Texas NFL Capsules: Eagles, Cowboys playing for 1st in NFC East

PHILADELPHIA — They have played each other with both a Super Bowl and a playoff spot at stake.

There was the "Bounty Bowl," Emmitt Smith getting stuffed, Eagles fans cheering for a motionless Michael Irvin, and Terrell Owens stoking controversy for each side.

Dallas and Philadelphia have lined up against each other 99 times in games that have forged one of the most heated rivalries in the NFL. Somehow it seems fitting the 100th meeting would have something significant on the line.

With the Phillies’ run in the World Series over, all eyes among the city’s sports fans are on one game — one sport, really — this weekend.

Win Sunday night in Philadelphia, and the Cowboys (5-2) are alone atop the NFC East.

Knock off the Cowboys, and the Eagles (5-2) move into first as the only NFC East team unbeaten in the division.

"I know the crowd is going to be out of their minds," Eagles coach Andy Reid said.

The fans are always hostile when the Eagles and Cowboys play, especially when more than just bragging rights go to the winner.

Last season was no exception. The finale turned into a do-or-die game for the final NFC wild-card spot and the Eagles thumped the Cowboys 44-6 to earn the right to play in the postseason — and they eventually reached the NFC title game.

The Cowboys left Lincoln Financial Field in shambles.

They return on a three-game winning streak and playing their best football of the season. The Cowboys haven’t forgotten how they were thoroughly dominated in the second series game last year, and — though its only the halfway point of the season — wresting the division lead away from the Eagles would help put that unpleasant memory behind them.

"We’re going to watch it on tape, we’re going to correct the things we didn’t do well and come up with a way to attack these guys," Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo said. "We’re going to go out there and be a better football team than we were that played that day. I don’t know about the rest of the stuff that people use as motivation. There’s motivation in the sense that is an important game."

Romo has thrown eight touchdowns without an interception over the last three games and has put aside Roy Williams’ grumbling to find a favorite target in wide receiver Miles Austin. Austin has 21 catches for 482 yards and five TDs during the winning streak. Oh, and those games have represented his first three NFL starts.

"He’s been waiting for his opportunity, and when it came along he’s done some really good things," Romo said.

The Eagles want to end that hot streak — and keep theirs going.

They have rolled to victories the last two weeks over division rivals Washington and New York. Philly will have running back Brian Westbrook in the lineup after he sat out last week because of the lingering effects from a concussion.

"I am excited to get to play again. It really doesn’t matter at this point who we are playing against for me," Westbrook said. "It means a little bit extra because it’s Dallas, but I just want to be able to go out there and play a football game."

The game means extra to almost any player who was ever worn the Dallas star or Eagles wings on his helmet.

Reid recalled how the magnitude of the series truly hit him his first season in Philadelphia in 1999 during a stop at a fast food restaurant for breakfast.

"There was this little old lady, she had to be 80 years old, and she came up and she said, ‘Hey, make sure you kick their ... and she threw a few out there. This looked like everybody’s grandma," Reid said. "I just went, ‘Whoa, this means a lot.’

"That’s the way it’s been. I think the fans here are passionate about playing and welcoming in the Dallas Cowboys, and I know the players feel that way and the coaches feel that way. I know it’s the same way on their side."

Dallas and Philadelphia have split the season series the last two years, with the Cowboys winning both early-season games and the Eagles taking both rematches.

With a national TV audience watching, this game could have a hard time matching some of the great contests over the first 99. The Cowboys lead the series 55-44 and once won 11 consecutive games over the Eagles, from 1967-1972.

For most Eagles fans, beating the Cowboys is second only to winning a Super Bowl.

Of course, that’s a feat the Eagles have never accomplished, while the Cowboys have won five Super Bowls. The Eagles won the last of their three NFL championships in 1960.

One of the Eagles’ biggest wins in team history came at the expense of Dallas in January 1981, when they beat the Cowboys 20-7 to advance to the Super Bowl for the first time in franchise history.

Eagles fans once cheered the ambulance that drove Irvin off the field after he went down with a career-ending neck injury.

Any die-hard Eagles fan surely remembers the "fourth-and-1" game in 1995 when former Cowboys coach Barry Switzer ran Emmitt Smith into the line on consecutive plays in Dallas territory late in the fourth quarter, only to get stopped both times as the Eagles went on to win 20-17.

Now it’s time for Romo and Donovan McNabb, Austin and DeSean Jackson to make No. 100 a game to remember.

"It’s a nice rivalry to have," Reid said.

Texans hoping to challenge Colts in AFC South

INDIANAPOLIS — The Houston Texans spent all decade dreaming of this opportunity.

All they really wanted was a chance to establish themselves as a playoff contender and finally take down their old nemesis, the Indianapolis Colts. On Sunday, they could do both.

At 5-3 and on a three-game winning streak, Houston looks like the only AFC South team capable of challenging Indy for division superiority — and it’s never had a better shot to beat the Colts.

"It is exciting, and that is what we talked about as a team all offseason and through training camp," quarterback Matt Schaub said when asked if it would be a signature moment for the franchise. "It is an exciting time for our team and our city and we understand that, but at the same time we have to realize what we have to do."

They have to measure up on the field, not just on the stat lines.

Schaub comes into the game with more TD passes (16) than three-time MVP Peyton Manning (15), and with a receiver, Andre Johnson, who has more yards (697) than Indy’s Reggie Wayne (689), who is second in the NFL.

But there is a huge disparity when it comes to image.

Houston is the intriguing upstart, the Rocky Balboa of this fight. Many are withholding judgment until they see if the Texans can really beat Indy.

Who can blame the skeptics? In seven years, the Texans are 1-13 in the series, 0-7 in Indy, and their only win came on Kris Brown’s 48-yard, last-second field goal in 2006.

This time, the stakes are higher. Win and Houston becomes the biggest threat to Indy’s title quest. Lose and the Colts take a four-game lead in the loss column with only seven games left on Houston’s schedule.

"We’re in a situation that we’ve never been in before at this point in the season and like I said, every game is going to get bigger and bigger," Johnson said. "If we go and win this game, we have a bye week and we come (home) and play Tennessee; that game is going to be even bigger. The more you win, the bigger the games get."

Indy, meanwhile, knows how to contend with challengers. It has won five of the last six AFC South titles and is off to another 7-0 start. Another victory would make the Colts the fourth team in league history with 17 straight regular-season wins; make Jim Caldwell the first rookie coach to start 8-0; and give Manning win No. 125, tying him with Hall of Famer Fran Tarkenton for fourth on the NFL’s career list.

But the game has a different significance to the Colts. A victory would also give Indy a first-round sweep of its division opponents and total control of the division race.

"I think it’s our biggest test of the season, so far, if you look at the actual records of the teams we’ve played," Manning said. "I feel like because it is a division game, it’s a big game. It means a lot, especially when it comes to implications down the road."

The teams know each other well, though much has changed since last season.

Houston’s new defensive coordinator, Frank Bush, has his team forcing turnovers (14), getting off the field on third down and using rookie linebacker Brian Cushing perfectly. Cushing is fourth in the NFL with 66 tackles.

Another change: Schaub and Johnson will finally be on the field together against Indy. Schaub has missed the last three Colts games, while Johnson sat out the first Colts game in 2007.

Yet the Texans still haven’t said whether running back Steve Slaton will start or sit after Ryan Moats ran for 126 yards in last week’s win at Buffalo.

"We have not run the ball well this year. Of course, last week was the best we’ve run it all year," coach Gary Kubiak said. "We’re still trying to be a balanced football team."

Indy’s defense also has prospered under new coordinator Larry Coyer. The more aggressive approach now has the Colts ranked in the league’s top 10.

Manning has quickly established a rapport with his young receivers, Pierre Garcon and Austin Collie, following the departure of Marvin Harrison and the injury to Anthony Gonzalez.

Both teams will be missing key players, too.

The Texans lost tight end Owen Daniels to a season-ending right knee injury this week. He leads Houston with five TD receptions and has been as effective as any tight end in the league this year. Indy linebacker Tyjuan Hagler also is out for the season after rupturing his biceps last Sunday.

Houston couldn’t imagine a better setup. The Colts couldn’t ask for a better test.

"Absolutely, it means a lot to them and they’re going to play like it," tight end Dallas Clark said. "We’ve got to match that intensity because is a big division game for both sides."

-- Michael Marot