Cowboys end playoff drought

Reporting from Arlington, Texas — 

Saturday was the coldest day in Dallas in 14 years.

And the warmest.

On the same day outside temperatures dipped to 13 degrees, the Dallas Cowboys rode a heat wave into the NFL playoffs, crushing the Philadelphia Eagles, 34-14, in a wild-card game at home.

The Cowboys will play a divisional game at Minnesota a week from today.

It was the first postseason victory by the Cowboys since the 1996 season, and the first ever for Dallas Coach Wade Phillips and quarterback Tony Romo.

Although he called the victory “rewarding,” Romo, who had lost his previous two postseason starts, added: “It didn’t feel like this was the most impossible thing ever that people made it out to be.”

He echoed the sentiments of Phillips, who said: “I said all along, if you can get the team to the playoffs, you can win. You just need to learn how to win.”

As for beating Philadelphia, the Cowboys definitely know how to do that. It was their third victory of the season over the Eagles and the most lopsided manhandling of the three, even if the score didn’t reflect that.

“It was the same thing as last week. . . . It’s embarrassing,” said Eagles receiver DeSean Jackson, whose team was six days removed from a 24-0 loss at Dallas in a regular-season finale. “We never planned to lose like this. To have it happen in the same environment is very disappointing.”

Jackson provided the Cowboys with all the electronic bulletin-board material they needed, at one point tweeting -- in so many words -- that he and his teammates would “sting” the backside of their NFC East rivals.

“It was the best I could do to try to rally up my boys and get them pumped up,” he said. “They are just words.”

And, in the end, those words carried the same weight as the Eagles, who were upstaged in every way. They lost to a team that in recent weeks has played a smothering defense, a particular credit to Phillips, whose job has at times dangled by a thread.

“I’m so happy for Wade,” linebacker Keith Brooking said. “Just what he means to this team, what he’s fought through -- a lot of negativity -- and he deals with it in a way that I probably couldn’t deal with it. . . . He’s the MVP of our team right now, there’s no doubt about it.”

The Cowboys won their final three regular-season games by a combined score of 65-17. But the Philadelphia game didn’t even feel that close.

The Eagles had never lost a playoff opener under Coach Andy Reid, going 7-0 in those. On Saturday, the Eagles had five turnovers, converted only two of 11 third downs, zero of two fourth downs, and could muster only 56 yards on the ground. Dallas won the time-of-possession battle by roughly a two-to-one ratio.

Philadelphia’s Donovan McNabb was sacked four times and under constant pressure, going 1 1/2 quarters before completing his first pass.

The Eagles’ only big play in the half -- that went in their favor, at least -- was a touchdown pass from Michael Vick to Jeremy Maclin, a catch and carry that covered 76 yards.

Later, Vick botched a handoff and made a half-hearted, unsuccessful attempt to recover the fumble. The Eagles had two such turnovers in the first half.

By intermission, the game was a laugher. The Cowboys had a 27-7 lead, meaning they had outscored Philadelphia, 51-7, over the course of six quarters.

Dallas had 21 first downs in the first half, compared with five by Philadelphia. The time of possession was just as lopsided, with the Eagles controlling the ball for just more than seven minutes.

Still, after the game, the mood in the Cowboys’ locker room was far more workmanlike than celebratory. Their biggest challenge lies ahead, on the road against the second-seeded Vikings and quarterback Brett Favre.

Dallas players can’t exhale now, nor can owner Jerry Jones, who sounded concerned about the future Hall of Fame player his team will face next.

“With [Favre’s] stature and skills, we probably don’t match up good because, as well as any quarterback I know, he would know how to not be intimidated by this defense,” Jones said. “He’ll go out there and make plays. He’ll make plays that only Favre makes. And that’s what we’re worried about.”

Not everyone seemed worried.

“With the team we have,” cornerback Terence Newman said, “the sky’s the limit.”

sam.farmer@latimes.com