The Eagles took it on the chin last night, losing a home game to the Dallas Cowboys by 4 points. Needless to say, millions in the Delaware Valley were stunned by even further evidence that the Eagles don’t win every game. News began surfacing somewhere during the 2nd quarter that the Cowboys were also trying to win the game, and that the heart and soul of the Eagles’ constitution may not have been enough to simply will a 6th win of the season.

The Eagles made some mistakes, as does every NFL team during every game. Andy Reid may have made a mistake by challenging a spot and when the challenge was not rewarded his decision cost his team the opportunity to stop the clock late in the fourth quarter. Three of the 5 offensive skill players relied upon to win games are in their first or second season (McCoy, Maclin and Jackson) and they made some mistakes. The offensive line is a work in progress. Donovan McNabb threw 2 picks (one of them clearly was not his fault) and had a 61.4 passer rating for the game. In all, this offense that people think is the 2007 Patriots based on their performance against the Giants is a question mark.

Defensively, the Eagles were mediocre. Their run defense only yielded 76 yards. While the Eagles secondary gave up 307 yards to Tony Romo, the front 7 pressured him well to the tune of 4 sacks. The conventional wisdom going into the game was that if the Eagles could put pressure on Romo, they would win the game. As it turned out, Romo handled the pressure pretty well and while he wasn’t the deciding factor in the game, he out-performed Donovan McNabb and added to his 4-game total of 9 TDs and only 1 INT.

If you’re looking for a simple decisive point in the game, it would have to be the 49-yard touchdown pass to Miles Austin. He ran though every member of the Eagles secondary (past and present) on his way to the winning touchdown. People can whine. They can cry. They can fire Andy Reid or Donovan McNabb or Anthony Gargano. But the bottom line is that anyone who watched last night’s game probably got the impression that it was played between two teams who were 5-2. There was little shown that suggested the Eagles had any decisive advantage, other than the religious certainty of the 50,000 players in the stands. So coming down hard on the Eagles today is understandable, but do you really think they lost the game or were they beaten by a comparable competitor?