(photo with Devonta Smith, AJ Brown, and Olamide Zaccheaus)
The Eagles survived a late scare from the Dallas Cowboys and managed to hold on to a 28-23 victory. The win is the biggest of the season by far, as the Eagles are the only team to have an 8-1 record in the entire NFL and have a 1.5-game lead over the entire NFC. The Eagles will enjoy their bye week this week, as they all were dropping like flies. Hurts, Slay, Bradberry, Cox, Reddick, and Goedert (who is out for a month) all went down with minor injuries at some point in the game yesterday with most able to return.
There is always a different edge around Philadelphia the week the Cowboys come to town. The Eagles were coming off 2 straight wins by beating the Dolphins significantly and coming from behind to beat the Commanders. The Cowboys also came in with two straight wins after defeating both LA teams in the Chargers and Rams. The Eagles would kick off with the sun setting at 4:25 EST. The Eagles got off to a very fast start, making the Cowboys go three and out. They then went on a 13-play drive with two 4th down conversions with Kenneth Gainwell getting in for six, to put the Eagles up early.
Dallas responded with a touchdown from Dak Prescott connecting with Jake Ferguson. The Cowboys scored once more to make it 14-7, with KaVontae Turpin this time being on the receiving end of a Dak Prescott touchdown pass. The Eagles responded with another long drive and were able to once more push Jalen Hurts across the goal line. The Cowboys got 3 points before the half to be 3 points ahead going into halftime. The Eagles responded and came out on fire to start the 2nd half, with the Eagles scoring twice to make it 28-17. However one of these drives would come at a cost with Dallas Goedert fracturing his forearm, which is expected to cost him a month of the season. This means he will miss critical games against the Chiefs, 49ers, and Bills.
The Cowboys started the 4th quarter and were stopped inches short of the endzone with the Eagles’ defense being able to hold them. The Eagles were then forced to punt and the Cowboys would march right back down the field and score. However, the Cowboys were stopped as they went for two with Dak Prescott stepping out of bounds before breaking the plane. The Eagles would fail to score again and would once more stop the Cowboys. The Eagles, however, would not ice the game. Narrowly averting disaster with AJ Brown accidentally trucking his own teammate D’Andre Swift caused Swift to fall on his own fumble. The Cowboys would get the ball back deep in their own territory. They were able to get all the way to midfield in one play with Dak Prescott’s underthrown ball leading to pass interference on James Bradberry who would go down hurt on the play.
The Eagles would continue to shoot themselves in the foot as a roughing the passer would put them 15 yards further downfield. One play later and all of a sudden the Cowboys were at the 11-yard line. Thankfully, the Eagles got home with Josh Sweat sending them back 11 yards to the 22. After getting pushed back 5 more yards on a false start, the Cowboys would come up 2 yards short with Cee-Dee Lamb making the catch at the 2-yard line before being stopped and fumbling the ball away as time expired for the Eagles to just barely hang on.
After a wild game, the Eagles felt relief to hang on to the win and pride to stay strong
despite Dallas coming so close at the end. “What an incredible win and an incredible sense of
perseverance and resilience from this team,” Jalen Hurts said about the win. “The last
drive was crazy,” Darius Slay said. “My thought process is if he catches it, you have to tackle him, knowing they had no time left. We did a great job getting him down and got the dub.”
The Eagles will get a well-earned bye week. After this week, the Eagles will continue the toughest stretch any team in the NFL will have all season, where they will play the Chiefs, Niners, Bills, and Seahawks in the coming weeks. Tight end Dallas Goedert is expected to be back for the trip to Seattle.