The Dallas Cowboys have their first bulletin board item of the 2025 season, the first for new head coach Brian Schottenheimer as the replacement to Mike McCarthy. They will open their season in primetime, on the road, against the defending Super Bowl champions that hail from their very own division, the Philadelphia Eagles. There is no shortage of storylines whenever these teams get together, and Dallas trying to snap a three-game losing streak in Philadelphia against all odds, and start 2025 with a winning record after finishing 7-10 for their first losing season since 2020 a year ago is just one place to start.
An Eagles win in front of their home crowd on the night they raise their second championship banner would actually give them their first three-game win streak in this rivalry since week 14 of 2003, Week 10 of 2004, and Week 15 of that same season. The pressure is on early for Schottenheimer to establish himself against last year’s division winner, and will only continue one way or the other as the Cowboys will continue division play in the next week against the New York Giants.
Schottenheimer has not backed down one bit in his remarks so far to the media when it comes to holding himself to a championship standard, having an unquestionable work ethic, and being successful as a first-time head coach because of these things. For this success to start on opening night, Schottenheimer will have to do something his predecessor Mike McCarthy never did, and something that is of heightened importance considering Schottenheimer is also directly replacing McCarthy’s role as offensive play-caller after being his offensive coordinator. The Cowboys will have to beat Eagles defensive coordinator Vic Fangio, who just won his first Super Bowl by beating Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs 40-22.
The Eagles defensive performance in the Super Bowl, given the circumstance of the offense they played against, was nothing short of epic as they didn’t allow a touchdown until the third quarter with a 34-0 lead and provided six points themselves with an interception return for touchdown. The very next QB to get a crack at this defense, which was bolstered by the Eagles spending their first five picks in April’s draft all on defense, will be the league’s highest paid in Dak Prescott.
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The Cowboys will be out to prove early that on the laundry list of things that went wrong as a team last season, missing Prescott for at least five games for the second time in three seasons belongs squarely at the top. To do so, they will still need Prescott to elevate the entirety of the offense around him in a way Dallas unfairly asked him to do at the start of last season given the lack of run game options, offensive line depth, or receiving threats beyond CeeDee Lamb. While it’s true the Cowboys have been mostly applauded for their activity in all phases of player acquisition to address these areas, trading for Miles Sanders, signing Javonte Williams, drafting Javonte Blue and Phil Mafa, drafting Tyler Booker 12th overall, and trading for George Pickens, there is still a way the Cowboys can help Prescott make it all work that remains the biggest question going into year one of Schottenheimer.
With his hiring being yet another close to the vest move by the Jones family, does it mean the offense will remain in the same image it has from even before the McCarthy era, or is Schottenheimer finally the right hire alongside new OC Klayton Adams to move it forward schematically? Putting this ultimate question to the test right out of the gate, against a defensive coordinator in Fangio who’s had every answer to the Cowboys predictability on offense for a long time now, is great early-season theater for the NFL between two teams they’ll highlight plenty all year long.
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Fangio was the head coach for the Denver Broncos in 2021 when his team came to AT&T Stadium and beat Prescott and the Cowboys 30-16. The loss snapped a six-game winning streak for the Cowboys, as they were held to the second fewest yards of the season with 290. It was also Prescott’s lowest completion percentage of the season, with the fewest first downs by the team all year as well.
The next season is when Fangio would first join the Eagles, but it is something of a wash when it comes to the relevant history on topic here. Fangio served as just a consultant to DC Jonathan Gannon. The Eagles defense still got the better of the Cowboys on home field, but it was in a primetime game started by Cooper Rush, his first loss of the season. The Cowboys bounced back to win the home rematch later in the season, with Prescott this time, but it was the Eagles down to a backup quarterback in that matchup with Gardner Minshew (who surprisingly gave Dan Quinn’s defense trouble in a 40-34 Dallas shootout win).
Picking back up with 2023, Fangio was in his only season as defensive coordinator for the Miami Dolphins. The Cowboys played on the road there in Week 16, fresh off of road loss to another AFC East opponent in the Buffalo Bills. The Cowboys offense was again stymied by Fangio in a 22-20 losing effort, cementing a pair of losses that proved very telling about the form Dallas took into the playoffs leading to a swift Wild Card round exit versus the Packers.
Fangio returned to Philadelphia as DC last season, and as if he needed any more help beating Mike McCarthy and the Cowboys, got both of his matchups against Cooper Rush again. The Eagles beat the Cowboys in Arlington 34-6, again putting up their fewest yards and first downs of the season against this defense, and 41-7 at home in a game Dallas was already eliminated from playoff contention. Taking it for what it’s worth, there was nothing the Cowboys could do against Fangio’s defense for eight more full quarters of what is even still just a piece of a larger scale of dominance this style of defense has shown over the Cowboys own style of offense.
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There are many qualities to Fangio’s defense that have become staples of it’s uniqueness, but also effectiveness, over his time in the NFL dating all the way back to 1986, with just a one year break in 2010 when Fangio was Stanford’s defensive coordinator. One of the main ones is how well his defenses commit numbers to coverage, and contain quarterbacks in the pocket with a disciplined pass rush that relies on the front four.
Just off of these two principles alone, it unfortunately isn’t hard to see why this defense has been effective against the Cowboys. Having defenders fan out into coverage quickly and turn back to read the quarterback makes completing the types of stop routes the Cowboys have been too dependent on difficult. So much of creating big plays on offense in today’s game is predicated on getting athletes in space that can beat defenders to their spots. The Cowboys have not helped themselves enough pre-snap to gain an advantage against most defenses here, and attacking the Fangio “umbrella” defense from spread but static formations is one of the worst approaches.
The time is fast approaching for all of the talk and speculation into both Schottenheimer and Klayton Adams’ new vision for the Dallas offense to play out on the field in OTAs and then training camp. Looking for things like tighter formations that help skill players run to open space, a run game that emphasizes getting blockers downhill, and that pre-snap motion would all be very positive early signs from Schottenheimer. As to how any of these things will translate when the Cowboys take the field for his first game that counts, against the defending champs on the road under the lights, is an entirely different story, but will just help build the intrigue between now and the season’s kickoff.
Another layer to this intrigue is that the Cowboys defense will also have a new approach thanks to their third straight defensive coordinator in three seasons. Matt Eberflus’ defense is different than Fangio’s, but does share a few similarities when it comes to not being blitz heavy. Like the Eagles have supported Fangio by bringing in ideal scheme fits at all three levels of the defense, the Cowboys have tried to do the same for their former linebackers coach returning as DC this offseason. They’ve used trades, free agent acquisitions, and five of their nine draft picks on defense.
Just like all eyes will be on how Schottenheimer solves for the Fangio defense and if any of the new faces on offense like George Pickens make a big enough difference, the Cowboys defense will also be tested out of the gate against Jalen Hurts and Saquon Barkley. Hurts will equally be breaking in with yet another new play-caller, as last year’s OC and former Cowboy Kellen Moore is now the head coach in New Orleans. Kevin Patullo is the new play-caller in Philadelphia, promoted from being passing game coordinator and associate head coach. Which team helps their quarterback more in this matchup, or makes life that much more difficult on the opposing quarterback, could very well decide who starts 1-0.
If this all holds, this year’s kickoff will also be the first Prescott versus Hurts matchup since December of 2023. As is always the case in the NFL, familiar faces like quarterbacks are surrounded by plenty of new players and coaches on a year-to-year basis, and Cowboys-Eagles coming up in September is no different. There are some rivalries that run as deep as just the colors on the uniforms though, and despite all these new faces between the lines and with a headset on the sidelines, the intensity of Cowboys/Eagles should be felt from the jump.
Teams from the NFC East will appear on Thursday Night Football three times this season not counting the Thursday opener in Philly, Sunday Night Football seven times (this time, counting the opener as a “special presentation” of SNF – we know, it’s weird), Monday Night Football six times, a head-to-head matchup in Washington on Christmas against Dallas, and the Eagles on Black Friday as well as Cowboys on Thanksgiving of course. There is a lot of national interest in a division that hasn’t had a repeat winner since 2003-04, and with that, widespread interest in the inaugural season for Brian Schottenheimer and the Cowboys. That interest will start with Schottenheimer immediately trying to show a very tangible sign of progress from his handling of the Cowboys offense compared to the coach he’s replacing, having a better game plan for Vic Fangio.
The countdown to “Philly week” around The Star and “Dallas week” around Philadelphia is already underway.
