The Cowboys — not the refs — are the reason the Eagles won’t repeat as NFC East champs

The Dallas Cowboys didn’t get to break out the NFC East champion hats and T-shirts after beating the Philadelphia Eagles Sunday, but they might as well have. The 29-23 overtime victory improved the Cowboys’ record to 8-5 — two games ahead of Philadelphia and Washington, who both dropped to 6-7.

With tiebreakers locked up over both teams, the Cowboys need just one more win in the last three weeks — or a loss each from Philadelphia and Washington — and the NFC East crown is officially theirs.

According to FiveThirtyEight, Dallas now has a 99 percent chance at winning the division. So for all intents and purposes, the Cowboys became the NFC East champions Sunday.

And to get there, Dallas had to come out on top of a game that was a low-scoring duel until it went nuclear in the fourth quarter. After 15 points were scored in the first 45 minutes, there were 37 in the fourth quarter and overtime.

But unfortunately, poor officiating took much of the spotlight in the game. The Eagles had some legitimate gripes, even if it wasn’t the biggest reason they lost.

If there was a saving grace for the officials at AT&T Stadium, it’s that they were bad enough to cost both teams — and ultimately, the team that had 576 yards of offense beat the one that had 256.

The Eagles were on the receiving end of the more egregious errors

It didn’t take long for Philadelphia to have a bone to pick with the officiating. The Eagles were screwed right out of the gates.

The Cowboys fumbled the opening kickoff of the game, but officials called the play dead. After a review, it was determined that a fumble happened, but the Eagles didn’t clearly recover. It’s tough to figure out how officials came to that conclusion when replays showed the Eagles absolutely did.

After the game, Eagles safety Malcolm Jenkins called it a terrible call and said the officials’ explanation made no sense:

“Whoever’s watching that in New York should stay off the bottle,” Jenkins added, with a dig at the replay official who reviewed the play.

Dallas didn’t score on the opening drive, so that took some of the steam off the bad call. But an Eagles offense that was held scoreless in the first half certainly could’ve used the field position.

The worst call of the game was also against the Eagles. Tight end Dallas Goedert appeared to burn the Cowboys secondary for a 75-yard play, but it was nullified by an extremely ticky-tack offensive pass interference call.

Goedert wasn’t pushing off to create separation for a reception; he was just fighting off a jam from a defensive back who was on his chest a few yards down the field. Among the many who criticized the call was Terrell Owens, a receiver who played for both the Cowboys and Eagles during his Hall of Fame career:

But the Eagles still finished that drive with a touchdown, so the penalty only cost the Cowboys time to respond.

The Cowboys had some bad breaks too

Goedert’s pass interference penalty was one that is rarely called on a pass catcher, but not an unprecedented one. Not like when Ezekiel Elliott picked up the first ever lowering the helmet penalty on an offensive player.

The penalty erased a first down for the Cowboys and Elliott was injured on the play, a reminder of why the rule exists in the first place:

“I mean when you’re on that sideline, I’ve got to protect myself,” Elliott said after the game, via Pro Football Talk. “And if a guy’s going low, I’ve got to go low, too. The rule is meant for the betterment of the game. The rule is for our safety, and if there was illegal helmet-to-helmet contact on there, that’s something I need to go look at and work on. That’s not OK. It’s just a tough play.”

The Cowboys still managed to finish that drive with a touchdown.

Dallas also wasn’t happy with a roughing the passer penalty on Randy Gregory for tackling Carson Wentz low.

The penalty on Gregory came right after the bad call on Goedert and extended an Eagles drive that ultimately tied the game 23-23.

Officiating didn’t decide the outcome, though. The Cowboys had over 45 minutes of time of possession — a key stat for their style of play — and dominated almost every facet of the game.

While the officials gave the Eagles reasons to feel slighted, the Cowboys played the better game and — one player, in particular — made the big plays when it mattered most.

Giving up a first-round pick to acquire Amari Cooper was a high price to pay, but the Cowboys got a game changer who has lived up to the cost in every way possible.

The fourth quarter began as a 9-9 tie, until Cooper turned the game into a track meet with two long touchdowns. The first was a 28-yard dime from Dak Prescott down the right sideline:

On the second, Cooper fought off a cornerback to roast the Eagles secondary for 75 yards.

Cooper earned his ridiculous stat line, but the cherry on top was his game-winning touchdown. A third-down throw from Prescott should’ve been knocked down to force a field goal, but somehow it miraculously bounced softly into the hands of Cooper to end the game.

His 217 receiving yards and three touchdowns were each career bests. He also helped Prescott to 455 passing yards — easily a career high for the quarterback, whose previous best was 332 yards.

Cooper took clutch receiving to a historic level Sunday:

Because of the loss, the Eagles’ playoff hopes are probably shot. Being on the wrong end of poor officiating is frustrating — especially for a team that can’t afford to have calls go against them — but the division wasn’t decided by a couple plays Sunday.

The defending Super Bowl champions have been below average in almost every way possible for most of the season and haven’t been able to find any semblance of consistency.

It’s been the opposite for the Cowboys in the back half of the year, though. Dallas also struggled with consistency to start the season. Then the team added Cooper to the roster near the end of October and found an offensive identity shortly thereafter.

The Cowboys have grown, too. Earlier in the year, Dallas punted in overtime against the Texans and promptly lost because of the painfully conservative decision. Facing a similar situation against the Eagles, a much more confident Cowboys team rolled the dice and put the ball in Ezekiel Elliott’s hands on a fourth down in overtime. It earned them a win, their fifth straight.

Now they’re all but officially the NFC East champions. The Cowboys inched closer to the division title Sunday by outplaying the Eagles, and they’ve establishing themselves as a real contender in the NFC too.