Eagles Survive the Cowboys
Posted November 5th, 2023 | 2 Comments »Some games you win. Some games you lose. And other games you just survive. That’s what happened on Sunday. The Eagles survived the Cowboys. The last five minutes were a roller coaster of big plays and big mistakes. Thankfully the Eagles made a key play on the final drive and were able to hang on for the win.
The Eagles are 8-1. They just beat Dallas and now lead the NFC East by 2.5 games. Life is good.
But that final drive was torturous to watch. Dallas started at their own 14. A 36-yard PI penalty on James Bradberry moved them to midfield. There was a roughing penalty on Haason Reddick and an offside penalty on Jalen Carter. One completion by Dak Prescott and Dallas was down at the Eagles 6-yard line.
That is insane!
I thought the game was over. I just knew Dak would hit one of his TEs or CeeDee Lamb for the winning score. It was inevitable. This was going to be a legendary collapse by the Eagles. Instead of an all-time choke job the Cowboys said “hold my beer”.
They had a false start to move the ball back to the 11. Then Josh Sweat got into the backfield and sacked Prescott back at the 22. Another penalty on Dallas and they were back at the 27 for the final play. Prescott hit Lamb inside the 5, but the Eagles swarmed him and the game was over.
Survival.
Jalen Hurts had a good game, going 17-23-207. He threw for 2 TDs and ran for another. His throw to DeVonta Smith for a TD was a thing of beauty.
https://twitter.com/NFL/status/1721304857225945376
Hurts took a big shot on his knee in the first half and started to leave the game but stayed in. He ran when he had to, showing incredible toughness. That dude is a warrior and there is a reason his teammates love him the way they do.
Hurts spread the ball around. Four different players had catches for 20 or more yards. This wasn’t a game where AJ Brown got fed the ball over and over. Give Brian Johnson a lot of credit. I thought he called a good game. The Eagles had key plays in key moments and Hurts executed them perfectly.
The Eagles put up 28 points on the #4 scoring defense in the league. That’s impressive.
Things were more complicated for the Eagles defense. They gave up 17 points in the first half, but only six in the second half. They gave up 406 yards. They sacked Prescott 5 times and were credited with 10 QB hits. Bad. Good. Bad. Good. And that’s sure the way the game felt.
The Eagles held Dallas to 3 for 5 on fourth downs and 3 for 5 in the red zone. Those stops proved to be the difference in the game. Sean Desai has a lot to clean up with the Eagles pass coverage. Getting Bradley Roby healthy and more practice time for Kevin Byard will help. There are just too many coverage breakdowns. James Bradberry was great last year. He feels like a liability this season. His PI on the final drive almost caused my brain to explode.
Brandon Graham came up huge. He had 1.5 sacks on the next to last drive and that kept Dallas from scoring. BG also hustled on a 2-point try and forced Prescott out of bounds a foot before scoring. That turned out to be a critical play. If Dallas had cut the lead to 28-25, they would have been playing for a FG instead of a TD.
Give Dallas credit for playing well on offense. Prescott used his legs to help him buy time and extend pass plays. Dallas did some creative things on offense and found different ways to get the ball to Lamb.
JOSH FREAKING SWEAT!!! pic.twitter.com/1eGqWMx2Yv
— Shane Haff (@ShaneHaffNFL) November 6, 2023
Sweat got the sack, but Reddick got pressure from his side and that helped. Then you had Jalen Carter coming up the middle to make sure Prescott wasn’t escaping. Carter had a chance to knock the ball out, but didn’t see it. That would have been even better. The sack changed that drive. It ate up a lot of time and put Dallas in a spot where throwing into the end zone was a lot harder.
The Eagles pass rush was inconsistent, but it came up big late in the game.
There is an injury concern with Dallas Goedert. He landed hard on his forearm. Let’s hope that isn’t broken. A lot of guys left the game and came back in. This was a tough, physical NFC East battle. The Eagles are now in their bye week and they desperately need it. This is a beaten up team. They need time to rest and heal.
The coaches have a lot to clean up. They’ll study the tape and see what needs to be fixed. They also have an 8-1 team that seems to find a way to win every week. Don’t overlook how important that is.
It was fun watching Dallas lose. Great way to go into the bye week.
_