Following a humbling defeat to the San Francisco 49ers, the Philadelphia Eagles packed their bags and headed down to Arlington Texas for a clash with the Cowboys. The importance of this game hardly needs explaining, but if you watched Sunday Night’s slog as a new fan, you’d feel very differently.
The Eagles didn’t look like themselves against the Niners. They were sloppy, sluggish, and looked fatigued after a grueling gauntlet of games against some of the NFL’s best in a short space of time. Many hoped that the loss against San Fran would act as a wake-up team for this call, but it didn’t.
Cowboys run rampant against the Eagles defense
The blueprint was ultimately leaked in that loss. The Eagles lack starting-level talent at both Safety and Linebacker, so doing anything possible to force pressure on those players would open up every opportunity imaginable. The Cowboys were clearly watching.
A myriad of misdirects and some offensive trickery left Eagles defenders stuck in the mud against the run. Tony Pollard was backed up by Rico Dowdle and KaVonte Turpin, combining for 138 yards on the night. It felt like 250.
The pass defense wasn’t exactly having a great day either. Kelee Ringo somehow managed to get flagged for both a PI and a facemask on the same play (??), while the corners were routinely funneling plays inside to…you guessed it, linebackers and safeties that were already struggling.
It should come as no surprise that TE Jake Ferguson led the Cowboys in receiving yards.
The few big moments the defense did have, such as Jalen Carter’s scoop and score on the back of a huge Fletcher Cox strip, were soon wiped out…
Nothing changed offensively
On offense, things were hardly much better. The Eagles were victims to some atrocious calls from the refs, but those paled in comparison to questionable execution across the board. Turnovers haunted the team, while repetitively bland play-calls were called. The Cowboys were able to just calmly breeze up the field and add field goal after field goal to put this game out of reach, knowing safe in the knowledge that Philadelphia just couldn’t keep up.
Jalen Hurts looked rattled from the get-go, and it’s not like the coaching staff, or his teammates, were doing him any favors. The offensive line was getting flagged more than prime Jason Peters, the wideouts fumbled more than your average High School kid with a crush and a bad music taste, and Brian Johnson insisted on keeping things as rigid as possible.
It was just a bad game from top to bottom.
Up next…
The Eagles have some soul-searching to do. The good news is that their schedule gets ridiculously easier ridiculously quickly. Games against the Giants (twice) and Cardinals lie on the horizon, while the Seahawks are up next. The Birds can still seal the NFC East with relative ease, but are they ready for the playoffs? That’s another question entirely…
Nick Sirianni needed to use last week’s loss as a chance to hit the reset button ahead of Sunday night’s defeat. He didn’t. Time is running out and if the Eagles don’t fix these very fixable errors soon, it won’t take long for a more buttoned-up, yet clearly inferior team to start pushing their buttons and sneaking out a win.
If Jonathan Gannon’s lowly Cardinals somehow beat the Eagles…let’s not think about it. For now, the Birds will fly back to Philadelphia wounded and wallowing. Let’s just hope the team can figure it out before things really begin to wobble…
AP Photo/Matt Slocum
