Well hello there. I’m Dave Mangels from Bleeding Green Nation. No, I didn’t get lost. As many already know, this week across SB Nation we are having writers cross enemy lines. RJ Ochoa, who is secretly, or maybe not so secretly an Eagles fan, came over to BGN, and Brandon Gowton popped over here.
Then on Thursday David Halprin came over to our turf and wrote about 4 things the Eagles should do to beat the Cowboys. Turnabout is fair play, so we sent our Dave–hey wait, that’s me–to highlight 4 things the Cowboys should do to beat the Eagles.
The Eagles are due a loss. A bad loss. They’ve been outgained in eight of their games. The biggest plays AJ Brown has made this year have been on social media. The head vibes coach has seen two players retire shortly after joining the team, and they dragged another guy out of retirement to help the locker room vibes. Two weeks ago in a close prime time game they pooped their pants in late game management, and then the next week they did it again. Things are going great.
The Cowboys can win this game. Everyone the Eagles have faced can beat them. Every game that the Eagles have played this season that wasn’t against the Giants has been a one score game.
Play with pace
Despite having a Goliath team, the Eagles play a David strategy of shortening the game. Every Eagles drive feels like they’re trying to kill the clock with a 4 point lead at the end of the game. The Eagles are 25th in plays per drive, and 22nd in points per drive. The coaches have made a conscious choice to play as few plays as possible despite having a talent advantage. A team with the offensive firepower that the Eagles have should be playing at a higher pace and creating more, not fewer, opportunities.
The Cowboys can’t do anything to make the Eagles offense play at tempo. But if the Cowboys offense plays with tempo all game long, they can create an extra possession, and that could be the difference.
Dallas is 10th in plays per drive, and 4th in points per drive, so increasing the pace wouldn’t take the Cowboys out of their comfort zone, but it could take the Eagles out of theirs. Though they did come back from a 19 point deficit against the Rams in Week 3, the Eagles aren’t really built or perform like a team that can get hot in a hurry late.
And yes, the Eagles defense has played better over the last two weeks, but it also has spent most of the game on the sidelines, the Packers and Lions averaged 26:03 in time of possession. They have also had some luck. Detroit had 13 possessions, three of their five failed fourth down attempts were in Eagles territory.
The Eagles have been great at not giving the opposition the ball via turnover, but they’ve been as bad as any team we have seen in over a decade at giving the ball right back via punt.
The Eagles have been outgained in six of their eight wins so far. That rate can’t keep up.
Don’t worry about AJ Brown
Maybe he is playing through injury, maybe he’s washed, or maybe he’s just pouting all game long. Whatever the reason, AJ Brown is having a miserable season and there hasn’t been much reason to think it’s suddenly going to turn around. Last week Jalen Hurts force fed him 11 targets and he caught 7 of them but for just 49 yards. 5 of those catches were for either 2 yards or less on 1st down, or resulted in a 3rd down of 4 yards or longer. And that was the sixth game this season that Brown had 8+ targets, he averages 3.8 receptions for 52.5 yards and has just one TD.
The Eagles offense is already taking care of stopping AJ Brown.
Don’t blitz
The Eagles are the 2nd most blitzed offense, per Pro Football Reference. There isn’t much to gain from blitzing more. With future Hall of Famer Lane Johnson replaced by 15 starts in 7 years Fred Johnson, getting pressure while only sending four just got a lot easier. So the Cowboys should go the opposite way on Sunday. Drop seven early and often.
Jalen Hurts has the longest time to throw among qualified QBs, and with it the Eagles passing attack has been pretty one dimensional. As just noted, AJ Brown isn’t threatening defenses. Dallas Goedert does have 7 TDs, 3rd most in the league so far this season, but he also has just one game with more than 44 yards.
Another reason not to blitz is that in Week 1 Jalen Hurts tore the Cowboys defense apart on scrambles, 6 of them resulted in 2 touchdowns, 2 first downs, and 2 others picked up at least five yards on first down. Blitzing just gives him room to run. Take away that option and the Eagles offense can stall.
Take the refs out of the game
(Not literally, though I think we can all agree that would be fun.)
Like many, I was impressed that Brian Schottenheimer benched his star WRs to start a prime time game. Most coaches would just ask their players nicely to not do that again.
The Cowboys would be wise to tap into more discipline on Sunday. On a per game and play basis the Eagles have the sixth worse benefit/against ratio. A positive ratio doesn’t guarantee anything, the Bengals have one of the best ratios. But don’t beat yourself, games are lost as much as they are won. The Cowboys are middle of the pack, 16th. Dallas has the 7th most pre-snap penalties per game, 9th per play. It is much easier said than done to play a clean game with the refs, but the Cowboys need to stack as many advantages, however small they may be. Referees don’t lose you games, they put you in a position to lose games. Don’t give them, and the Eagles, those opportunities.
Sorry, but I can’t end this on a pro-Cowboys note. But I’ll be nice about it. I hope Jerry Jones, whose team has won fewer playoff games since 1995 than the Jacksonville Jaguars, lives forever. Keep up the great work Jerry.
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