We were sitting in a restaurant on the 16th Street Mall in Denver watching the early football games and just wiling away the time before Game 3 of the NLDS when the text messages started rolling in.
“What is with those brown uniforms the Broncos are wearing?”
It was true. In some sort of tribute to earth tones, the AFL, or Al Davis, the NFL thought it would be a neat idea for the Broncos to where brown, yellow and white. It was similar to the San Diego Padres color scheme from the 1970s, only uglier and with a picture of a horse. The throwback uniforms the Broncos wore on Oct. 11 defied the notion that NFL stands for “No Fun League,” because whoever came up with the idea to wear those duds clearly had an excellent sense of humor.
But that part doesn’t matter now.
“Are you watching the Cowboys get beat by the Chiefs? Wade Phillips will get fired after this one.”
That was the jest of the majority of the text that floated in. Indeed the Cowboys-Chiefs game was showing on one of the screens, and sure enough Phillips’ 2-2 club had their hands full with a 0-4 team. The Cowboys and Phillips definitely looked like they were in trouble when the Chiefs scored a touchdown with 24 seconds left in the game to force overtime.
Miles Austin might have saved the season that day for the Cowboys based on the messages I was getting. The receivers 60-yard TD catch won it in OT and capped off a 10-catch, 250-yard effort. More notable, after the game Cowboys’ owner Jerry Jones said Philips wasn’t going anywhere…
Yet.
Perhaps that scare from the Chiefs was the kick in the rear the Cowboys needed? Including that game, the Cowboys won six of their next seven before going on a three-game winning streak to end that season in which they notched two straight shutouts for the first time in team history and knocked off the 13-0 New Orleans Saints.
Of course none of that will matter if the Cowboys lose to the Eagles in the first-round playoff game on Saturday night, but think about it for a sec—Philips and the Cowboys were on the precipice and responded. Additionally, they very well could have the hottest defense in the league headed into the playoffs.
Getting two shutouts in a row is not as easy as the Cowboys made it look.
Meanwhile, in Philadelphia the Eagles were busy patting themselves on the back during the six-game winning streak that carried them into last week’s debacle. So pleased with the way things were going the team’s brass gave coach Andy Reid a contract extension.
“This is just another statement by Jeffrey (Lurie) and Joe (Banner) to say we have the top organization in the National Football League,” Reid said.
Indeed it was something like that. After all, you can’t argue with the bottom line—Reid and the Eagles went 11-5 this year and set the franchise record for points in a season. He also has the most wins in franchise history and been to the playoffs eight times in 11 years.
That’s not too bad.
But there’s something about all those points and the 11 wins that feels a bit hollow this season. Maybe it’s because the Eagles were 0-4 against teams in the playoffs and they won just one game against a team with a winning record.
That’s not too good considering Banner has claimed his team has the best roster in all of football. Oh yes, they’re very fond of themselves with all that “Gold Standard” talk. But it makes one scratch their head and wonder why the Eagles can’t beat any good teams.
Like maybe more than once.
Good teams beat good teams. So if we’re going to define Reid’s legacy as anything it’s that he certainly knows how to plow through a schedule full of cupcakes. True, Reid has a 10-7 record in the playoffs, but seven of those wins are in the first round, while five of the losses have come in a championship game where the opponent has been legit.
Want to talk about the bottom line? OK, if the Eagles don’t win it this season, it will be a half a century—50 years—since a team from Philadelphia was the champion of the NFL.
"Maybe just too much effort," Reid said when asked about his teams' failure in the biggest games of the year.
Oh yes, the trying-too-hard argument.
Gold standard? How about the Chicago Cubs of football?
Nevertheless, the sentiment out of Dallas is that despite an 11-win season and an NFC East title, Phillips is gone of the Cowboys lose.
Reid? Yeah, he’ll be back—win or lose.