After a disastrous second quarter, the Eagles were sent to their earliest playoff exit under Andy Reid and Donovan McNabb after losing the Dallas Cowboys 34-14 Saturday night.
The Cowboys defeated the Eagles 24-0 six days ago to clinch the NFC East title and ended the Eagles' six-game winning streak in which they had averaged 31 points a game. Philadelphia wound up as the No. 6 seed instead of No. 2 with a first-round bye that they would have gotten by beating the Cowboys.
Philadelphia players promised they'd get things corrected after the humbling loss. Instead, it was much more of the same, especially in a second quarter that saw Dallas score 27 points on five straight possessions.
The Eagles had won their first game in seven consecutive postseason appearances since Reid became coach. McNabb was the starter in six of those victories.
McNabb was 19 of 37 for 230 yards with a touchdown and two interceptions as his career postseason record dropped to 9-7.
The Cowboys were 3-0 against Philadelphia this season, outscoring the Eagles 78-30. This is the 19th time in 79 tries a team completed a three-game sweep.
After the Cowboys went ahead 7-0 on Tony Romo's 1-yard touchdown pass to John Phillips, Michael Vick threw a 76-yard touchdown pass to Jeremy Maclin. It was Vick's first action since suffering a bruised quadriceps on a running play Dec. 20 against San Francisco.
The Eagles thought they had a chance to go ahead on Dallas' next drive when safety Sean Jones made what was first ruled a diving interception deep in Cowboys territory. But what could have been a momentum-turning play turned out only to be an incompletion.
Cowboys coach Wade Phillips threw out a challenge flag, and replay showed that the ball hit the ground before Jones popped the ball up to himself.
Romo connected on a pair of third-down plays to extend a drive that was capped by Tashard Choice's 1-yard scoring run.
The Cowboys kicked a field goal on their next possession to go up 17-7, then the Eagles started mishandling the ball.
Vick fumbled when he couldn't hand the ball off cleanly to Leonard Weaver, setting up a touchdown for Dallas.
Weaver fumbled on the next drive as well, losing the ball after catching a short pass from McNabb. That set up Shaun Suisham's 48-yard field goal with 2 seconds left in the first half.
