It took ‘em a little while to get cranking after a shaky start, but ultimately the Eagles did exactly what they had to, beating the Cowboys 34-6 in Dallas Sunday.
Overcame some early mistakes, built a big lead, poured it on in the second half, won at AT&T Stadium for the first time in seven years and flew home to Philly 7-2 with a five-game winning streak heading into their battle for first place Thursday night at the Linc with the Commanders.
Only four Eagles went into this game knowing what it felt like to beat the Cowboys in North Texas in an Eagles uniform – Brandon Graham, Lane Johnson, Jake Elliott and Rick Lovato.
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Now they all do.
The Eagles are rolling.
1. For me, this game was all about that touchdown drive at the end of the first half. Jalen Hurts had just thrown an interception in the end zone and fumbled deep in Cowboys territory. The Eagles led 7-3, but offensive mistakes – penalties, turnovers, sacks – were keeping Dallas in a game they had no business being in. Hurts had been sacked five times in 12 drop-backs – including on three in a row – and after a penalty, the Eagles found themselves 1st-and-10 on their own 16 with 1:43 before halftime. And Saquon Barkley was on the sideline getting his left arm checked out. Yikes. All Hurts did on that next drive was go 5-for-6 for 60 yards with a touchdown pass to Dallas Goedert along with a sweet 24-yard scramble, his longest since a 28-yarder in the Super Bowl. The last four games have been clean for Hurts, but that’s not always going to be the case. And when things aren’t clean, Hurts’ ability to gather himself and right the ship when things are getting hairy is huge. He did that Sunday in a big way. That drive took all the fight out of the Cowboys.
2. What the Eagles are doing defensively right now is almost unprecedented. Take a look at these last five games: 10 points per game allowed, 201 yards per game allowed, 126 passing yards allowed and just four total touchdowns. There is something special going on with this group, and Zack Baun has been in the middle of everything. That dude is having a Pro Bowl season. This is their best five-game stretch in terms of yards and points allowed since 1954. That was 70 years ago. And this is the youngest defense in the NFL. They’re just going to keep getting better. Unbelievable.
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3. And get this: The Eagles’ last three road games have been wins by 25 points over the Giants, 20 points over the Bengals and 28 points over the Cowboys. This is the first time they’ve won three straight road games by 20 or more points since 1949, when they beat the Steelers by 31 at Forbes Field, Washington by 23 points at Griffith Stadium and the Giants by 21 at the Polo Grounds. That’s absolutely insane. That was 75 years ago. And, yeah, that team did win the NFL Championship.
4. Maybe the biggest difference in this defense the last few weeks has been the takeaways, and the Eagles just weren’t getting them at all early in the season and it’s not easy to win that way. The Eagles had just two takeaways the first six games of the season – both were Reed Blankenship interceptions – and going into the Cincinnati game they had just 12 in their previous 21 games going back to Week 4 of last year. Since then? Ten takeaways the last three games, including five Sunday in Dallas. That’s their most takeaways in a three-game span since 2009. This defense is playing so well in all phases, and the combination of guys understanding their roles better, playing more physical, getting used to a new coach and scheme has supercharged the defense and it’s showing up with the takeaways.
5. The Eagles came in with the 6th-ranked red-zone defense and had two huge stops deep in Dallas territory on back-to-back possessions that potentially saved 11 points when the game was still close. The first came with the Eagles up 7-3 late in the third quarter when Zack Baun forced an Ezekiel Elliott fumble at the 4-yard-line that Cooper DeJean recovered in the end zone. The second was Jalen Carter’s massive stop on Rico Dowdell for a two-yard loss when the Cowboys had a 3rd-and-3 on the 3-yard-line just before halftime. The Cowboys got a short field goal there to make it 7-6, but failing to get a touchdown on consecutive possessions inside the 5 had to be crushing for that Dallas offense and really the whole team. This was the first game in at least 30 years – as far back as Stathead tracks turnover yard lines – where the Eagles got two takeaways inside the 5 in the same game. This defense is playing at an extraordinary level right now and there’s not one thing they’re not doing at a high level.
6. Let’s talk about Baun. This is the best linebacker play we’ve seen around these parts since, who, Trott? All Baun did Sunday in Dallas was force two fumbles – the first one on Zeke inside the 5-yard-line – recover a fumble and add a tackle for loss and eight tackles. The dude is all over the field making plays. Through nine games, 87 tackles, an interception, two sacks, three forced fumbles, four tackles for loss and a fumble recovery. This is what a Pro Bowl linebacker looks like. This is what an Eagles’ defensive MVP looks like. And I can’t say enough how brilliant Vic Fangio was to watch a handful of his snaps at off-ball with the Saints and determine he could be a key to this defense. Now it’s up to Howie Roseman to get Baun signed. The Eagles cannot lose him. Can’t.
7. You look at the final score and see a 28-point win, but this was a one-possession game going into the second half and after that Jaguars game and nearly blowing a 22-0 lead it was huge to see the Eagles finish a team off. Second half, the Eagles outscored the Cowboys 20-0 and outgained them 160-46, forcing turnovers on three straight drives. The last time the Eagles held a team scoreless in the second half while scoring at least 20 points? At Dallas in 2017, the last time the Eagles won in North Texas. Really similar game. The Cowboys led 9-7 at halftime, but the Eagles outscored them 30-0 after halftime. To be a great team, you have to be able to finish. The Eagles didn’t do it last week, but they got away with it. They did it in style Sunday. They took away the Cowboys’ hope with that TD drive at the end of the first half and then just did whatever they wanted on both sides of the ball in the second half.
8. Even with that interception, Hurts was terrific Sunday, once again. The INT was just a really good play by Trevon Diggs, but Hurts was nearly perfect after it, and that’s what you get from Hurts. Every quarterback is going to go through some adversity, it’s the nature of the position, but Hurts is so good at shrugging that stuff off and going back out there and playing smart, aggressive and efficient, and we saw that Sunday. His first pass after the INT was a 27-yarder to Jahan Dotson. Shrug it off. Hurts finished 14-for-20 for 202 yards, two passing touchdowns, two rushing touchdowns and a 115.0 passer rating. He’s only the sixth quarterback in history with five consecutive games at 115 or higher, a list that also includes Aaron Rodgers, Philip Rivers, Russell Wilson, Matt Ryan and Patrick Mahomes. And four straight games at 70 percent or higher. And then there was 7-for-56 rushing, including a dynamic 24-yard scramble on that huge TD drive before halftime. Hurts isn’t being asked to do a lot right now, but what he’s doing, he’s doing at a very high level ... even with that interception and fumble.
9. It took a little while to get the running game going – the Eagles had 13 carries in the first half against a stacked box – but once they built a lead and started pounding the rock, the Cowboys couldn’t stop them. Second half, the Eagles ran 25 times, and they finished with 38 rushes for 187 yards and that’s with Saquon Barkley getting only 14 carries for 66 yards with a long gainer of 11 yards. That’s 204 carries, 970 yards and eight TDs on the ground during the five-game winning streak, and you just don’t get that kind of running game production in the modern NFL, but here we are. They’re only the second NFL team since 1952 with 200 carries, 970 rushing yards and eight TDs in a five-game span, the first since Washington in 1983. But they’re still making plenty of big plays in the passing game as well to keep defenses honest. Maybe somebody out there can stop the Eagles’ running game. Nobody has lately.
10. Here’s a look at all of Cooper Rush’s pass attempts: 4 yards, minus-1 yard, incomplete, 6 yards, incomplete, incomplete, 0 yards, 3 yards, incomplete, incomplete, 9 yards, incomplete, 10 yards, 5 yards, 1 yard, 1 yard, 2 yards, 3 yards, incomplete. He threw 22 passes and only two were longer than six yards.
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