Not adding Cooper comes back to bite Eagles

For all practical purposes, the Eagles’ season is over after their 29-23 overtime loss to the Dallas Cowboys Sunday.

Don’t blame the defeat on Eagles cornerback Rasul Douglas, who deflected a pass into the hands of Amari Cooper for the winning points. It came on the 93rd play for the Cowboys. The Eagles had 48 plays.

Besides, Douglas’ early interception was one of three turnovers by Dak Prescott, a total that almost always guarantees its beneficiaries victory.

Carson Wentz? It sure took him awhile but he finally played a fourth quarter the way a franchise quarterback should.

As much as we’d all like to believe otherwise, the officiating crew didn’t cost the Eagles the victory by its refusal to overturn an obvious fumble on the opening kickoff by Jourdan Lewis. Though half of the Eagles’ defense fell on the ball at the 19-yard line, Kamu GrugierHill coming out of the pile with it, the letter of the archaic rule states that the fumble and the recovery have to be visible to reverse the call.

Or, as referee Clete Blakeman phrased it, “We don’t have a clear recovery.”

Clearly, it’s a rule that needs to be fixed, much like the NFL did by getting rid of the old tuck rule. At any rate, Wentz was so brutal on third down (1-for-9) the Eagles couldn’t have expected anything more than a field goal out of that deal anyway.

What beat the Eagles was the trade they didn’t make. The symbol of what the they could have been this season was hoisting his arms in the end zone after producing the winning points.

The Eagles wouldn’t pay the price to get Cooper. They offered a secondround pick to the Oakland Raiders, who said we’ve got a second-round bid, who will bid a first-rounder? The Cowboys did the deal.

For all of the mistakes the Eagles made Sunday — including a missed PAT by Jake Elliott — they would have won if the Cowboys didn’t have Cooper. That’s not even an argument. The Eagles would have triumphed if they had Cooper. No argument there, either.

Cooper caught 10 passes for 217 yards and three touchdowns. That’s 11 fewer yards than Wentz threw for in the entire game.

Cooper’s 75-yard TD reception immediately followed a gutsy Eagles TD drive capped by Wentz’s throw to rookie Dallas Goedert. Speaking of which, Goedert got jobbed on the next Eagles series when he was called for pushing off on what would have been a 75-yard catch-and-run score.

The Eagles tied the game anyway, and the defense that was on the field for 93 plays compared to 48 for their Cowboys counterparts couldn’t keep Dallas from grinding almost the length of the field for the winner. The Cowboys had the ball 45 minutes, 33 seconds compared to 22 minutes, 32 seconds for the Eagles, who already were tired having played Monday.

The winning play by Cooper came eight minutes into the 10-minute OT. Amari ... Cooper. After the Eagles failed to acquire Cooper, they dealt a third-rounder to the Detroit Lions for receiver Golden Tate, who basically plays the same position as three or four other guys on the offense. Management and its cheerleaders built him up as a first down machine, a run-after-the-catch yardage eater and the perfect part to remedy what had gone wrong with the offense.

Tate had one catch for seven yards and zero first downs Sunday. It certainly wasn’t his fault the Eagles lost. But that’s another story for another long offseason, which is what it’s going to be for the defending Super Bowl champions as they need a minor miracle to get into the tournament.

The Eagles have a 13 percent chance of reaching the playoffs, according to Nate Silver’s time-trusted 538. com formula. That becomes eight percent if the Minnesota Vikings (7-5-1) win at Seattle (7-6) Monday night.

It’s also a tough road ahead as the Eagles fly to the West Coast to play the Los Angeles Rams (11-1 before Sunday night) and then host the Houston Texans (94), who saw their nine-game win streak end Sunday.

The Cowboys (8-5) all but guaranteed themselves the NFC East pennant as they now have a 99 percent chance of getting in.

Grugier-Hill was dang near right — the Cowboys almost choked.

Eagles management, however, didn’t give Doug Pederson the best chance of defending that Super Bowl title because the best chance would have been acquiring Cooper.

•••

Can you still be the GOAT and own a 7-10 career record at Miami?

Tom Brady wasn’t the reason the Patriots were beaten Sunday at Hard Rock Stadium. He threw for 354 yards and three TDs. The Dolphins prevailed, 3433, thanks to three laterals and a whiff on a tackle attempt by Rob Gronkowski on the last play of the game.

Still, while Brady is 85-32 on the road in his career, he can’t get it done on the road in Miami.

••• Eagles tight end Zach Ertz reached 1,000 receiving yards in the first half. He’s the first Eagle to do that since Jeremy Maclin in 2014 (1,318 yards), and the first Philly tight end to get there since Pete Retzlaff in 1965 (1,190) … Eagles punter Cam Johnson hit the roof of the Jerry Jones Domes in the first half, forcing Cole Beasley to adjust while making the fair catch … With Odell Beckham Jr. scratched, Saquon Barkley collected 197 yards from scrimmage to lead the Giants to a 40-16 rout of the Redskins. Barkley rushed for 171 yards, including a 79yard scoring run. He leads the league with 12 games of 100-plus yards from scrimmage … Two shockers in Oakland. First, the Raiders defeated the Steelers, 24-21. The other is Oakland remains the only venue Ben Roethlisberger hasn’t won in the AFC … And finally, the Chargers hung on to beat the Bengals, 2621, marking their first season in double-digit wins in nine years.