The Philadelphia Eagles are in primetime once again as they host the Dallas Cowboys at Lincoln Financial Field on Monday night. The Birds will be looking to break a four-game losing streak to help keep their season alive.
In order to preview this Week 7 NFC East battle, I reached out to our enemies over at Blogging The Boys. The deft Dave Halprin kindly took the time to answer my questions about this upcoming battle. Let’s take a look at the answers.
1 – The Cowboys are 2-4 and Brian Schottenheimer seems to be in the crosshairs. To what extent deserve does he deserve blame for this team’s struggles?
He has to take a lot of the blame this year, and
not just because as a head coach you have to take the blame when your team is stumbling. It’s not like he was handed a roster devoid of talent. Maybe some of it was overrated, but there are legitimate stars on the roster. Additionally, his play-calling and in-game management decisions have been puzzling at times, and that is a kind way of describing it. A lot of this concerns the offense, but he also kept a special teams coach from last year who was very poor in 2025. Most expected he would be let go in the offseason, but Schottenheimer kept him and it has definitely hurt us more than helped.
In his own defense, during his time in Dallas Schottenheimer has been saddled by a really poor defense, something we’ll discuss a little later. But the offense seems to be regressing, that’s his side of the ball, and this is largely with the same personnel that was an elite offense in 2025. This has all been surprising as the Cowboys fanbase and punditry felt like Schotty did a fairly good job in 2025, and it seemed to be a very positive offseason. So this poor start was not what was envisioned.
2 – Christian Parker is off to a rough start. Is there any confidence he’ll rebound? Especially now that Mike Pettine is here? Beyond coaching, how much is personnel an issue?
I think it is way too early to decide anything about Christian Parker. Unlike Schottenheimer, he was handed a defense that has had very little success recently and not much star power. He is patching things together with players who may not all fit his scheme. He has also been hit incredibly hard with injuries, especially in the secondary. So the hope is Parker is fighting some strong headwinds because the product currently on the field has been the problem for most of the season.
The Cowboys suffer from two problems, and when you mix them together they are lethal. First is they can’t rush the passer. Second is they have trouble covering receivers. You can probably work out the problem from that. Their edge players have moments when they create pressure, but actually hitting and sacking the QB is not their specialty at the moment. It feels like they will have to blitz more to make things happen in that department. The secondary has been wiped out by injury, and they are having coverage breakdowns regularly. So blitzing that doesn’t get home leaves a vulnerable secondary even more vulnerable.
There have been moments when you can see Parker’s vision. The second half of the Packers game was one of those moments, and there have been other stretches too. I think you have to give him at least the whole season until you can really start making an informed decision about what he’s trying to do.
3 – The Dallas defense hasn’t been good but it’s not like the offense has played well over the past two weeks, either. What’s the problem there?
There are plenty of theories about what is going wrong with the offense. The big overarching thing that is happening is that both the Bucs and the Packers decided to blitz Dallas a lot and trust their corners to cover. Previously, this was a foolish decision because Dak Prescott was statistically one of the best QBs versus the blitz. The Cowboys used to pray teams would blitz them. Suddenly, the blitz is working. Prescott has two bad games in a row. Some say it is Schottenheimer’s route concepts and play-calling. Some say the offensive line is doing a poor job of identifying the blitzers. Some say the lack of commitment to the run game is putting Prescott into too much danger.
I would say that it is a mix of all that going on. But it is incumbent on Schottenheimer to get that fixed. He calls the plays and the offense is his specialty.
4 – What’s the biggest matchup in the Cowboys’ favor and the biggest matchup against their favor?
Right now, the Cowboys best weapon is the combo of Dak Prescott and wide receivers CeeDee Lamb and George Pickens. On paper at least. Even that has not been smooth throughout the season and has really suffered in the last few weeks. Now, lots of fans would tell you that the Cowboys should commit more to their running game with an offensive line that is built to run in the middle. That was very effective last year, but we’ve yet to see it take hold this year.
The Cowboys biggest disadvantage is their coverage in the secondary, especially when it comes to third down. They are just terrible, teams are converting 3rd-and-longs against us at an embarrassing rate. And don’t think that young, unknown quarterbacks can’t get it done either because Jalon Daniels for the Bucs did it.
5 – Who wins this game and why? With the Cowboys currently listed as 4.5-point road favorites, what’s your score prediction?
I’m going to say Dallas is going to win it, but with absolutely no conviction behind that. It’s more because I don’t want the season to be over this early and going to 2-5 on the year feels like the end. The slight improvement in the defense in the second half last week gives me hope that Mike Pettine is starting to help. And you guys are certainly going through your own amount of turmoil. Let’s say: Cowboys 27 – Eagles 23.
