ARLINGTON, Texas — Jalen Hurts was appreciative.
Late in the second quarter of the Eagles’ 34-6 win over the Cowboys, back when it was still a game, Hurts fumbled the football on a Micah Parsons strip-sack to set up the Cowboys with a 1st-and-goal at the 6-yard line.
The Cowboys had a chance to take a lead.
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But the Eagles’ defense gave up just 1 yard on three plays and the Cowboys settled for a 23-yard field goal to cut the lead to 7-6. That was as close as they ever got to the Eagles again.
The defense came through for Hurts.
“It means everything,” Hurts said. “It’s complimentary ball in a sense. One phase of the team having another phase’s back.”
After that huge defensive stop, Hurts made sure to thank his defensive teammates on the sideline. And then he made the most of the stop, leading the Eagles on an 84-yard touchdown drive before halftime to extend the lead.
It really was a great example of complementary football. And that’s something good team do.
“You know, we’re in it together,” Hurts said. “I have zero pride or anything involved in owning my mistakes. I made a mistake and it hurt the team. I was thankful for them. They had my back. Also the defense in how they responded and how they played.
“Just the conversations that we had, I think that’s something that starts in the middle of week, not just on Sundays. It takes all of us. Those of us offensively just know to just keep pressing, keep moving forward, keep staying with it and keep throwing punches, which is exactly how we handled it.”
Just a few plays before that Hurts fumble, the defense had already done its job. They got a takeaway when Zack Baun popped the football out of Ezekiel Elliott’s hands and into the end zone for a touchback.
And then just about a minute later, they were back on the field again and facing a red zone situation.
They didn’t blink.
“It’s just in you as a defensive player. It’s just in you,” safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson said. “Put out the fire. That’s what all of us said on the field. The faster we put the fire out, the faster we can get the ball and get it going again.”
The first play after the Hurts fumble was a three-yard run. The second play was an incompletion to CeeDee Lamb, who couldn’t find the ball in the sun. The third-down stop was a huge TFL from Jalen Carter on Rico Dowdle to force the field goal.
What was Carter’s mindset going into that drive?
“Just trying to get them to a field goal,” he said. “And if we can get them to a field goal, try to block a field goal. I feel like we got a good field goal block group and I don’t think we have one this year. We have one but it was coming off the edge. We are trying to get one inside coming off a block.”
The Eagles weren’t able to block that field goal but special teams are definitely a part of complementary football too and that showed up in the third quarter.
After a quick three-and-out from the Eagles’ offense to begin the second half, Braden Mann pinned the Cowboys at their own 11-yard line with a 51-yard punt. Then the defense forced a quick punt of their own. Then Cooper DeJean had a career-long 31-yard punt return to set up a short field.
The Eagles’ offense capitalized with a 37-yard touchdown drive to push the lead to 21-6. Ballgame.
Good teams play well together. The Eagles showed that on Sunday afternoon.
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