Nine straight:

So here we are at 2269 Dan Marino Blvd., at the midpoint between Miami and Fort Lauderdale, where the windchill is about, oh, say, 73, and where thousands of Eagles fans have parachuted in, bringing their passion and their own unique brand of antifreeze with them. In flasks.

Christmas has indeed come early for local bail bondsmen.

The Eagles haven't lost in two months and have that runaway-locomotive look about them. The Dolphins, who score 40 one week and get shut out the next, are in a desperate way, the playoffs slipping from their frantic grasp.

It is a game freighted with significance and consequence for both teams, the Eagles needing to keep pace in the home-field-forever race.

Though we don't know it at the time, they are about to luck up in a reprise of Gunfight at the OK Corral. They will play a wildly entertaining, back-and-forth, fire-in-the-hole game.

The Eagles will win, and it is huge, and now there is no reason to think that they will lose again. Not only have they generated momentum. They are getting better each game.

Bill Lyon rules.