Over at the corner bar, there's an ongoing joke that never fails to entertain. It goes something like this:

Patron (to bartender): What time is it?

Bartender and Crowd (to patron): It's [insert time here] and Dallas still sucks.

The underlying premise, of course, is no matter what time of the day, month, year or millennium, the hated Cowboys remain inferior to the Birds. Granted, Dallas fans will trot out allegations that only one of the two teams have actually won a Super Bowl. Or five. This little statistic gets them nowhere. Live in the now, they're told; the Eagles are clearly the superior team, as they have been throughout this century.

So why then, before this season started, did pigskin prognosticators target this week's game as the one that will signal the start of the Eagles' decline from atop the NFC? Because after multiple years of tearing through the division, they have to finally drop a meaningful NFC East game at some point. So why not this one, on the road, against a team led by Bill Parcells? Still makes sense to me, especially considering the bye-week-bound Eagles are coming off an exhausting-to-the-bone comeback win against K.C. (France-y! France-y!) and the last-place Cowboys need to rebound after dropping one to Oakland.

Like how they were forced to stroll into a buzzsaw called Pittsburgh last year, the Eagles' schedule was tailor-made for a letdown this week. And with Irish eyes a smilin' from sea to shining sea, one can only expect Notre Dame alum Julius Jones to have a hand in it, to the tune of 150 yards rushing and two TDs, one of which will cement a come-from-behind 24-19 victory.

That said, no matter what time the Birds' second loss of the season ends on Sunday, Dallas still sucks.