All the way back in week one the game was tied at 14 when Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts ran for his second touchdown of the game against the Dallas Cowboys, and the Eagles had scored their
third straight touchdown in as many drives. This fast start matched the visiting Cowboys’ fast start, and by the time the Matt Eberflus defense stiffened up enough to get three stops in a row, the Eagles already had the four=point lead they needed to hang onto a 24-20 victory.
On Sunday, Hurts’ second rushing touchdown put the Eagles up 21-0, again capping off three straight touchdown drives that took full advantage of the Cowboys turning the ball over on downs, going three and out, and fumbling, and it felt like nothing the Eberflus defense could do would matter on a brutal afternoon from AT&T Stadium. Not only was the defense not putting up much resistance to the Eagles’ drives, but the offense couldn’t get out of it’s own way, even well into the second half when after the defense forced a punt on the Eagles’ first two drives, the Cowboys went three and out and missed a field goal.
The anatomy of a comeback was simply not in place deep into a game where an Eagles team that’s only given up 16 combined points in their last two wins held a 21-0 lead. The Cowboys would have to tie their largest comeback in franchise history to avoid being swept by the Eagles for the second year in a row, and looked way more interested in committing backbreaking penalties, dropping passes, and fumbling the ball than they did in sparking this comeback to win back-to-back games for the first time in 2025. Then, something miraculous happened, and as the defense continued to get stops to pitch a second half shutout, the Cowboys overcame coming up empty on goal-to-go situations twice to win the game with their best players on the field and score 24 unanswered points.
This game marked the first time the Eagles lost after leading by 21 since 1999, their second-largest blown lead in franchise history. In their two second half performances against the Cowboys this season, the Eagles scored a total of three points in their home win. In the most improbable fashion, the Cowboys rallying to hold serve at home made this a clear advantage in the game of adjustments between Eberflus and first-year play caller Kevin Patullo for the Eagles – the exact type of coaching win the Cowboys expected to get out of Eberflus when rehiring him.
On the day where quarterback Dak Prescott surpassed Tony Romo for the franchise’s all-time passing yards lead, he did so while earning an improbable, bizarre, and frankly unexpected win that will go as a signature one early in Brian Schottenheimer’s tenure. With wins against all three division rivals now, Schottenheimer’s guidance of the offense with Prescott has seen Dak’s home winning streak against the NFC East grow to 19 games. With his last loss being a blowout loss to the Eagles in 2017, the majority of Sunday’s game felt destined to snap this streak in very similar fashion, and the fact the Cowboys really did find a way to come out on top against the defending Super Bowl champions still feels a bit unbelievable.
Probably for the best, the Cowboys won’t have a normal full week to process this game, and neither will the fans. Thanksgiving Day against the Kansas City Chiefs looms on Thursday, with both teams coming off come from behind wins. After beating the Eagles 24-21, Coach Schottenheimer’s postgame notebook will likely have more negative coaching points than true positives, but the positive collective fight and togetherness his team showed to overcome a dizzying amount of mistakes may prove more important for momentum going into Thursday’s game on a winning streak.
Let’s do our best to sort through some of our own notes on a Cowboys win that no fan on either side of this passionate rivalry will forget anytime soon.
One of the things that carried over from the prior loss to the Eagles, that will be infinitely easier to address after a win, was CeeDee Lamb’s continued struggles with drops. Lamb not being the primary receiver on nearly every play thanks to George Pickens making incredible catches look routine has led to chemistry issues for an offense that still wants to featured their homegrown player and highest-paid pass catcher. When the Cowboys went three and out following the Eagles’ first touchdown, Prescott threw one deep pass well out of the reach of Lamb downfield, and another behind him to bring up a quick punt.
Later in the second quarter, another repeated issue of Tyler Guyton false starting in the red zone turned a second-and-goal try from the one to an attempt from the six, and the Cowboys were denied their first points when Prescott tried to force a ball to Lamb that was intercepted. The Dallas defense getting enough stops to allow the Cowboys to stick with the run and play-action game ended up being a huge reason for the late comeback, but in this situation passing near the goal line backfired horribly. The next time the Cowboys got down in this situation, it took Prescott throwing the complete opposite direction of where he threw the interception to Lamb to get on the board with a Pickens touchdown. This drive was spurred by a 48-yard catch-and-run by KaVontae Turpin, who also had a costly fumble that led to an Eagles short-yardage touchdown two drives prior.
The Cowboys being able to stick with the players that were responsible for putting them in the early hole against the Eagles long enough to see them also make winning plays made this such a triumphant win, and hopefully something in total that can help them continue to address Lamb’s role in this versatile offense as the uncharacteristic drops continued. The Eagles have worked through a similar issue this season with A.J. Brown displeased with his share of the offense, but winning has been the cure-all in that case. Here in Week 12, Brown led the Eagles in catches, yards, and had a touchdown, but the Eagles lost for the first time in six weeks. It’s the Cowboys that get to address their issues with Lamb after a win this time.
The fact they’re going to need Lamb to continue coming up big is not going away, but along with it the dynamic ability of Pickens to make game-changing plays in an instant is the best by any WR2 in Dallas in years. It was Pickens that set up the game-tying touchdown from Prescott with his highlight reel catch in double coverage, as well as the game-winning field goal from Brandon Aubrey with a signature catch-and-run on the slant. The drive prior to Prescott’s rushing touchdown though, Lamb fought threw a Cooper DeJean pass interference penalty to make a 48-yard catch then drew another penalty to set up a four-yard pass TD to TE Brevyn Spann-Ford.
The Cowboys’ strength on offense is their distribution, and even though this has also caused some overthinking in play-calling from Schottenheimer like on Turpin’s backfield carry for a fumble, and some miscalled passes in short yardage, they need to continue taking what defenses give them at a very high level. If or when the Cowboys can trust that this equation will include some of the routine plays Lamb left on the field against the Eagles, the offense will know they have a chance to be even scarier. Lamb dropped another would-be touchdown in the fourth quarter following a muffed punt recovery that set Dallas up on the doorstep to take the lead, and on fourth-down pressure in Dak’s face led to an incompletion to Jake Ferguson.
We say all the time that games need to be won and lost in the NFL with a team’s best and highest paid players making the deciding plays, and for the majority of Sunday’s action it was the Eagles that put on a clinic in this department, until Prescott, Ferguson, Pickens, and Aubrey were all able to capitalize on Eagles miscues that came out of nowhere and flip the game on its head. A team with star players that will know they can perform much more consistently without any coach having to draw it out of them is a dangerous one, and that will be exactly the type of team Brian Schottenheimer can hope to have on the field against the Chiefs.
The Cowboys defense getting six straight stops to help will this team to victory was an amazing moment for Matt Eberflus. Earlier in this same season, there weren’t many Cowboys fans that even wanted to tune in to watch this defense so long as Eberflus was still the one calling plays, but now with much more talent at his disposal, the defense has stepped up in a major way. When the Eagles tried to attack the edges of the Cowboys defense, they had some success like they did in the first meeting, but the improved interior push from the Cowboys front four still made a difference. While speed on the edge to close on quarterbacks is still a noticeable void for this defense, the Cowboys rallied to the ball well and got a big-time clutch play late from a player they put faith in this offseason – Osa Odighizuwa.
His sack on Hurts who had completed two first-down passes to DeVonta Smith and Brown to start a promising drive for the Eagles came on the type of 3rd-and-2 where Philadelphia was counting on at minimum facing a 4th-and-2. Odighizuwa being able to finish on Hurts for a 13-yard loss spoiled this, and forced the punt that bailed the Cowboys out of getting no points on 4th-and-goal, and this time drive for the winning field goal.
One thing that was an issue for the defense that also carried over from the Raiders game was the communications in coverage between safeties and linebackers. With new faces in and out of the lineup at both positions, these things will take time, but the Eagles made a pointed effort to attack Donovan Wilson coming down in run support, and also caught him against the pass a few times. On both of the Eagles’ first two touchdown drives, Wilson had a negative play that led to seven points for the visitors.
On Brown’s opening touchdown, Wilson over pursued the running back to the flat route instead of allowing DeMarvion Overshown to pick it up, leaving Overshown too flat to also help with the vertical shot to Brown. Daron Bland was in decent position, but Brown won the one-on-one on a laser throw from Hurts and opened the scoring. The next touchdown drive was finished off by Hurts himself running right through Kenneth Murray on a QB draw, but it was Wilson coming down and not even getting a hand on Saquon Barkley that set up the goal-to-go situation. This was also the drive extended by Ryan Flournoy’s roughing the punter penalty and Jadeveon Clowney’s offsides on third down.
The Cowboys holding Barkley to a combined 82 yards this season is still a collective win, taking both games to the fourth quarter as Schottenheimer emphasizes, and this time finding a way to overcome and finish. It feels like both teams will be happy not to see the other for a while as they get into the home stretch of the regular season, after both games were so hard-fought and decided by a collective seven points. One thing is certain though, after a game where both teams made mistake after mistake, the Cowboys will have the better time working on fixing these mistakes while being the victors.
Get the turkey legs ready for Thursday.
