""I don't know what a tweet is," Eagles coach Andy Reid said, "but that was a bad tweet."

Indeed, DeSean Jackson's trash-talking entry on Twitter, in which he proclaimed that the Eagles would "sting they ass" before last season's playoff game at Dallas, stung only the brash receiver and his team.

The Eagles were swarmed by the Cowboys, 34-14, six days after the same team had shut them out. And Jackson was held to a humbling three catches for 14 yards.

Jackson's tweet (DeSeanJackson10) and some of the bulletin-board material he provided the week before ultimately had little to do with the loss. The better team won. But with the Eagles scheduled to finally play Dallas again this Sunday night, Jackson was asked if the trash-talking and the fallout from it taught the budding star anything about the power of his words.

"It's a new day, it's a new life, and that's gone, so you learn from what you do and things like that," he said. "But I'm not going to make a big issue out of the Cowboys and myself. We've got to play them. They're on our schedule next."

If the Cowboys were looking for motivation from Jackson, they didn't get any from him on Thursday. Perhaps another Eagles employee can film himself spitting on the Dallas star.

Last season's experience against the Cowboys was a comeuppance for Jackson. In three meetings, he was held to just seven receptions for 79 yards and one touchdown.

The Cowboys shut down Jackson in other ways. He ran only once for 6 yards and returned a total of five punts for 27 yards. If he can learn from his verbal miscues from a year ago, how about his on-the-field mistakes?

"It's my third year and that was my second year," Jackson said. ". . . Every day I think I get more intelligent and everything like that. I try not to stay at one point. I always like to better myself."

Jackson's receiving numbers this season, however, are slightly down from a year ago. He has 38 catches for 762 yards and five touchdowns, compared to the 44 catches for 769 yards and six scores he compiled through 12 games last season."