AT&T Stadium (Arlington, Texas) – What a game on Sunday, one that saw the Dallas Cowboys beat the reigning-champion Philadelphia Eagles to get back to .500.
Dallas beat the Philadelphia Eagles 24-21 on a Brandon Aubrey field goal as time expired. The Cowboys have won back-to-back games, and it looks like their playoff hopes are alive.
Here are my takeaways:
1. Two very different games in one
Midway through the second quarter, this looked like a “Hey, the Eagles look like the defending Super Bowl champs” kind of story to write, up 21-0 and cruising against the Cowboys.
Then, it was a very different rest of the game. The Cowboys defense that couldn’t stop anything, it shut the Eagles out the rest of the way.
This matches the largest comeback in Cowboys history – they’ve been 21 points down and won three times before, most recently in 2014 – but this was against the defending-champion Eagles. A huge win, all around.
It was just a massive game for quarterback Dak Prescott to lead his team back with 354 yards, two passing touchdowns, another rushing, and so many clutch throws in the second half to wide receivers CeeDee Lamb and George Pickens.
Brandon Aubrey sinks 42-yard FG to complete Cowboys’ EPIC comeback win against Eagles | NFL Highlights
The Cowboys are still very much on the outside looking in. Their playoff chances were about 8% going into the game per The Athletic, and are only at 14% now. A win like this, though, makes them a team people will watch until they lose again.
The Eagles? They’re a wobbly defending champ. Is it the amazing defense of the last two weeks and the first half Sunday, or the one that couldn’t get a stop against Dallas in the second half?
Philadelphia only has only three losses, but this was a bad one to a team with one of the worst defenses in the NFL coming in.
2. So many self-inflicted mistakes for the Cowboys
Dallas hasn’t been a great team at any point, but it has shown enough flashes to be frustrating when it takes itself out of games. The first half was brutal that way – a defensive stop, but a roughing the punter, then a third-down incompletion, all for an offsides penalty to lead to a first down.
The Cowboys barely avoided a fumble when CeeDee Lamb was correctly ruled down, and on the very next play, wide receiver KaVontae Turpin fumbled all by himself, unforced, as he lost his footing.
First-and-goal at the one? A chance to beat the Eagles at what they do best. But they were stuffed for no gain, then a false start, then a Dak Prescott interception in the end zone. However annoying the tush push is, it’s really reliable, and the Cowboys aren’t. In goal-to-go opportunities, they came into Sunday scoring touchdowns just 67% of the time, 27th in the NFL, while the Eagles rank second.
Even Brandon Aubrey was mortal Sunday – he’d been 18-for-19 on field goals, his only miss coming on a 68-yarder most franchises have never even attempted. But a 51-yarder – a chip shot in his world – went wide left in the third quarter.
3. Getting A.J. Brown back in the picture is huge
The Jalen Hurts-Brown drama has yielded headline after headline this season – the easy centerpiece of a lot of “What’s wrong with the offense?” thinkpieces. So, the concerted effort to get Brown involved early, with a touchdown and five catches in the first quarter alone, was smart play-calling, both from an on-field and off-field standpoint.
Hurts hasn’t been a “wow” quarterback this year, but he went into Sunday’s game with 16 passing touchdowns to just one interception, a remarkable feat given how important he is to Philadelphia’s offense. Add in six rushing touchdowns, and he’s probably taken more heat than he deserved on a defending champ with only two losses after 12 weeks.
Jalen Hurts finds A.J. Brown for 16-yard TD, giving Eagles lead over Cowboys | NFL Highlights
4. Just take the field goal, people
Maybe the NFL is a little too confident in going for it on fourth down all the time. The Cowboys missed on two shots from the one-yard line late in the fourth quarter, and Brian Schottenheimer decided to go for it on fourth-and-goal from the 1, when a chip-shot field goal would have given him the lead with 3:38 left in the game.
How hard is that? Your defense had held the Eagles in check – scoreless – for the entire second half, so you’d have to feel good about being able to keep them from a touchdown in the final three minutes, right? I get that you’re one yard away from having a touchdown lead, but it isn’t a sure thing the way a short field goal is.
Maybe there’s just a little too much confidence. There was a simple path to the lead with three minutes left in a game in which you’d trailed by 21 points. They didn’t have that, and it seemed like the wrong call before they had gone for it.
4 ½. What’s next?
As the NFL expands into all days in all weeks, it’s actually a really strong matchup to have the Eagles hosting the Bears on Friday.
It’s an all-eyes platform for a potential playoff preview with Chicago, which has won seven of eight and leads the NFC North. The Eagles, meanwhile, continue a nasty gauntlet that has already seen them hold two of the division’s best teams (Lions and Packers) to less than 10 points each. Do it to Chicago, and everybody will be writing about Vic Fangio’s defense.
Greg Auman is an NFL Reporter for FOX Sports. He previously spent a decade covering the Buccaneers for the Tampa Bay Times and The Athletic. You can follow him on Twitter at @gregauman.
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