For the first time in eight games, the Dallas Cowboys had more rushing attempts than passing attempts in a game, and the result was the same on Monday night as it was in Week 17 last season – a win against a division rival. The Cowboys won at the Philadelphia Eagles for the first time in five tries, avoiding a three-game losing streak while handing the Eagles a fifth straight loss, sending Philly to 2-5 and improving their own record to 3-4.
The Cowboys won’t return to division play until they see
the Eagles again on Thanksgiving, but also will only play one team currently with a winning record until then, and three of those four at home. For a fanbase as starved for a win as this one, it’s super easy to get carried away with talking about what elements can carry over from this Eagles win and make it something more than it is, but in this case the opportunity really is right out in front of Brian Schottenheimer’s team.
For now, let’s start with how they capitalized on the opportunity to play a depleted Eagles team, and came away with a win, 38-21 in primetime, while holding their third straight opponent under 25 points.
Taking Back Control
The Eagles started the second half with the ball and possessed it for 9:16 over a 17-play drive, converting a trio of third downs along the way, one fourth down, and then ultimately scoring on third-and-goal with Makai Lemon’s first NFL touchdown. A Quinnen Williams tackle for loss on 1st-and-goal couldn’t save the possession from giving the lead back to the Eagles, their third touchdown drive of the night.
The only reason there wasn’t panic at this point for the Cowboys, despite seeing the nightmare script of their past two losses starting to unfold again, was because they had already scored on four of five of their own drives. As wild as it is to say, if this game needed to be a Dak Prescott versus Tanner McKee shootout, the Cowboys were ready for it.
The Cowboys targeted CeeDee Lamb four times on the ensuing drive and finally got him in the endzone from 16 yards out to go up 28-21. They stayed in control of the game from here on out. The Eagles remaining four drives from this point on totaled 7:19 of possession, four first downs, and zero points with a Demarvion Overshown interception thrown in.
It’s amazing just how many things a strong running game can unlock within a game, but by way of the Cowboys running the ball uber-efficiently, they could trust the defense more as the game wore on. They continued to hit timely passes, kicked field goals that actually felt like wins and not defeats, and leave the city of brotherly love feeling good.
Overcoming
Hyperbole is commonplace when it comes to NFL fans, especially those of America’s Team. The Cowboys did earn plenty of criticism during their two-game losing streak though, and at the center of it was how easily the team seemingly folded when things weren’t going their way.
The fact the Cowboys had to overcome as many things as they did to beat this injury-riddled Eagles team will certainly come up this week, but for now the improved signs of fight from Schotty’s squad with their backs against the wall can be complimented.
The Cowboys offense had not been starting games strong, with opening drives often stalling out around midfield. The same thing happened on Monday night, but getting more burst from Javonte Williams from the start at least got them in field goal range for Brandon Aubrey to make it 3-0.
The Eagles needed just four plays to score with Saquon Barkley after this, and go up 7-3.
Dallas committed a penalty on the ensuing kickoff and started their next drive backed up, but overcame this to get a slot-fade touchdown to Lamb and a 10-7 lead.
The Dallas defense had a Quinnen Williams offsides on fourth and short, they gave up a first down on a screen on third and long, had an LT Overton roughing the passer call, and gave up another touchdown to see the home team go back up 14-10.
The Cowboys started backed up yet again in response to this, after Tyler Goodson’s kickoff return touchdown was called back by a Justin Barron holding penalty. Still, they overcame and scored a touchdown, this time unleashing George Pickens behind the defense.
The offense also overcame a sequence on this drive that could have doomed them, after throwing a 1st-and-10 double-move deep ball to Jonathan Mingo that really didn’t have a chance. Followed by a second down run, this drive looked destined to stall out, but Pickens getting enough on third down to allow Javonte Williams to move the chains on fourth down gave it life again. The touchdown followed.
When the defense finally did get a stop, it led to the offense being pinned at their own two-yard line and going three and out. DeMarvion Overshown and Joey Porter Jr. had the back-to-back pass deflections to get the Eagles off the field, with Overshown getting the vast majority of the run at middle linebacker in his return to action. The defense stepped up again and got their first three and out of the game right after this, getting the ball back in time for the offense to get three more points and lead 20-14 at halftime.
The early goings of this game felt like the pressure on the offense was building, and one Prescott mistake could have seen the house of cards come falling all down again. The way the Cowboys turned this around, which in turn helped Prescott settle into a groove, was well done. The Cowboys had 25 first downs, gaining 12 of them through the air and 11 on the ground. Complementary football was on display in Philadelphia.
Whether or not the Cowboys can consistently play like this, we have no idea. What we do know is they’ll get to spend the week seeing a game film that showed highly-paid and highly-anticipated players stepping up all over the place to prove they can collectively make a winning difference, and for now that’s a whole lot better than anything that came out of the Tampa Bay or Green Bay losses.
Glimpses of What it Could Be
To go a bit further on this and put a bow on the first primetime win of the season, the Cowboys offense showed it’s most legitimate glimpses of the season of how good they really could be. We’ve been harping on for weeks about playing to the strength of the offensive line and letting them go downhill, and it was so good at the Eagles that All-Pro Tyler Smith was flat out looking for defenders to block and not finding them while Williams broke off a big run anyway.
The drive before halftime to get a field goal will lead to Monday Tuesday morning quarterback discussions on how Schottenheimer managed the timeouts, but it also saw one of the best examples of the offense taking something that should be easy to do, making it exactly that, and executing at a high level because of it. The Philly defense was sitting on the slant routes from Lamb and Pickens all night, and in hurry-up mode the Cowboys took advantage and got Lamb behind the defense with a slant and double move down the field.
Lamb’s first touchdown was also a crystal clear example of what this offense could be at it’s best, and it was a thing of beauty. The Eagles had clear safety help to the side of Pickens on this play, and Prescott recognized it right away. Ryan Flournoy ran a crisp vertical route to create space in the seam area for Lamb to work out of the slot, and Lamb got the touchdown.
Between these passing plays and the trio of Lamb, Pickens, and Williams on the ground having big nights, fans can only hope this is the game that teaches Schottenheimer and Klayton Adams alike that getting the ball to the team’s best players doesn’t have to be hard.
Frankly, with the defensive performance still leaving quite a bit to be desired, the simplest thing to learn from this win is that the Cowboys continue to be a team that will go as Dak Prescott goes, but hoping for more repeat performances of the Dak we saw on Monday night is a bit easier to do now being back in the win column.
