Eagles vs Cowboys report – The Philadelphia Eagles lost to the Dallas Cowboys, 33-13, on Sunday night at AT&T Stadium, their second devastating loss in as many weeks as they head into the final stretch of the regular season.
The Eagles and Cowboys are now tied atop the NFC East at 10-3.
Eagles vs Cowboys – Eagles poor performance
The Eagles were never in the game. They were down 10-0 in the first quarter and 24-6 at halftime. It didn’t get better in the second half. Philadelphia didn’t score an offensive touchdown and lost by 20 despite a defensive touchdown. The Eagles came in with the better record, and nobody who watched the game would have identified them as the better team.
As they have for most of the season, the Eagles started off extremely slow on offense and only recorded six points in the first half thanks to Jake Elliott’s two field goals.
Maybe 10 or 20 years ago, the Eagles’ 10-1 start would have been taken at face value. But in this era of advanced stats, most attentive NFL fans realized that the Eagles were living a charmed life. Their lackluster point differential was a telltale sign. The Eagles were living off of wild comebacks and close wins, which was unsustainable. Other analytics indicated the Eagles weren’t in the conversation for best team in football, only best record.
The Eagles didn’t record an offensive touchdown in the game. The team’s only touchdown came after Fletcher Cox strip-sacked Dak Prescott and rookie defensive tackle Jalen Carter scooped up the ball and ran it in for a score.
The start to the Cowboys game was a continuation of the 49ers game for the Eagles. Dallas looked sharp. The Cowboys scored on all four of their possessions in the first half. Dak Prescott is the hottest quarterback in the NFL and he was rolling against the Eagles to start the game. He had 157 yards and two touchdowns before halftime.
Jalen Hurts and the Eagles’ offense coughed up three fumbles and each one was costly.
Hurts’ fumble happened on the team’s first drive after the Cowboys went up 7-0. Then, A.J. Brown also fumbled in the second half on the team’s first drive in the third quarter. The final happened in the fourth quarter when DeVonta Smith fumbled after he made a big catch.
Hurts and the Eagles’ offense simply weren’t good enough to keep up with the Cowboys. Hurts completed 18 of his 27 passes for 197 yards, along with his fumble.
Other than the Carter scoop and score, the Cowboys kept making the plays that the Eagles weren’t. Their kicker, Brandon Aubrey, continued his perfect streak on field-goal attempts to start his career, including kicks from 60 and 59 yards. Cowboys cornerback Stephon Gilmore, who forced an A.J. Brown fumble on Philadelphia’s first possession, had a clutch tackle on a fourth-and-8 catch by DeVonta Smith in the fourth quarter.
At every turn, the Cowboys were better. Prescott outplayed Jalen Hurts. CeeDee Lamb had a much bigger impact than Brown or Smith. Dallas tight end Jake Ferguson even had a handful of highlight plays. The Eagles turned it over three times in Cowboys territory, which didn’t help. The poor performance is concerning for an Eagles team that had the inside track to the NFC East title and NFC’s No. 1 seed as Week 13 kicked off.
Meanwhile, Dak Prescott played lights out and tossed two touchdowns for 271 yards.
The Eagles are still in fine shape for the NFC East. The Cowboys can’t win the division if the Eagles win out. If both teams lose once, the Eagles still might take the tiebreaker. There’s a little more concern with the No. 1 seed and the 49ers, but the Eagles have the easier remaining schedule of the two. Philadelphia doesn’t have one game remaining against a team that currently has a winning record.
It seems like we could say that Sunday’s Eagles loss was their worst in two seasons, except that they got similarly blown out last week. The Eagles’ 33-13 loss to the Dallas Cowboys not only ties up the NFC East race with four games left, but the way the game played out has to be troubling for Philadelphia. Especially given how badly the San Francisco 49ers outplayed the Eagles last week.
The Eagles will try to rebound next week against the Seattle Seahawks on Monday Night Football.