Iggles Blitz

by Tommy Lawlor

Game Review – PHI 24, DAL 20

Posted September 9th, 2025 | No Comments »

Season openers can be some strange games. That certainly was the case when Dallas came to town last Thursday to take on the Eagles. The opening kickoff featured a season-ending injury to Ben VanSumeren. While he was being tended to, Jalen Carter spit on Dak Prescott and was ejected from the game without playing a single snap. The first thought in my head was “What a disastrous start.”

Then we had an entertaining game for a couple of hours. Mother Nature decided to steal the show and severe thunderstorms led to a one-hour delay. We got about an hour of good defense after that, with the Eagles hanging on for a tight win.

You never want to make too much of a season opener. The SB teams of 2017 and 2024 both won their openers. But so did the 4-win team of 2012. The Eagles looked very good at times against the Cowboys and also looked vulnerable. The big takeaway for me is that they found a way to win without their A-game, and in strange circumstances. Nick Sirianni talked about the importance of finding ways to win early in the season when teams are still figuring things out. You want to play your best football late in the season so some sloppiness early on isn’t the end of the world.

I do think we need to make sure to give Dallas credit. They played pretty well. Dak Prescott showed what a good QB he can be, with his ability to make throws down the field and also to get the ball out quickly when needed. The defense really battled. Overall they seemed like a better-coached team than last year.

COACHING

Sirianni didn’t have a lot of tough decisions in this game. There was a fourth down near midfield late in the game. Sirianni punted despite many fans/media calling for him to go for it. I was fine with the decision. Dan Campbell is a very aggressive fourth down coach. But it feels like he goes for it too much at times. Sirianni makes decisions based on data and feel. The Eagles offense had struggled in the fourth quarter. There was a backup in at LG. The Dallas offense was struggling. Sirianni decided to trust his defense and it worked out.

The Eagles had a crazy number of penalties, 9-110. The players might have been too fired up. Sirianni did get them to settle down after halftime. Still, the penalties really were a big help to Dallas. This problem needs to be cleaned up.

Kevin Patullo won his first game as offensive coordinator. He made some good calls and the offense scored 21 points in the first half. There were also some issues. AJ Brown only finished with one catch/one target. There were plays designed for him, but he wasn’t getting open. The run game was good early on. Dallas didn’t fear Brown and loaded the box in the second half. The Eagles struggled. They also used 2 and 3 TE sets more than they probably should have. Grant Calcaterra struggled as a blocker. Patullo and Stoutland seemed a bit stubborn with the run game, especially after the delay.

Vic Fangio couldn’t come up with answers for most of the first half. Dallas scored 20 points. Fangio made some adjustments as the game went along and the defense was better in the second half. It may have been the players knocking off rust as much as anything schematically.

The coach of the game was Michael Clay. His STs unit was outstanding. Dallas is very good on STs, but the Eagles were better on Thursday and this is a big reason they won the game.

OFFENSE

Jalen Hurts didn’t put up gaudy numbers, but he was efficient and clutch. He was 19 of 23 as a passer. Jimmy Bama pointed out that 3 of the 4 incompletions were throwaways and the other was a drop. That’s pretty impressive. Hurts best throw was a downfield strike to Jahan Dotson for 51 yards. The rest of the game was checkdown city, which is fine if that’s working. Dallas was almost purely a man team last season. They were a zone team last Thursday. Hurts got the ball to his TEs and RBs and kept the chains moving.

The real key to his success was his legs. He was 14-62 on the ground, with a pair of TDs and some key third down runs. The play that sealed the game was a third down run. Hurts dropped back and if he didn’t see something he liked, but did have room, he took off. That’s smart. No need to force things. He was only sacked once and generally made smart decisions.

Saquon Barkley started hot. I think he was 11-61 at one point. Barkley finished the game 18-60. You don’t have to be a math whiz to figure out that Dallas shut down the run game. It was a combination of loaded boxes and poor blocking. Barkley did have 4 catches for 24 yards. Will Shipley was 3-26 as a runner and looked good. Unfortunately he suffered a rib injury and only played 5 snaps. AJ Dillon was 3-10 as a runner, with one impressive run up the middle. The Eagles finished with 158 yards on the ground, but give the Cowboys credit for making them tough yards.

AJ Brown finished 1-8. His catch did set up a short third down that Hurts converted to win the game. Give him credit for coming through in a key situation. Brown was not getting open. Was he healthy? Was he rusty? DeVonta Smith finished 3-16. He did block well in the run game. Dotson was 3-59 and had a good showing.

Dallas Goedert led the team with 7 catches. He only totaled 44 yards and none of the grabs went for more than 9 yards. None of the Eagles were getting RAC yards. Grant Calcaterra had a couple of okay blocks, but was awful at other times. He is so frustrating. No targets. Kylen Granson played TE and FB. He finished with 1 catch.

The Eagles OL was disappointing. I don’t know if they were out of sync since guys missed time this summer or maybe Dallas played better than expected. Landon Dickerson started well, but his back started acting up and they had to replace him with Brett Toth.The rain delay didn’t do Dickerson or his back any favors. Cam Jurgens got beat a couple of times. Same for Jordan Mailata. He played pretty well overall, but rushers got by him on a couple of key plays. I thought Tyler Steen played pretty well and Lane Johnson was his usual outstanding self.

The OL was at its best early in the game.

DEFENSE

The run defense was confusing. Watching live, I thought the Eagles had problems. Dallas finished 22-119, including a 49-yard run. Take that out and they were 21-70. But Fangio said in his PC the run defense needed to tighten up. The pass defense struggled with CeeDee Lamb for most of the game. Lamb got the best of everyone trying to cover him. He finished 7-110 and drew at least one penalty.

The Eagles didn’t have a sack so it would be easy to think the edge rushers played poorly. Nolan Smith didn’t jump out at me live, but looked better when I re-watched the game. He finished with 4 tackles. He had a nice TFL nullified by a taunting penalty that was a ridiculous call. He was more disruptive than his numbers would indicate. Jalyx Hunt just missed 2 sacks. He was inches away from a strip sack, but that ended in a big play. Ugh. Hunt had 3 tackles and a TFL. Josh Uche was the rusher who flashed the most. He played both side and used a hard inside move to beat both OTs. The stat sheet doesn’t show anything, but the game tape does.

With Carter spitting his way out of the game, who would step up? Moro Ojomo made the most sense. He was a bit disappointing. He had 1 tackle and was credited with the only official QB hit. To be fair, Ojomo got double-teamed a lot. He battled his butt off, but struggled to beat the doubles. Jordan Davis had the best game of his career. He had 6 tackles, a TFL, a PD and just missed 2 sacks.

Davis wasn’t alone. Byron Young had the best game of his young career. The stat sheet only shows 1 tackle. He drew a holding call. He almost picked off a deflected pass. He helped strip RB Miles Sanders. That’s good impact from a backup DT. Really impressed. He played hard and brought good energy. Gabe Hall didn’t do much and was cut from the roster on Tuesday.

Zach Baun was the star of the show. He led the team with 9 tackles, added a TFL and an impressive PD. Baun was all over the field. Every time you looked up he was making the tackle or just beside the guy who did. Baun is so much fun to watch. And now he’s got a partner who is as gifted as him. Rookie Jihad Campbell got the start. He had 3 tackles, a PD and a FF. The strip stopped Dallas in the red zone. The PD was impressive.

Not all ILBs can run down the middle and breakup a pass to the TE. That kind of range is impressive, especially for a rookie who can also play the run is tough and physical. Campbell is going to be a lot of fun to watch.

Reed Blankenship was solid. He finished with 3 tackles. He was called for a penalty on a hit in the endzone. Tough call. The receiver was going down when Blankenship hit him and that drew the flag. He flew around the deep middle on a few plays. He didn’t break up any passes, but I’m sure the receivers were aware of him. Blankenship got blown up by an OT on Sanders long run. Big hit. Sydney Brown and Drew Mukuba split snaps. Brown played in base looks, Mukuba in the nickel. Brown didn’t stand out, but I didn’t see any issues either. Mukuba did flash at times. He finished with 4 tackles. There were some coverage problems.

I was impressed with his willingness to come down to the LOS and play the run. I was disappointed in his deep coverage. I’m guessing that’s what Fangio was talking about.

Quinyon Mitchell played pretty well. He had 4 tackles, a PD and he recovered the fumble. If Dak didn’t make an impressive tackle, Q would have taken that back for a TD. Q had a chance to seal the game with a late INT, but couldn’t make the grab. Ugh. He was called for PI early in the game. Adoree Jackson got lit up early on. He finished with 7 tackles because the ball kept coming his way. He played soft and then had to tackle the receiver. He did break up one pass. Jackson had an awful tackle attempt on Sanders long run.

Cooper DeJean had 5 tackles and a PD. He didn’t make any splash plays. He did a solid job on Lamb. DeJean did tackle well.

ST

Punter Braden Mann was the hidden star of the game. He averaged 48.7 yards per punt. 2 of the 3 were inside the 20. None of them got returned. Kevontae Turpin is arguably the best returner in the league. Holding him to zero yards is incredibly impressive.

Jake Elliott nailed a 58-yard FG. He also did a good job on his kickoffs. The coverage units were outstanding. They limited Dallas to 101 yards on 5 KOs. John Metchie, Josh Uche and Jeremiah Trotter all caught my eye.

Jahan Dotson fair caught both punts that came his way. The KORs weren’t good. Shipley had one for 12 yards and Metchie had one for 20 yards.

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