where they want them in the stretch run.
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All in all, things couldn't have gone any better on Sunday unless the Cowboys had a blowout win of their own. If they can come up with one of those on Monday night, Week Three will have been a very good one indeed.
