NFL News NFL News, Reports and Updates
Why the Eagles-Cowboys rivalry might mean more than ever this year originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
It’s not a rivalry if only one team is good. And there haven’t been many stretches since the Cowboys came into existence in 1960 that both teams have both been successful at the same time.
That’s what makes this year so much fun, and that’s what makes Sunday’s game so huge.
Over the last three seasons, the teams with the best records in the NFC are the Eagles at 33-13 and the Cowboys at 33-13.
And this will be the third straight year the Eagles and Cowboys both reach the postseason, something that hasn’t happened since Dick Vermeil and Tom Landry were coaching. During the previous 24 years – 1997 through 2020 – there were only four seasons both reached the playoffs and never in back-to-back seasons (2003, 2006, 2009 and 2018).
In fact, from 1982 through 2020 – a span of nearly 40 years – there was only one time where the Eagles and Cowboys both reached the postseason in back-to-back years. That was 1995 and 1996.
At first, Eagles-Cowboys didn’t mean much.
From 1960 through 1965 the Cowboys didn’t have a winning season and from 1967 through 1977 the Eagles didn’t have a winning season.
The Cowboys won 21 of 23 matchups with the Eagles from 1967 through 1978, but it was 1980, when the Eagles crushed Dallas in the NFC Championship Game at the Vet, that the rivalry first came to life.
But then both franchises experienced long, bleak stretches. The Cowboys didn’t win a playoff game from 1983 through 1990, and the Eagles didn’t win one from 1981 through 1991.
Then Buddy happened.
Buddy Ryan’s open disdain for Tom Landry, Tex Schramm and the entire Cowboys franchise is what really breathed life into the rivalry.
Once Landry played starters in the 1987 strike replacement game – the Cowboys won 41-22 at Texas Stadium – Buddy was determined to humiliate and embarrass him every way he could. The Eagles won 37-20 in the rematch at the Vet…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/why-eagles-cowboys-rivalry-might-234658879.html
Author : NBC Sports Philadelphia
Publish date : 2023-12-09 23:46:58
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.
