When Vince Young(notes) and the rest of the nation engaged in a premature slob-fest over the Philadelphia roster makeup, what happened Sunday against the Cowboys is what they envisioned.

Vick threw for 279 yards, and two touchdown passes, while LeSean McCoy(notes) had a career-best 185 yards rushing and two scores on the way to the Philadelphia Eagles demolishing the Dallas Cowboys 34-7 Sunday night.

“We started fast,” Vick said. “That was our mindset. We wanted to set the tempo. We didn’t want to let up.”

“I feel like every game is a chance for me to prove myself,” McCoy said. “At any given time, any one of our guys could go off.”

The Philadelphia Eagles (3-4) defeated the Dallas Cowboys (3-4) in easy fashion, not just due to their superb offense—we know they have that—their success came, mainly, from their being able to contain the Cowboys’ biggest threats that presented matchup problems for their struggling defense.

Cowboys’ rookie runningback, DeMarco Murray(notes), who broke Emmitt Smith’s single game record last week against the St. Louis Rams, was held to 74 yards, while Jason Witten(notes) only had 28 on four receptions.

“We weren’t up to the task tonight,” Cowboys coach Jason Garrett said. “This game is not coming back. We can learn from it and move on to the next challenge. We didn’t execute in any phase of the football game.”

The addition of Trent Cole(notes) seemed to help the defense get pressure on Tony Romo(notes) who they sacked four times while virtually stopping the Cowboys’ rushing game at the same time.

Earlier in the week, Castillo spoke on what he thought the Cowboys’ offensive attack was about. Castillo said, “I think that’s why Jason [Garrett] is trying to run the football because if they’re successful running the ball and you have to put, basically, eight guys in the box, you’re going one-on-one, now you’re playing up to what he wants to do. [which is pass the ball] So I think that’s the key. I think that’s why he’s trying to run the football.”

To the surprise of the Philadelphia fans, Castillo may have hit the nail right on the head.

The Cowboys were never able to establish the run, and none of their other big names could get into the mix. Dez Bryant(notes) only had 28 yards receiving, and Miles Austin(notes), 27.

in karma-like fashion, Cowboys defensive coordinator had to eat his words as the Cowboy coach called the Eagles’ roster an ‘all-hype’ team.

“I got outcoached by Reid and their staff,” Ryan said, barely owning up to his miscalculated statement, “It’s ridiculous. I never gave our guys a chance. The whole thing was on me.”

“He’s going to do whatever he wants to do,” Philadelphia’s Jeremy Maclin(notes) said about Ryan, “At the end of the day, his players are playing the game, and our players beat his players today.”

And that’s the key, despite the various ways this game could be analyzed, between the players and the coaches, the Eagles took this game in easy fashion.

The Eagles will face the Cowboys in Dallas on the last week of the season for the second year in a row.

As outlined in a previous article I had written, the Eagles have broke even with what we call ‘Cowboys’ Week’ since the Cowboys domination of the Eagles from 1967 to 1978. Since then, the Eagles have taken 34 of the last 68 games.

The overall franchise head-to-head against the Boys has been closed to 45-56.

The one thing, however, that the Eagles look forward to the most is a Super Bowl.

Their journey continues next week against the Chicago Bears (4-3) on Monday night.

Vincent Heck is a life-long resident of the Philadelphia area, and a featured ‘Fan View’ blogger on Yahoo! Sports. Follow him on Twitter: @HeckPhilly

Follow Yahoo! Local’s Yahoo! Philly on Twitter: @YahooPhilly

View Vincent Heck’s article archive.

Sources: Philadelphia Eagles’ Press Release, NFL Reference , Yahoo! Sports

Note: This article was written by a Yahoo! contributor. Sign up here to start publishing your own sports content.

PHILADELPHIA – The Philadelphia Eagles jumped back into the NFC East race by jumping all over the Dallas Cowboys, rolling to a 34-7 victory at Lincoln Financial Field on Sunday night.

Running back LeSean McCoy led the Eagles’ offense, rushing for a career-high 179 yards on 30 carries, including two touchdowns. Quarterback Michael Vick completed 21-of-28 passes for 279 yards and two touchdowns as the Eagles finished with 495 yards of total offense.

“Everything seemed to be working for us tonight,” said McCoy, whose previous career best also came against Dallas, when he ran for 149 yards last December.

“This just happened to be my night,” McCoy added. “And that’s the beauty of this offense – we have so many ways to beat you. Next week it might be DeSean (Jackson) or Brent (Celek) or anybody else. We just have a lot of weapons.”

Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo completed 18-of-35 passes for 203 yards, one touchdown and one interception, and running back DeMarco Murray – who rushed for 253 yards last week against St. Louis – was held to 74 yards on eight carries.

“Philadelphia beat us in all phases of the game – offense, defense and the kicking game,” Dallas coach Jason Garrett said. “It was about execution, not effort. They just did a better job than we did.”

That started after the opening kickoff when the Eagles (3-4) put together perhaps their best drive of the season, marching 79 yards in eight plays, which included a 24-yard pass to wide receiver Jeremy Maclin, a 21-yard run by McCoy and a 15-yard run by Vick before Maclin scored the touchdown on a 12-yard screen pass with 10:41 left in the opening period.

The Eagles’ defense did its part, stopping the Cowboys (3-4) cold thanks to a couple of sacks by end Jason Babin and tackle Trevor Laws. The Eagles got the ball back on their 10 and this drive was even more impressive than their first one – the Eagles moved 90 yards in seven plays and a 34-yard run by McCoy put the ball on the Dallas 2-yard line. McCoy scored over the right side to make it 14-0 with 2:40 left in the first quarter.

“Football is not a big secret and they did a good job,” Romo said of the Eagles’ early pressure. “Give them credit. We didn’t execute and when you don’t execute against a good team, this is what happens.”

The Eagles’ steamroller kept chugging along early in the second quarter, after cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha intercepted a pass from Romo on the Eagles’ 33. The big play of this drive was a 20-yard pass from Vick to wide receiver Jason Avant, which put the ball on the Dallas 9. On the next play, Vick found Celek in the back of the end zone and the Eagles led the stunned Cowboys 21-0.

The Eagles weren’t finishing tormenting their long-time divisional rival, as another long drive – this one started at the Eagles 13 – ended with another score. Once again big plays were the key, as Vick hit Avant for 18 yards, Celek for 22 yards and Avant again for 24, which moved the ball to the Cowboys 6-yard line at the two-minute warning. The Dallas defense stiffened and the Eagles had to settle for Alex Henery’s 23-yard field goal, which made it 24-0 at halftime.

The Eagles rolled up 324 yards of total offense in the first half against a Dallas defense that was giving up an average of 300.5 yards per game.

“We wanted to set the tempo and that’s what we did in the first half,” Babin said. “But we also wanted to put together a complete game and play well for four quarters, not just one or two or three. And even though we didn’t come close to playing a perfect game, we did play a complete game.”

And the Eagles kept pouring it on in the second half, as their defense stopped the Cowboys again and their offense moved the ball enough to set up another Henery field goal, this time from 26 yards, for a 27-0 lead.

The Eagles made it 34-0 on McCoy’s 13-yard touchdown run early in the fourth quarter, and then the Cowboys got a little redemption when Romo hooked up with wide receiver Laurent Robinson on a 70-yard bomb with 12:44 left to play.

The Eagles coasted home from there, but coach Andy Reid didn’t want his team to get too carried away with the victory.

“As good as this win was, we still don’t have a winning record,” he said. “We still have a lot of work to do.”

Game Notes: Babin had two sacks and now has nine on the season, just 3.5 fewer than he had all of last season. … The Eagles have never lost a game following their bye week in the 13 years Reid has been their coach. It’s the longest post-bye week streak in the NFL.

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The Philadelphia Eagles are hours away from a season-defining game against the Dallas Cowboys on Oct. 30. However, while Eagles fans like myself are passing the time until then, the team that Philadelphia is trying to catch in the NFC East is breathing a sigh of relief.

It would have been quite a gift to the Eagles if the New York Giants had been upset by the winless Miami Dolphins at home. If they had, then a Philadelphia victory would have left it just one game back for the NFC East lead. Instead, the Giants survived for a 20-17 victory just as everyone expected.

It shouldn’t have taken that much effort for a first-place team to beat a winless club – and one that blew a 15-point lead to Tim Tebow the previous week. Yet the Dolphins still wound up with an early 14-3 lead while the Giants struggled to get going. Given how New York was upset at home by the Seattle Seahawks on Oct. 9, perhaps this kind of effort wasn’t that surprising.

The Giants may be a first-place team, yet they aren’t one that can be completely counted on right now. They are still inconsistent and just as capable of being terrible or brilliant on a given week – like they have been for much of Eli Manning(notes) and Tom Coughlin’s tenure. As such, it has to give the Eagles hope that they could catch the Giants if they finally manage to get hot.

But Philadelphia is in such a deep hole right now that it isn’t enough for it to start winning again. New York is also going to have to lose a few times as well, and a loss to a winless Miami club would have been a step in the right direction. However, if the Dolphins could let Tebow off the hook after 55 minutes of poor play, surely the Giants would be forgiven for a half of weakness.

For once, the Giants’ problems couldn’t be blamed on a poor game from Manning, as he heated up for a 31-for-45, two touchdown and no interception game. They needed Manning to be perfect since Ahmad Bradshaw(notes) was hurt and the running game was virtually non-existent. But once New York finally got the lead, the defense took over and clamped down on Matt Moore(notes) and the Dolphins like they were supposed to from the start.

The Giants are still relatively vulnerable, especially if the now 0-7 Dolphins can give them a scare. But they are now also two-and-a-half games ahead of the Eagles and they still hold the tiebreaker as well. While New York can be caught, it will require Philadelphia to be nearly perfect, starting with the showdown against Dallas.

The Giants could have done the Eagles a favor by getting upset – but things have rarely been that simple for the Birds. They haven’t been simple for New York as well, yet it has a better idea of how to survive that anyway.

Robert Dougherty is a life-long Philadelphia resident who has followed the Eagles since he was eight years old.

Other stories by this contributor

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Eagles, Cowboys are similar underachievers

Samuel looks more like odd man out for Eagles

Cowher to be snatched up before Eagles get a shot?

Eagles stay stuck in NFL power rankings for Week 7

Note: This article was written by a Yahoo! contributor. Sign up here to start publishing your own sports content.

Read More: Michael Vick (QB – PHI), Marion Barber (RB – CHI), Tashard Choice (RB – DAL), Felix Jones (RB – DAL), DeMarco Murray (RB – DAL), Bruce Carter (LB – DAL), Phillip Tanner (RB – DAL), Pittsburgh Steelers, Baltimore Ravens, Philadelphia Eagles, Dallas Cowboys, New York Giants, Washington Redskins, Dallas Cowboys at Philadelphia Eagles, Oct 30, 2011 8:20 PM EDT

According to Tim MacMahon of ESPN Dallas the Cowboys have relased running back Tashard Choice one day before their showdown with the Philadelphia Eagles. 

Tashard Choice cut to make room for Bruce Carter. More to come on @ESPNDallas and 103.3.

Choice was once a promising prospect for the Cowboys. In 2008 the rookie opened some eyes while filling in for injured running backs Felix Jones and Marion Barber. That December he carried the ball 62 times in four games, for 325 yards (5.2 yards per carry) and two touchdowns. He also added 17 receptions for 163 yards – all coming against stout run defenses in the Steelers, Giants, Ravens and Eagles. 

Since then Choice has only rushed for 667 yards. He has become infamous for his boneheaded fumble against the Redskins a season ago, along with an embarrassing autograph request from Michael Vick immediately following a loss at the hands of Vick’s Philadelphia Eagles. 

Choice had 28 carries for 75 yards this season and has lost a fumble in two consecutive games. The emergences of rookie running backs DeMarco Murray and Phillip Tanner last week, made the decision to cut Choice an easy one for Jason Garret and the Cowboys.

With Felix Jones out with a sprained ankle the Cowboys will enter Sunday night’s showdown against the Eagles with only two active tailbacks, barring a late signing. 

– For more Eagles coverage, visit our team page, or our blog Bleeding Green Nation.