Eagles head coach Doug Pederson guaranteed a win over the Cowboys on Sunday night

There is no denying it. Sunday’s game between the Dallas Cowboys and Philadelphia Eagles is huge. For both teams.

Dallas and Philadelphia are each coming off of rough losses in Week 5, granted the Cowboys lost to the New York Jets, although the Eagles lost to Kirk Cousins which is never a point of pride. The point is both squads are feeling down and in much need of a confidence boost, they just so happen to be facing each other this week on Sunday Night Football.

The Cowboys and Eagles are both 3-3 and life is not getting easy for either any time soon.

3-3 Cowboys next five games:

• Philadelphia Eagles
• BYE
• At New York Giants
• Minnesota Vikings
• At Detroit Lions
• At New England Patriots

3-3 Eagles next five games:

• At Dallas Cowboys
• At Buffalo Bills
• Chicago Bears
• BYE
• New England Patriots
• Seattle Seahawks

You don’t want to be the team that falls to 3-4. If the Cowboys were to be that team the toxicity would last for a long time as they are on bye after the game, imagine going all the way until November 4th (the Giants game) sitting in this misery. It wouldn’t be fun.

Desperate teams typically play quite hard and when you put two of them in the ring together the results are often intense football games. It’s likely that both teams and both head coaches know this, in fact Eagles head coach Doug Pederson seems quite aware. In an appearance on SportsRadio 94WIP Morning Show, Pederson guaranteed a win over the Dallas Cowboys. From our friends at BGN:

PEDERSON: I know the sky is falling outside. It’s falling. And I get that. And the fans are reeling just a little bit. But we’re going down to Dallas, and our guys are going to be ready to play. And we’re going to win that football game and when we do we’re in first place in the NFC East. We control our own destiny. We’re right where we need to be. Has it been perfect or beautiful or all of that? No. But all we’ve got to do is try to be 1-0 this week, beat the Dallas Cowboys, and we’re in first place. And, listen, they’re reeling, too. They’re struggling, too. They’ve dropped their last three games. So this will be an exciting football game.

CATALDI: You sound very confident about Sunday, Doug.

PEDERSON: I have to be. I am. I see — when I watch the tape, I put the tape on and and I go ‘OK, there are coachable moments, there are teachable moments on the tape that we can get better at as an offense and as a defense.’ I’m also optimistic that some of our injured players in the secondary will make a return this week, and we’ll see. But I’ve got to stay positive not only for myself but for the guys in the locker room.

This seems like Pederson trying to speak positively and keep an optimistic mindset more then rah-rah, over-the-top and in-your-face confidence, but saying it on the radio is still a very interesting move. Remember that just before the last trip that the Eagles took to Dallas one of their own players decided to talk some trash and ended up having to eat some crow.

It’s extremely unlikely that Jason Garrett will say something this spicy at any point so expect the expressions of extreme confidence to be one-sided. It’s Cowboys/Eagles week. Get ready.