Dallas Cowboys head coach Brian Schottenheimer is trying to avoid something that happened in his predecessor’s first season of 2020. At the start of the Mike McCarthy era, it took until Weeks 14 at the Bengals and the next week versus the 49ers to win consecutive games for the first time in that 6-10 season that fell short of the playoffs. Schotty’s Cowboys are coming off an emotional Monday night win at the Raiders, earning yet another chance to win back-to-back games going into an all-important Week 12 rematch with the Eagles.
Schottenheimer’s head coaching debut was against the Eagles in this season’s kickoff game, a loss that felt like an early moral victory at the time of the year where such a thing still exists. As September turned to October, and now November into the dawn of December though, the Cowboys have yet to break the pattern that week one game started which is to lose a disappointing game, follow it with a win or tie, and rinse and repeat. The only win/loss streak they’ve had were the two straight losses before the bye week that, even after beating the Raiders, leaves them as longshots to make a late playoff push. Coach Schottenheimer can still win on Thanksgiving Day against the Chiefs and on the following Sunday night at the Lions to win back-to-back for the first time sooner than McCarthy, but the opportunity that’s in front them, coming off the bye and looking rejuvenated, is one that can’t be passed up.
The Cowboys have won six of their last seven at home against the Eagles, and seven of the last nine. They had more first downs, yards, a better third-down conversion rate, didn’t allow a sack, and averaged more yards per carry than the Eagles in their four point loss in week one. A Miles Sanders red zone fumble that saw the Cowboys come up empty trailing by four, and then two out-of-character CeeDee Lamb drops still trailing by four on the final drive closed the door on the Cowboys pulling off a week one upset, losing 24-20.
Philadelphia has had continued success in close, lower-scoring games from this point on to remain in control of the NFC East. They won a Super Bowl rematch in week two 20-17 at the Chiefs. Coming into this matchup in Arlington, they are on a two-game winning streak 10-7 at the Packers, and most recently 16-9 on Sunday night versus the Lions. There are teams being labeled as “winning ugly” in the NFL right now like the Broncos, and those that are just comfortable winning in any way, shape, or form. The latter describes an Eagles team looking to sweep the Cowboys for the second season in a row, which would be the first instance of this happening since 2001-02. The Eagles won six straight against the Cowboys beyond this stretch, their second-longest winning streak in series history. The Cowboys’ longest winning streak against the Eagles is a remarkable 11 games between December of 1967 and November of 1972. All but one of these wins were by more than one score, and the same is true of four of the last five Cowboys AT&T Stadium wins against the Eagles coming into Sunday.
The Cowboys will be hoping to take a page out of the Eagles’ roster-building playbook to split the season series in this game. In week one, the additions of Kenny Clark and Solomon Thomas at defensive tackle paid off right away against Saquon Barkley. Now, Dallas is even better at DT thanks to Quinnen Williams. The Cowboys still gave up touchdowns the first three times the Eagles touched the ball, one to Barkley, but the other two were Jalen Hurts hurting them with his legs which was a theme of the night. Hurts’ 62 rushing yards against the Cowboys are still tied for his season high with 62 against the Buccaneers as well. The Cowboys made adjustments after a weather delay in the week one game, getting even stingier on the defensive interior, and blitzing from the secondary against Hurts to keep him in the pocket. His 82.6% completion percentage is also tied for a season high Hurts matched against the Vikings in another Eagles win. This is where the Cowboys zone will be tested that had stronger numbers and cohesion against the Raiders with the additions of DeMarvion Overshown and Logan Wilson to the linebacker rotation.
Matt Eberflus’ defense being willing to adjust unfortunately did not last, as the Cowboys went into a major defensive lull following this game, and this unit has been the reason the team has not found any consistency overall in 2025. In their last game against the Raiders though, the Cowboys newest addition at defensive tackle, Quinnen Williams, started paying off immediately. Williams was on the field for 55% of the Cowboys’ defensive snaps in his debut. His 33 snaps saw a harsh split in pass/rush attempts by the Raiders, as Williams was out there for 29 pass attempts to only three runs. James Houston and Donovan Ezeiruaku both took advantage as Houston had a sack and the rookie Ezeiruaku had two tackles for a loss. In the season opener against the Eagles, it was Sam Williams and Marshawn Kneeland that led the Dallas defense in edge snaps, and the Cowboys had a hard time keeping contain.
The matchup for a defensive line that completely overwhelmed the Raiders offensive line gets a lot harder this week against the Eagles much stouter front, but the principle of earning the one-on-ones that led to a dominant push against the Raiders should remain the same. With the speed of Houston and Ezeiruaku to chase down outside the tackle runs, as well as the confidence the Cowboys can have in winning with four and dropping more numbers into zone coverage, the Cowboys can build on a lot of the things they did well in the loss to the Eagles.
On offense, the Cowboys also saw the pass offense come back to life against the Raiders, and will need it to continue against the Eagles. In his last five starts and wins at home against the Eagles, Dak Prescott has completed 74.6% of his passes for an average of 310 yards a game, thrown 12 touchdowns to four interceptions, and the Cowboys have scored at least 29 points in each win – and at least 40 in two of them. Dallas only scored 17 points and didn’t pass, rush, or block well in their last home game against the Cardinals, so getting that mojo back, especially to crack the Vic Fangio defense, would be a huge lift for a team that needs to start rattling off wins. The Cowboys will remain at home on a short week for Thanksgiving against the Chiefs, so seeing the fundamentals of their offense be strong enough to finish drives and score points like they were against the Raiders will be important but difficult to do against the Eagles.
Not only will Lamb be looking to have a bounce-back game against the Eagles specifically, but in a lesser sense the team’s WR1 saw George Pickens steal the show more against the Raiders last Monday night. Prescott still threw four touchdowns to four different receivers including Lamb, but keeping the Eagles defense guessing as to who will be featured more needs to be an edge the Cowboys have to avoid obvious passing situations. Lamb had 13 targets to just four for Pickens in week one.
All the parts the Cowboys need to win this game are in place, they will just need many of them to break right from opening kickoff to the end of the fourth quarter to knock off the defending champions. In a league where fortunes change on a dime, the Cowboys have spent more than a dime to try and resurrect this season and also build a brighter future under Schottenheimer. With home wins against the Giants and Commanders already, seeing Schottenheimer knock off the Eagles on Sunday afternoon would instantly flip the conversation around the Cowboys building for the future and shift to still making a push this season. Looming games against the Chargers and Vikings do not look as daunting after their week 11 losses, but the Cowboys win against the Raiders could also look very inconsequential with another loss to the Eagles. There are no moral victories available for this 4-5-1 team on Sunday, against an opponent that’s scored exactly 17 points in both losses this season. That number feels right where the Cowboys would welcome this game to be played, allowing them to stay multiple on offense and get in the high 20s to 30s it would take to win.
The Cowboys’ two “bad losses” this season to the Broncos and Cardinals in more decisive fashion being their most recent two have made it hard to fully buy back into this team even off a win, but they also have losses that were there for the taking at the Eagles and Panthers. The time to flip one of these types of games into a win has come against an opponent gaining confidence in their ability to win both low and high scoring games, but issues offensively a very new-look Cowboys defense can actually exploit.
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