Dan Fuller, coming to you live from China this week.  No seriously, he's in China.

Called it.  9-4.

Maybe it’s not the biggest game of the season in terms of records, but it’s Eagles/Cowboys, so it’s always an event.

 Throughout the previous 13 weeks of UniDictions, I’ve made numerous references to the concept of “White at Home” teams, and now that the Redskins have broken their “rule” and brought out their spectacular, new Maroon over Yellow combination (and even the rare-before-this-season Maroon over White) for games in Maryland, this leaves Dallas as the only full-season “White at Home” team (I’m ignoring their primarily blue throwbacks they wore against the Saints on Thanksgiving, though.).

Because of their strict White at Home rule, it is very uncommon to see the Cowboy’s solid Navy jersey uniform set (details of why I'm calling it a "set" instead of just a jersey are outlined below).  In fact, they won’t even be worn once this year (big news related to this, later).  Usually, this uniform is only seen when they player either (A) other “White at Home” teams [such as the “warm weather” teams in September and October] or (B) home teams looking to capitalize on the supposed bad luck which accompanies the Blue jerseys stemming from a playoff loss in 1968.  The Eagles have been known to play into this jinx as well (’99, ’01, ’06 , ’07 and the NFC Championship game in 1981).

A quick note on the following: I claim none of this following research as my own (though the illustrative graphic is my own).  Check out the much more detailed ESPN.com Uniwatch write-up by Paul Lukas for even more gory details.  Pretty much everything is summed up in this picture of the mediocrity, but the highlights:

  • The White and Blue jerseys are different designs (not just “inverted” dark and light colors), including offset stroke around the numbers on the Blue jerseys, logo on the throat on the Blue jerseys, logo on the sleeves on the Blue jerseys.
  • The colors don’t match (intra- and inter-uniform).  The solid color jersey is Navy.  Where’s the Navy on the White uniform set?  Instead, the blue on the White uniform set is Royal Blue. The pants are different shades of Silver, neither of which matches the helmet.
  • Sleeve stripes on the White jersey are two, wide Royal Blue stripes with Black strokes, sleeve stripes on the Navy jerseys are White-Silver-White sandwich stripes with an incongruous Star logo sitting in the middle of set of stripes.



Click on the picture for the larger version.

 UniDiction after the jump.


 The UniDiction

Either 2, 3, 6, or 7 points awarded for each category (safety, field goal, touchdown, touchdown+point after, of course)

Helmet

Eagles: 7 — Same as always.  Definitely one of the best helmet designs in the league.  I'm a sucker for "functional" helmet designs.

 Cowboys: 6 — It’s iconic and perhaps the most understated detail in a $1.3 billion shrine to American opulence.  One point is removed because the shade of Silver doesn’t match the Silver pants… either of them. (note: for color professionals out there, please spare me the “it’s difficult to match colors on different substrates, especially if metal fleck is a component.”  I know, but they’ve had 40+ years to get it right!”

Jersey

Eagles: 7 — When fans think of the "post-Cunningham" Eagles, they're picturing the Midnight Green jerseys.  A unique, bold color, detailed strokes and drop shadows on the numbers, and nice use of logos on the sleeves and collar.

 Cowboys: 1 — There are few things Eagles fans hate more than the sight of a Cowboys jersey, especially if it’s White.  Objectively, it’s a 6 (the shoulder stripes break up the plain-ness of it, though the Black strokes on the sleeve stripes don’t match the stroke-less numbers), but subjectively, we’re giving it a 1.

Pants + Socks

Eagles: 6 — The White pants provide nice contrast with the solid green of the jersey, and instead of plain white, the thick Black ad Green stripes (with the pencil thin grey stripe) on the side of the pants gives them a slightly modern touch.  Black over White socks also break up the White from the pants 

 Cowboys: 3 — OK, Cowboys.  Get your colors figured out, and we’ll talk.

 Intangibles

Eagles: 6 — Have I gotten used to the Midnight Green over White, and now it’s old-hat and not worth the full 7? 

 Cowboys: 0 — The Cowboys suck.  I may have offered a few points here if they were in their Navy over Silver combination (obscurity=points, people), but they’re not.  Hey Jerry.  How about making your uniforms…you know, uniform?

 Final Score

Eagles 26

Cowboys 11

Random unrelated uniform trivia: The Ravens sported Purple over Black last weekend for the first time since 1996 (and another view of the Purple jerseys over Black pants from '96).  Not a good look…

Random related uniform trivia: here are some pictures of a rather hideous Cowboys semi-throwback (some call them "fauxbacks") from the mid-90s (and according to Wikipedia, up to 2003,  the year before the current throwbacks were introduced).  Notice the "normal" helmet and the offset stroke on the numbers (even on the White jersey version).  At the minimum, we can agree that the current throwbacks (with a White helmet) are a better look.

Also, here's an even more in-depth overview of their uniform history (I've sort of taken the premise that the uniform hasn't much changed since 1964, even though that's not quite the case).