The Dallas Cowboys need a statement win of some sorts, in the worst way. Normally winning at their biggest current rival, the Philadelphia Eagles, would count as one. With both teams sitting at 2-4 coming off a loss, this game being the one that will put a wrap on week seven in the NFL is far from a battle of two teams anyone would call contenders right now. The only statement to possibly be made would be a claim by either team in primetime to stay in the dreadful NFC East race, which the Cowboys should
still be interested in.
The Cowboys defense put up a solid effort in the second half at the Green Bay Packers. If the defense continues on any sort of upward trajectory, they’ll get a golden opportunity on Monday night to end their two-game slide.
A return to divisional play might also be what Dak Prescott needs to lead the offense closer to where they need to be, but the pressure to not lose this game to a depleted Eagles side is also turned up to the point of being difficult to factor into which team will play looser and make more winning plays.
Let’s get to our weekly scenarios for what the Cowboys need to do to reach 3-4, or what could extend their losing streak to three games.
The Dallas Cowboys will beat the Philadelphia Eagles if…
…they get the ball back to the offense on third downs.
A big part of the reason the Cowboys defense gave up 17 points in the first half of their last game was not getting the Packers offense off the field on third and long. A big part of holding them to six points in the second half was getting more pressure on Jordan Love and finishing the possessions with third-down stops.
The Eagles have only played one full game with McKee starting in place of Jalen Hurts, but come out of that game leading the NFL in percentage of drives ending in a punt at 51.6%. Going hand in hand with this, they also are last in the league in average distance to go on third down with 8.4.
Their longest pass play against the Panthers last week in a 25-14 home loss was 19 yards to Devonta Smith, who was targeted a game-high 14 times but caught seven for 75 yards. Philadelphia punted on their first five drives, with a trio of three and outs that totaled a net of one yard and 3:35 of game clock.
Cowboys head coach Brian Schottenheimer did not give the most inspiring answers this week when it comes to why his team’s been so easily taken out of the run game that’s supposed to be a critical component to their entire identity. Unfortunately, the expectation coming into Monday remains that the game script has to stay on track in a way it hardly ever does in a NFL game for the Cowboys to find any balance. With the Eagles also missing starting running back Saquon Barkley in that Panthers game, they too had an ugly looking run/pass split of 13 rushing attempts and 45 passes for McKee.
Having Barkley back against the Cowboys on Monday night will certainly help, but the Cowboys objective should still be finding ways to force the Eagles offense into third and longs. If they finish them to get the ball back into Prescott’s hands, perhaps even with advantageous field position, the Cowboys can look like they know what they’re doing again.
Both the Cowboys and Eagles defenses come into this game allowing the same 11.6 yards per reception defensively, which is tied for the seventh worst, and fractions away from being even further down a list neither defensive coordinator wants to be on.
In the coaching battle of Vic Fangio against his former top assistant Christian Parker, the Cowboys must make Fangio worry much more about the big play over the top compared to how much Parker can send pressure and force the ball out of McKee’s hand.
One of the keys to the Cowboys being able to get to these plays comfortably is being able to trust the run game on early downs, and the bigger key to doing that is getting the Eagles offense off the field whenever a third down opportunity presents itself.
The Dallas Cowboys will lose to the Philadelphia Eagles if…
…they can’t tackle Saquon Barkley.
The Eagles have been without star running back Saquon Barkley for their last two games. Barkley is trending towards returning against the Cowboys, which will be a real confidence builder for McKee being able to turn and hand the ball to him.
Barkley is second in the NFL so far this season in time behind the line of scrimmage at 3.14 seconds per carry. This is a runner that’s a bit less of a home run threat like he was when he propelled the Eagles to the Super Bowl, but this patience can still be deadly.
Getting penetration from the defensive interior to make stops against a running back trapped in the backfield has not exactly been a strength of the Cowboys defensive tackle group of Kenny Clark, Quinnen Williams, and Otito Ogbonnia. There were real positives in this area against the Packers though, so watching which way this trends against the Eagles could be a real deciding factor for Monday night.
If Barkley is able to break the line of scrimmage and get after the Cowboys linebackers and secondary players, the missed tackles from these groups that doomed the Packers loss could do the same for this road test.
The Cowboys own offense is struggling right now. The idea at least lives on for now though (we think) that their opponents still have to respect what the Cowboys offense could be, making it harder to imagine this being a game the Eagles can just completely take the air out of the ball and lean on Barkley all night.
Both Barkley and McKee will have to make plays, but if the former really gets going, the odds of both go up at the same time.
The likes of Williams, Clark, Ogbonnia, along with Jaishawn Barham, DeMarvion Overshown making his return from injury, Markquese Bell and the other secondary defenders need to find ways to bring Barkley to the ground when given the chance. The Cowboys need to take the hostile Eagles crowd out of this game and save their already-fading hopes on this 2026 season.
