Just when I was preparing for a semi-sabbatical from this blog until spring training, the improbable—nay, impossible—happened.

First, Oakland beat Tampa Bay. A few minutes later, Houston beat Chicago. Suddenly, the Eagles and Cowboys were taking the field in a winner-take-all divisional game for the final NFC playoff spot.

Except only one of them showed up: the Eagles.

The defense completely stifled the Boys’ offense, while Donovan McNabb was granted permission by Andy Reid to hand the ball off to Brian Westbrook and Correll Buckhalter multiple times, which opened up the passing game. They also figured out their red zone issues, scoring three touchdowns from inside the 10-yard-line for a dominating 27-3 halftime lead.

Then it got ugly.

On successive series to open the second half, Brian Dawkins forced two fumbles which were each returned for touchdowns and turned the game into a laugher. The Cowboys coughed up the ball five times in all, and the Eagles dropped two more easy interceptions after those fumble TDs.

44-6. The most lopsided win the Eagles have ever had against the Cowboys capped off the most unlikely playoff berth I can ever remember this team attaining.

The Eagles were granted a miraculous second life, and unlike last week’s clunker against the Redskins, they took the bull by the horns and wrestled it to the ground convincingly. I saw it with my own eyes, and I still barely believe it.

I guess I’ve got plans next Sunday afternoon. Beats the hell out of yard work.

After last week’s win over the Browns, I wrote of the Eagles’ lack of killer instinct and how much it concerned me going into back-to-back division games with their playoff lives on the line.

I hate to say “I told you so,” but it looks like the Philadelphia Eagles can start planning their off-season vacations.

Knowing they needed to win out and have either Tampa or Atlanta lose one of their next two games, and then having a Tampa loss gift-wrapped before taking the field against Washington this afternoon, the Eagles offense choked on bad play calling and several dropped balls on route to a likely season-ending 10-3 loss.

Irrationally, most of the blame for this will somehow fall on Donovan McNabb’s shoulders, though much of it belongs to rookie DeSean Jackson (who dropped one touchdown and two other long passes) and the rest of his receiving brethren, who must have greased their hands before kickoff. While the stats might not show it, McNabb actually played a pretty good game, though his fumble led to Washington’s winning touchdown.

But it never should have come to that. Mostly his teammates and coaches let him down—the former with butterfingers, the latter by inexplicably abandoning the running game yet again in a low-scoring, wind-swept affair, failing to properly focus his players for the task at hand, and once again showing a complete inability to manage a game clock.

Next week will probably be the final game as an Eagle for the franchise’s greatest quarterback, not to mention the final game, period, for future Hall of Fame safety Brian Dawkins; and the only thing the Eagles will likely have to play for is keeping Dallas out of the playoffs as well.

What a sad way to go out, for both of them.

If only it were the last game for Andy Reid instead.

Remember those scenarios I laid out after McNabb was benched in the Baltimore game, the most likely of which was a Donovan-less Eagles team with a good defense, a de facto rookie quarterback, a decrepit offensive line and an aging star running back, all still coached by Andy Reid? Brace yourselves.

I naively hoped after the Phillies won the World Series that a rising tide would lift all boats—that with the pressure of somebody (ANYBODY!) winning a championship finally gone, McNabb and the rest of Eagles could relax and start playing some of the best football of their lives. What I failed to consider, however, is that a leopard can’t change his spots, and he still roams the sidelines disguised as a hippopotamus.

So here I sit, 1,000 miles from home, four days shy of Christmas, psyching myself up for five years of 7-9 and 6-10 seasons from the Philadelphia Eagles, wondering if it’ll be another 20 years before they make it to the Super Bowl again.

Is it possible Philadelphians are actually looking forward to spring training more than they are training camp?

Somebody hold my place for me while I take a quick jaunt down to hell to check the weather.

Two things of note in last night’s beat down of Cleveland: The score should have been 50-10, and the Eagles lack of killer instinct in the red zone (along with some familiar awful clock management at the end of the first half) does not portend well for their playoff chances.

At one point in the game the Eagles had mustered a measly 13 points from six red zone appearances and almost gave seven to the Browns on one of two interceptions in the end zone (nice hustle, Brian Westbrook). Take away Asante Samuel’s pick-six, and the score would be 23-10.

The point I’m trying to make is that missed opportunities against the hapless Browns may not show up on the scoreboard (the final score looks like the Eagles dominated the game, and they did); but play that way the next two weeks against division opponents and good luck even making the playoffs, much less advancing anywhere.

Because of their inexcusable tie against the Bengals, the Eagles have no choice but to win out and hope Atlanta or Tampa fumble one in the last two weeks. That much is clear. But the Redskins, in disarray or not, aren’t about to roll over for a division rival, and the Cowboys will probably be playing for the same playoff spot in the season’s final game.

The team I watched last night throttled an inferior opponent, just like it’s supposed to, yet managed to do so unconvincingly because of the same stupid play calling, piss poor clock management and turnovers in the red zone which we endured from last year’s Eagles.

That’s not a good sign.

Let’s hope Andy Reid has not forgotten the running game he will need the next two weeks. It’s easy to abandon it against a zone defense which put no pressure on the quarterback and let Donovan McNabb pick them apart (with the exception of one bad throw in the end zone), but that won’t be the case against the NFC East. The running game that defeated the Giants last week will be needed again to beat Washington and Dallas and get into the playoffs.

And the Eagles had better find a killer instinct to go with it.

I’ve spent most of the past six weeks basking in the glow of the Phillies’ first world championship in 28 years, and there hasn’t been much to write about them since that glorious moment beyond speculation about what they might do this off-season.

Well, speculate no more.

The Phillies have filled their left field vacancy by bringing in Pat Gillick favorite Raul Ibanez from Seattle for three years and $30 million and their first round draft pick in 2009 (Ibanez was a Type A free agent who was offered arbitration).

This confirms what most of us felt was a foregone conclusion: Pat “Babe” Burrell has taken his final flailing swing for the Phillies.

Here is the upside to Ibanez, and it’s a big upside. He hit .293 last season with 23 home runs and 110 RBI for a lousy team in a pitcher’s park, so those numbers only figure to climb in Philadelphia. He’s also only one of four outfielders in baseball to have at least 100 RBI each of the past three seasons. Not too shabby. And let’s not forget he’s a far better left fielder than Burrell.

On the other hand (no pun intended), he’s left handed, so that means the Phillies’ No. 3, 4 and 5 hitters will all be lefties. Now, I don’t put that much stock in all this lefty-righty matchup nonsense (especially since Chase Utley and Ibanez both hit lefties about as well as righties, leaving Ryan Howard as the only liability there); but we all know Charlie Manuel does, and it could make for some unnecessarily bizarre looking lineups against southpaws. The other downside to Ibanez is that he turns 37 in June. You can do the math on his age at the end of this contract.

Just about every White Sock is up for sale apparently, so I don’t know why they didn’t pursue Jermaine Dye instead of the less potent Mark DeRosa on the north side of Chicago. One tangential benefit of the DeRosa deal would have been keeping Jake Peavy away from the Braves, but it seems he isn’t going there now anyway. So, all things being equal, Ibanez is a better (if less versatile) player than DeRosa.

In other Phillies news, Cole Hamels threw gasoline on an already four-alarm fire (with an assist from two New York radio hosts) by calling the Mets “choke artists” yesterday. Hamels is simply stating a fact, of course, but the annual trash-talking between these teams is getting escalated to ridiculous levels now. Is it a good idea to poke a wounded bear when the bear just signed K-Rod and J.J. Putz to heal those wounds? Maybe it will put on extra pressure they can’t handle to disprove Hamels’ statement, but if I were Cole, I’d be ready to duck the first time I enter the batters box against the Mets next season.

The Philadelphia Eagles refuse to go quietly into that good night, finally winning an NFC East game, against the Giants of all teams, and keeping their slim but fattening playoff hopes alive. Thanks to losses by the Cowboys and Redskins, the Eagles are just a half-game out of a wild card berth.

In a reversal of their previous meeting, the Eagles dominated the line of scrimmage and overcame some rotten officiating to handily beat the best team in football. The game was coached and executed to the point it felt like I was watching someone else’s team. With the exception of special teams, which let two field goal attempts get blocked (one returned for a TD that looked like a momentum-killer at the end of the first half), the Eagles played solid football for four quarters and took advantage of an uncharacteristically sloppy Giants squad.

The decision to defer to the second half and choose to take the wind in the fourth quarter proved wise, especially after the Eagles held the Giants to one scoreless possession in the third quarter when New York had the tailwind. From that point it was fairly clear sailing as John Runyan, William Thomas & Co. controlled the line of scrimmage and dominated the second half time of possession 21 minutes to nine.

Much will be made of the off-the-field circus surrounding the Giants and a certain self-inflicted gunshot wound, but the weather and a desperate Eagles team also had a lot to do with it. One player who definitely looked distracted was linebacker Antonio Pierce, who may or may not have tried to help Plaxico Burress cover up his lack of gun safety knowledge, and Brian Westbrook flat-out schooled him twice for long touchdown plays.

However, that didn’t account for the overall dominance of Philadelphia’s O-line and the great job their defensive front seven did against the Giants running game. The Eagles definitely outplayed a better team. They should feel good about this one, but they shouldn’t strain themselves patting each other on the back either.

A playoff spot is a long way off, and the odds are still heavily against them.