The Philadelphia Eagles[8-1] defeat the Dallas Cowboys[5-3] 28-23. Next week, the Eagles have a bye week and the Cowboys host the Giants.
1st Quarter: Eagles Running Back Kenneth Gainwell runs in a 12-yard touchdown. Cowboys Quarterback Dak Prescott throws a 4-yard touchdown to Tight End Josh Ferguson.
2nd Quarter: Dak Prescott throws a 5-yard touchdown to Wide Receiver KaVontae Turpin. Eagles Quarterback Jalen Hurts runs in a 1-yard touchdown on the Brotherly Shove. Cowboys Kicker Brandon Aubrey kicks a 51-yard field goal. Cowboys lead at halftime 17-14.
3rd Quarter: Jalen Hurts throws a 29-yard touchdown to Wide Receiver DeVonta Smith. Jalen Hurts throws a 4-yard touchdown to Wide Receiver A.J. Brown.
4th Quarter: Dak Prescott throws a 7-yard touchdown to Wide Receiver Jalen Tolbert(the 2-point conversion was unsuccessful). On the final play of the game Dak Prescott’s pass to Wide Receiver CeeDee Lamb is short of the goalline and Lamb fumbles with Eagles Safety Reed Blankenship recovering. The Eagles won 28-23.
Eagles Notes:
Run Offense-The run game was completely absent. Rashaad Penny was finally involved but not enough. D’Andre Swift had under 50 rushing yards. This is a clear issue that needs to be addressed going into the bye week.
Pass Offense-Looked fantastic except Dallas Goedert got hurt. Goedert will miss around a month so hopefully Albert Okwuegbunam will get involved in the offense. A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith did not statistically have a great game but they got the ball in important situations. Hurts had one of the best passing performances of his career. Fantastic game all around especially against a top-tier defense.
Jalen Hurts Injury-Hurts does not want to talk about it but he looks beaten up. Hopefully, he takes the bye week to heal up and the coaching staff can call plays to protect him more.
Run Defense-From start to finish the run defense was playing great. Tony Pollard was eliminated from the game. Dak Prescott needed to be their best runner and this is where the run defense could improve going forward.
Pass Defense-This was a bad game. The difference between the Eagles dominating this game and the actual outcome was the pass defense. Some of the issues were matchups, which I will cover under play calling, but Eli Ricks was being burnt by CeeDee Lamb. Kevin Byard was unable to cover Josh Ferguson. Darius Slay and James Bradberry missed a few plays. It was a mess and CeeDee Lamb had 191 receiving yards. Most of the time Lamb lined up in the slot and this was when there were mismatches that I am surprised Dallas did not continue late in the game.
Offensive Play Calling-It took Jalen Hurts dying on the field, not literally, for Brian Johnson to realize he should run the ball with his running backs more. He has to do a better job picking when plays need to be called because passing on early downs is not a good move.
Defensive Play Calling-The defensive line was getting some pressure but needed help. Blitzes from linebackers would have helped but we did not see them until late in the game which ended up deciding the game with clutch sacks. I will ride or die with the 5-man D-line and this game needed it. I understand defenses where the secondary is not good end up having players playing specific parts of the field but this secondary has too many good players to be leaving them in specific parts of the field and not playing the matchups. Eli Ricks should not be on CeeDee Lamb as much as he was in this game. I think Ricks has a lot of potential but Darius Slay or James Bradberry should have followed Lamb all game. Byard is an amazing center fielder type of Safety and Reed Blankenship is an amazing physical safety but why were their roles flipped? I hope Desai learns from this game and knows he has the matchups.
-Jordan Burden