Another soap opera-esque offseason is behind the Dallas Cowboys, one filled with plenty of tangible personnel changes through the roster and coaching staff as well, and it is time to play some real football! The Cowboys and Philadelphia Eagles will get the 2025 season underway tonight, putting the Cowboys in the incredibly familiar spotlight of a primetime, standalone game, but with a first time head coach making his debut. Brian Schottenheimer and his retooled roster that includes George Pickens, 12th overall pick Tyler Booker, Javontae Williams, and Kenny Clark will go up against the defending Super Bowl champion Eagles led by Nick Sirianni.
Have these changes for the Cowboys put them in a position to better compete, at least within the NFC East? The NFL is expecting drama no matter how this division unfolds this season, with all four teams – the Eagles, conference finalist Commanders, new-look Giants, and of course the Cowboys – being featured heavily on primetime throughout the year. Dallas would love nothing more than to make the first statement they are here to have a say in keeping a streak of 20 consecutive seasons without a repeat winner in the East alive, with their first win over the Eagles since December of 2023.
While it was the Cowboys who were forced to come out of their shell and get busy this offseason reworking a team that will have a new offensive and defensive play-caller on the sidelines tonight, the Eagles, by way of being defending champs. are simply looking for sustainability. While this is much easier said than done in today’s pro football, their depth chart is littered with familiar faces of Pro Bowl-level talent that can give the Cowboys trouble. Early season defensive struggles, season-long struggles against the run, and inefficiency in creating big plays through the air are all things that have plagued the Cowboys in recent seasons, and three immediate areas the Eagles will present a stiff challenge with Jalen Hurts, Saquon Barkley, and a Vic Fangio coordinated defense.
As the biggest betting underdog in the entire league for week one, what is the single biggest key to the Cowboys scoring an upset that would spoil championship celebration night for the Eagles?
On the flip side, what will be the most alarming thing the Eagles could do against the Cowboys to seize control of this game and put early doubt into Dallas’ chances to compete? This will be a weekly series we do before each and every Dallas Cowboys game this season, so let’s start with how they get to the outcome that will make waiting all day for Sunday Thursday night worth it!
The Dallas Cowboys will start 1-0 if….
Photo by Tim Nwachukwu/Getty Images
They crack the Vic Fangio code on offense
Remember when Vic Fangio was an outcast coordinator after one season with the Miami Dolphins in 2023, when Miami finished 22nd in points allowed per game and talks of him not being able to connect with players or said players picking up the scheme ran wild?
We don’t either.
Not only did that particular Dolphins team hold Mike McCarthy’s Cowboys to 20 points in a Dallas loss that season, but after moving on, Fangio joined the Eagles as defensive coordinator and led them to the Super Bowl with two more regular season wins against the Cowboys. Granted, both of last season’s games were against Cooper Rush at quarterback, but Fangio defenses getting the better of McCarthy’s – even with Dak Prescott – was a regular enough occurrence for it to be a talking point over McCarthy’s tenure.
The Cowboys’ static approach and insistence on spreading their best play makers out wide without much motion regularly played right into the hands of Fangio’s “umbrella” style defense. The lifeblood of this defense is getting to their spots in coverage quickly and efficiently, and if an offense is going to line up pre-snap already spread to the areas the routes are called, they are playing into the trap. Now with coach Schottenheimer calling plays, the Cowboys feel they have their schematic answer in this way. Since day one, Schottenheimer has said all encouraging things about motions, split cuts, condensed formations, and marriage between run and pass looks. Putting it on the line to try and beat a DC his predecessor could not for a coaching debut on Sunday Night Football is as fun of a storyline in this game as any, even if it won’t get the most publicity.
As early as May, it was this game within the game that served as the earliest actual result Cowboys fans would have to judge Schottenheimer on:
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.
The Cowboys’ 1-2 record in the preseason did not exactly offer any early insight into how this matchup might play out. The final win against the Falcons at home was the most promising on both sides of the ball, but for the most part under so many new coaches, the Cowboys stuck to their ways of keeping even remotely important players on ice. To pull off tonight’s upset, the Cowboys will likely need big plays from all three of CeeDee Lamb, George Pickens, and Jake Ferguson at tight end, none of which played a single snap this preseason.
They will obviously need Prescott to look leaps and bounds better than Joe Milton or Will Grier did in the preseason as well, and have promising pieces inserting into the lineup up front to expect just that. Booker will slide into the starting right guard role as the team’s latest first-round pick to the offensive line, while last year’s first-round pick Tyler Guyton is ready to go at left tackle. Elsewhere, Dallas will be looking for more of the same from Tyler Smith, a year two jump at center from Cooper Beebe, and consistency from Terence Steele at right tackle.
The three teams that beat the Eagles and Fangio last season (Falcons, Buccaneers, Commanders) all rushed for over 100 yards and did a good job keeping their quarterbacks upright. It is not just a cliché to say this game could be won or lost in the trenches for the Cowboys, another area Schottenheimer has been eager to take the fight to with the desire for a more physical team up front. Even if every Cowboys drive isn’t ending in a touchdown, they need to avoid long passing situations that lead to low percentage throws and short time of possession drives.
The offense that played the Eagles’ defense the best last postseason was the Los Angeles Rams, called by Sean McVay. The Rams’ 291 total yards and 111 on the ground surpassed the Packers in the previous round, and Commanders and Chiefs in the NFC Championship and Super Bowl. Just like they will be tonight, NBC’s Mike Tirico and Chris Collinsworth were on the call for this Rams-Eagles Divisional game, with Collinsworth even calling this late fourth quarter touchdown from Matt Stafford to Colby Parkinson a “code breaker”. The Rams couldn’t fully break the code of beating the Eagles on their home field in the snow, nor could the Commanders or Chiefs in the Super Bowl, and now this next opportunity belongs to Schottenheimer and the Cowboys.
While it will take some time for any team to eat, sleep, and breathe that style of offense with motions and pre-snap reads on a weekly basis better than the Rams, the Cowboys have at least talked the talk about being closer to this style of modern offense this offseason. In only a matter of hours, it will be time to walk the walk and try and score a victory few expect them to get on the road. If successful, the Cowboys will end a ten-game home winning streak by the Eagles that includes last years playoff run.
The Dallas Cowboys will start 0-1 if…
The secondary isn’t ready to win one on one matchups
The more juicy talking point ahead of this national broadcast will be if the Cowboys can defend the run, given their perpetual struggles here and drawing Barkley, Hurts, and a massive Eagles offensive line out of the gate. The Eagles leaned on Barkley to take the path of least resistance through a dominant 41-7 win at home against the Cowboys last season, but this was late in the year against a Dallas team already eliminated from playoff contention. Barkley had 31 carries for 167 yards, but in eight previous tries, Barkley failed to eclipse 100 yards against the Cowboys, mostly as a member of the New York Giants of course.
It also feels distinctly possible the Cowboys will be aggressive in their own passing game early and often, in an effort to do everything they can to dissuade the Eagles from keeping it on the ground all night.
The Cowboys have plenty of new names in the front seven they can commit to stopping the run, so much so that it’s hard to imagine the Eagles just imposing their will this way to grind out an easy victory. Ideally, Dallas will get solid run defense from a defensive front that now includes Kenny Clark in the middle. They also have linebackers Kenneth Murray, Marist Liufau, and Jack Sanborn, and if needed, safeties Donovan Wilson and Markquese Bell can all come down to play the run. Playing to not let Barkley beat them is on the table for the Cowboys should they choose to do so, but it won’t come without a cost in an already questionable secondary.
While Dallas has gotten some of the best possible news in the secondary leading up to this game, with cornerback Trevon Diggs expected to play along with the newly re-signed DaRon Bland, they still have concerns on the backend. Kair Elam is far from a sure thing as a regular starter, but expects to be thrown out there early by the team that traded for the former first-round pick early this offseason.
The Eagles’ best form of ball control in this game may not be pounding the rock between the tackles. Surprisingly, it may actually be using the run game just enough to draw the attention of the Cowboys’ defense, and create very high percentage throws for A.J. Brown and Devonta Smith. Brown is a big, physical receiver at the catch point, a trait to neutralize one of the things Bland and Diggs do best, which is to contest 50/50 throws. Smith, with his quickness, can create easy separation. If the Cowboys can’t create sacks (living in a post Micah Parsons world with their pass rush) and negative plays, the Eagles offense has a great chance to stay painfully on schedule all night.
Hurts will take what the defense gives him, execute in short yardage in ways only the Eagles know how, and put an insurmountable amount of pressure on the Cowboys offense to not only score but score quickly for 60 minutes. This could easily be a recipe for a frustrating, long night for Cowboys fans hoping to see their team prove a lot of doubters wrong and start off 1-0 for the third season in a row.
Which path do you see as most likely for the Cowboys against the Eagles in week one? Let us know in the comments leading up to kickoff!
0 CommentsSee More:
