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What they're saying...Eagles game

By Dave Halprin

My how things change in this league. After winning last week, it appeared the embarrassment against the Saints the week before was a one-time thing, a bump in the road. Well, you can get rid of that notion, these Cowboys are teetering on the edge, and they could easily go over. Or they could just as easily turn it around, how many teams have been counted out how many times this year, only to get back in contention. Now, I'll grant you, I no longer think we are an elite team in the NFC, we are just another in the crowd. But we're still going to the playoffs so at least we have a puncher's chance, but we better get things right starting against Detroit. I never give up on a season until it's over, but these Cowboys are sure making it hard to believe.

Terence Newman expresses his frustration.

"It's the worst feeling in football," cornerback Terence Newman said. "We're at home. On Christmas. Everything was set up for us to look pretty good going into the playoffs, and then we come out and play like that. All I know is next week is going to be a long week, and if we play like we did today, we might as well hang it up next weekend and not even play in the playoffs, because the way we are playing makes no sense to me."

That's some deep frustration, but warranted. When you work so hard all season for a goal, only to let it go without a fight, it doesn't get any worse.

"For a long time, we've been chasing them," tight end Jason Witten said. "They were chasing us today, and we let that go. That's what hurts really."

Even Mr. Sunshine, Jerry Jones, is losing his cool.

"A game like this indicts us at the top just straight through," owner and general manager Jerry Jones said. "It's disappointing ... I'm disgusted. I really am."

Those are pretty strong words from the man who signs the checks. Parcells will have to do his best psych-job to get this team pointed in the right direction again. Somehow, he has to sell them on still being in contention for the whole enchilada.

"I told them they can either be judged by this game or they could come back ready to go next week and have a chance to compete for the championship," Parcells said. "We will know next week at this time which way we are going to go."

There's basically nothing good that came out of this game on the field. It was a total loss.

"We didn't do anything that well today," Parcells said. "We never got ourselves a spark to react to. We still had chances all the way through the third quarter - 16-7 - you've still got a good chance in the game. But we just didn't ever have a chance to get back in to the game. We just didn't do it."

And not doing it with so much on line has to be surprising to Parcells, right?

"Yes, I am."

Disappointed, too?

"Of course," he said. "You can't play like that and not be disappointed. There's not really anything good to say. I've got to take the responsibility for it because the team obviously didn't look prepared to play. We just didn't make any plays at all."

It was a disaster; I haven't seen the Cowboys look this bad on both sides of the ball all year. Heck, even the games with Bledsoe, we were at least scoring points. This one just fell apart in all areas; so much so, the Cowboys were getting booed at a game they thought would be their defining statement in the regular season.

"We owe our fans better than what we showed," [Terrell] Owens said. "Whatever boos that were given, then we deserve it. This is not how we play the game. We stunk it up. Overall, we need to regroup and play better."

More Jerry Jones:

"After tonight, you have to look at the entire organization, and I do," Jones said. "I'm about as frustrated as I've been in my 17 years as owner."

Bottom-line, we stunk.

"We were non-competitive tonight," Cowboys coach Bill Parcells said. "Inexperience in this kind of game hurt us."

Last word to Romo:

"I kind of felt like we beat ourselves in some ways," Romo said. "This team has a lot of heart. We've come back before. We have a big game next week. We'll find out how good we are when we get into the tournament."

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