"The skidmarks are still there right outside of Jerry's World. They mark the spot where the Eagles' 2009 season - and, not coincidentally, Donovan McNabb's Eagles career - came to a jarring, crushing halt.

You remember 24-0 and 34-14, the numerical evidence that the Eagles simply were not as talented, not as motivated, not as deep and not as good as the Dallas Cowboys. There was such an obvious gap between the division rivals that the Eagles made sweeping changes in the off-season, most notably jettisoning McNabb to the NFL hell that is the Washington Redskins.

So it was odd to hear Jerry Jones on Sunday night.

"It would really lift our spirits and make our arrow go up to beat Philadelphia," Jones told me.

That's right. Less than a year after Dallas owned them in back-to-back weeks, the Eagles are the Cowboys' measuring stick. Raise your hand if you thought that would be the case before this season started.

But it is. The Cowboys have been a trainwreck this season. Billed as Super Bowl contenders, they lost seven of their first eight games and so obviously quit in games that their coach, Wade Phillips, got fired. They've since rallied around the fiery interim coach, Jason Garrett, who is 3-1 with victories over the Giants, Lions and Colts and a three-point loss to the defending Super Bowl champion Saints.

Dallas has shown it does have a pulse, even though everyone in the organization, from Jones on down, readily acknowledges that the team will not make the playoffs and, even if the Cowboys do win out to finish 8-8, the season can be judged as nothing other than an abject failure.

The Eagles, meanwhile, are very much in the playoff hunt. At 8-4, they are tied with the Giants for the NFC East lead, have the NFL's most potent offense and are honed in on achieving the ultimate goal, which is to play in the Super Bowl in Jones' sensory-overloaded orb, otherwise known as Cowboys Stadium.

What a difference 11 months makes."