ARLINGTON, Texas _ Kamu Grugier-Hill was right, to a degree.
The Cowboys choked twice on Sunday.
They just didn't choke enough. And it took a load of luck and a terrible call by the officials to save them from infamy.
The Cowboys blew a pair of touchdown leads in the last four minutes of regulation against the Eagles, who forced overtime. Sunday, Cooper caught a deflection off Rasul Douglas' hand just after the 2-minute warning in overtime and jogged 15 yards for the winning touchdown, a 29-23 final and the last laugh in the Choker Bowl.
To review:
Grugier-Hill, a second-year starting linebacker, said last week that the Sunday's battle for NFC East supremacy might be happen deep in the heart of Texas, but it would really come down to the bone in the Cowboys' throat for the past 23 seasons:
"I mean, look at Dallas' history. They always choke. So, we'll go down there and make them choke."
Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott, who had led his team to four straight wins _ including one over the Eagles _ and to the top of the division, replied:
"You know, coach (Jason) Garrett has a great saying, and I don't know where he got it from, but winners worry about winning and losers worry about winners."
The deflection made the Cowboys winners for the fifth game in a row, a run begun by their win Nov. 11 in Philadelphia. Now 8-5, they seized a stranglehold on the NFC East, two games ahead of the Eagles and Redskins with three games to play.
The loss will provide an endless and exquisite pain for Eagles fans during the coming cold January, especially since it was delivered in such a manner. Prescott hit Amari Cooper with a 75-yard missile with 3 minutes, 12 seconds to play to play after the Eagles had just tied the game with a touchdown. They would re-tie it with another, but those TDs by that particular receiver will provide a sort of pain that endures for years.
The Cowboys took a raft of criticism when, as a fading team in October, they traded a first-round pick to the Raiders for Cooper. The Eagles got a load of credit for later trading a third-round pick to Detroit for Golden Tate.
Cooper caught 10 passes for 217 yards and three touchdowns Sunday. Tate had one catch for 7 yards.
The Eagles had gotten all the help they could have asked for entering the game, and from most unlikely sources. The Giants destroyed Washington. The Browns beat the Panthers.
And the Eagles had the Cowboys in their grasp.
They just didn't squeeze hard enough.
