The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Dallas has more at stake in division matchup
PHILADELPHIA — Not much gets the competitive juices flowing in Philadelphia like the Eagles hosting the Dallas Cowboys.
Eagles wideout Greg Ward called it “the biggest rivalry in football,” but rivalry talk has been muted for the final week of the regular season with both teams headed to the playoffs.
The NFC East champion Cowboys (11-5) need a win and help to climb from the No. 4 seed to No. 2. The Eagles (9-7) can’t finish any higher than the sixth seed.
It’s uncertain how much Dallas coach Mike Mccarthy and Eagles coach Nick Sirianni will risk playing key starters. Mccarthy said his starters will play and his team will be focused on winning.
Sirianni deflected questions about playing starters early in the week, saying he hasn’t decided. The Eagles placed 12 players on the reserve/covid19 list Monday; all are eligible to come off before the game, or the team can fill their spots with practice squad call-ups.
The Cowboys are coming off a disappointing home loss to Arizona and may seem to feel a need to regain momentum heading into the postseason.
“There are slight odds to potentially move up, so we want to make sure we take care of business on our end, and finish off and make sure we’re playing with momentum,” Mccarthy said.
Eagles star rookie wideout Devonta Smith wants to play. The Eagles have won four in a row and five of their past six games.
“I feel like I need to be out there. I feel like the whole team needs to be out there, just a momentum thing,” said Smith, who is 37 yards shy of Desean Jackson’s team record of 921 receiving yards for a rookie. “We’ve kind of got everything going in the right direction, so just keep that momentum building. Just another week to fine-tune the small things ... it means a lot.”
While saying the Cowboys would play to win the game, Mccarthy didn’t dismiss the notion of starters getting pulled with the outcome in doubt. However, he was quick to point out the difference between the preseason and regular season, when the 48-player rosters on game day are barely half the summer size.
“Going up there and then you start pulling players, you’re really putting stress on other players that particularly haven’t played, that maybe haven’t had reps at that many positions,” Mccarthy said. “You have to be cognizant of that. I’m talking about special teams and so forth. We put a lot of time into the potential playtime reports for projected play for each player.”