Coming into Thursday night’s NFL kickoff between the Cowboys and the reigning Super Bowl champion Eagles, nobody was believing in America’s Team. They were the biggest underdog of any team in Week 1, and hardly anyone was predicting the Cowboys to win.
They didn’t win, of course; Philadelphia held on to win 24-20 in a game that saw a flurry of scoring in the first half followed by just three combined points in the second half. But the manner in which this game unfolded – Dak Prescott returning to form, the Dallas defense shutting the Eagles out of the endzone in the second half – offered real hope for the season after a week that seemingly extinguished all of it.
It was a peculiar game through and through, too.
The opening kickoff featured an Eagles player, fullback Ben VanSumeren, suffering an injury that required him to be carted off. As that happened, Eagles star defensive tackle Jalen Carter got ejected after spitting on Prescott. The Philadelphia defense lost its best player before they’d even played a down.
That prompted a hot start from Prescott and the Cowboys offense in their first real showing with Brian Schottenheimer calling plays. And boy did the offense look good, too. There was pre-snap motion, play-action, jet sweep motion with KaVontae Turpin, and some really, really strong running from Javonte Williams.
Before long, Williams had two rushing touchdowns, and the Cowboys were up 17-14 with just over two minutes left in the half. A touchdown run from Saquon Barkley put the Eagles back up, but Prescott made just enough plays to get in range for another Brandon Aubrey field goal, cutting it to a 21-20 halftime score.
The problem in the first half had been defense, and that went both ways. The Eagles couldn’t stop Prescott, but Matt Eberflus’ unit was also struggling. There was hardly any pass rush, and Jalen Hurts was running all over the place. He and Barkley helped rack up 100+ rushing yards in just the first half.
Something clicked, though. The defense tightened up in the second half, making a big stop on third down to limit Philadelphia to a 58-yard field goal from Jake Elliott on their opening drive of the third quarter. It felt as if things were starting to shift in the Cowboys’ favor.
That feeling was intensified when Miles Sanders, a former Eagle, broke off a 49-yard run to flip the field. Suddenly, the Cowboys were just 11 yards out from taking the lead. Then, more strange things happened. An unnecessary roughness penalty on George Pickens backed them up, an unnecessary roughness penalty on the Eagles moved them forward, and then Sanders lost the ball.
The Eagles recovered that fumble, and a gutsy diving tackle from Prescott prevented a touchdown return, but the drive had been killed. And just to make things even more peculiar, lightning started to strike nearby, and the game went into a rain delay that lasted just over an hour.
When the teams finally came back out, the Cowboys defense was playing on another level. They held Barkley to -1 rushing yard the rest of the way on seven carries, and Hurts was constantly under duress. The Eagles never even reached Dallas territory from then on, and the only drive they didn’t punt on was the final drive that saw them take a knee.
The problem was the offense took a step back, notably star receiver CeeDee Lamb. All told, Lamb had four drops throughout the night, with two huge ones on the final offensive possession for Dallas. The first was a deep shot that Prescott dropped that was right into his hands, one that would have set the Cowboys up right outside the red zone, but Lamb couldn’t corral it.
The second one came on fourth down, and was a bit more difficult to catch. Lamb had a step on his man, and Prescott lofted it up for him, but Lamb had to fully extend to get his hands on the ball. Ultimately, he was unable to bring it in, but it’s the kind of catch that a player of Lamb’s caliber should be making, especially in that situation.
The game was far from perfect, but there were notable positives to take out of this one. Prescott didn’t look like someone who needed preseason reps, Lamb was electric outside of those drops in big moments, the run game actually averaged more per carry than the Eagles, and the defense proved it has some juice. The Cowboys were also the more disciplined team, drawing just four penalties compared to Philadelphia’s nine.
There was a lot going on in this game, and it will be remembered for many things, but Schottenheimer’s debut as a head coach was certainly promising. It’s a tough one to lose, but the fact that Dallas was even in it as the two minute warning arrived is better than nearly anyone expected. If the Cowboys play this way every single week, they’re going to win plenty of games.
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