Cowboys vs. Eagles: Many reasons to expect more of the same from rivals going opposite directions

Believe it or not, the Cowboys are still looking for their first home win of the season.

With so much attention pointed straight at the Dallas Cowboys as their own entity in the aftermath of a third straight loss that saw Dak Prescott sidelined with a hamstring injury, the preparation for “Philly week” has taken a backseat. The 3-5 Cowboys are in turmoil while the Eagles are keeping any talks of another late-season collapse at bay for the moment by winning four straight after the bye and sitting a game behind the Commanders in the NFC East at 6-2.

It is rare that a Cowboys versus Eagles game is on the verge of coming and going with this little fanfare, as these are two teams accustomed to deciding the division in recent history when they meet up. The Eagles have lost six straight at the Cowboys, but draw a Dallas team that’s started the season 0-3 at home with ugly losses to the Saints, Ravens, and Lions. They also won’t face Dak Prescott looking to build on a 9-4 career record against them, as Cooper Rush will be in at quarterback for the Cowboys.

There are a ton of reasons why the past optimism the Cowboys have had in Rush during previous stints keeping the team competitive without Prescott are hard to find this week, the most relevant for this Sunday being that the Eagles were the only team to beat Rush in 2022. Making his fifth-consecutive start after Prescott was injured in week one, Rush went into Philadelphia on a Sunday night with wins already against the Bengals, Giants, Commanders, and Rams, but could not keep it going against the Eagles. Rush dropped back a season high 38 times in this loss but only completed 18 of them for 181 yards and three interceptions.

The Cowboys’ first five possessions with Rush under center were two straight punts, an interception, turnover on downs, and another interception. All of this snowballed into the Eagles building a 20-0 lead before the Cowboys finally got on the scoreboard with a red zone field goal. Their first touchdown would come early in the third quarter from Ezekiel Elliott to cut the Eagles lead to 20-10, and the Cowboys threatened even more in the fourth quarter with a Jake Ferguson touchdown to make it 20-17. Philadelphia responded to the Ferguson score with a 13-play drive of their own that chewed up over half the quarter and ended with a Devonta Smith touchdown. The Cowboys did manage to get the ball back twice down by two scores, but saw Rush throw his career-high third interception on one of them and missed a field goal on the final one to end the game.

The win for the Eagles was one of eight straight to start a season that would end atop the NFC East at 14-3 before losing in the Super Bowl to the Kansas City Chiefs. One of these three losses was in Week 16 at AT&T Stadium as the Cowboys had Prescott back for a surprising shootout against Eagles backup QB Gardner Minshew, with Prescott getting the upper hand 40-34. The Cowboys responded to an Eagles touchdown at the start of the fourth quarter to take the lead by scoring the last 13 points of the game on a CeeDee Lamb touchdown and two Brett Maher field goals.

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If all of this feels familiar beyond just the normalcy of the Cowboys and Eagles meeting for the 131st time on Sunday afternoon, it’s because the way both teams have played this season paired with even more layers of familiarity between the coaching staffs is setting up for what could be a very predictable type of game. For now, one of the only oddities about this game is that it is the first of two games the Cowboys and Eagles will play this season with neither scheduled for primetime. These teams have played at least one primetime game against each other every year since 2003. Given the Cowboys’ current struggles, the fan base may be breathing a sigh of relief this rivalry is out of the spotlight for now.

The Eagles – much like the Cowboys in some ways – entered this season with major questions surrounding head coach Nick Sirianni. Concerns over Sirianni losing the locker room and not getting the sum of Philly’s talent to play their best as a team led to the fourth-year head coach changing both of his top coordinators coming into 2024. The Eagles have relied heavily on both new OC Kellen Moore and DC Vic Fangio, getting mixed results on both sides of the ball amidst these scheme changes, but with the arrow pointed up. They are both coaches Cowboys fans will be familiar with, as Moore was in the same role for the Cowboys from 2019-22.

Dallas head coach Mike McCarthy alluded to the three seasons they spent together this week, keeping Moore’s offensive system in place before taking over play-calling himself in 2023. The timing is interesting to say the least not just because of this Sunday’s matchup, but more notably the way McCarthy’s offense has massively regressed and looked hapless this season – his final under contract with the Cowboys.

Moore’s offense hasn’t exactly lit up scoreboards the way McCarthy infamously noted last year as a… bad thing? They have done something perhaps even more embarrassing to the Cowboys while building an early three-game lead in the standings and relegating last year’s division winners to third in the NFC East. That is play the run-first complementary style that McCarthy has been trying to replace Moore’s scheme with for two seasons now, but ill-equipped to do so in the backfield this year with a revolving door of Rico Dowdle, Dalvin Cook, and Ezekiel Elliott at running back.

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Whether or not he makes a difference on game days is a discussion for another day, but the Eagles have actively helped Sirianni have the pieces in place to succeed this season, none bigger than signing Saquon Barkley. The Cowboys have not come close to doing the same in any way for McCarthy, and these teams now meeting while trending in such opposite directions is the result.

McCarthy’s emphasis on wanting a more balanced, ball-control offense is supposed to help rest the defense and allow them to play more snaps with their team in the lead, but again it’s the Eagles in the first year of Fangio’s defense finding a way to do this better. Fangio has gotten the best of McCarthy’s offense in two meetings against the Cowboys, most recently a part of the 22-20 Dolphins win over the Cowboys last December that sent Dallas into a late-season losing streak they never truly recovered from. The unique, non-aggressive style of play from Fangio’s defense is looking better and better each week for the Eagles, the seventh team Fangio has been DC for, taking a philosophy that’s common around the NFL and perfecting it with simplicity.

That concept is forcing offenses to be methodical against them, not allowing explosive plays, and trusting that at some point they will have a negative play or penalty to stall the drive. Considering the Cowboys’ have needed ten plays or more to score on over a third of all scoring drives this season, are 22nd in yards per play, and 31st in red zone TD percentage (only ahead of the Giants), the indicators are there for Fangio’s defense to continue having success this week.

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Most of this would point to the Eagles being positioned as the latest team to hand the Cowboys a sound home loss as well as their first four-game losing streak since 2020, but the Eagles’ results even in wins suggest something more sobering for Cowboys fans. Instead of just a blowout loss that America’s Team followers may be numb to at this point, the familiar position of the Cowboys trailing but storming back via empty yards in the passing game is written all over this matchup. America’s Game of the Week, meet the false hope only the 2024 Dallas Cowboys are capable of.

Last week, the Eagles had a 22-0 lead against the Jaguars at home before needing a Smith touchdown in the fourth quarter to go back up by two scores and win 28-23. A 10-0 lead at home against the Browns turned into a tie game after a blocked field goal return for a touchdown, but again the Eagles escaped 20-16 in week six. The Eagles last loss was in week four at the Buccaneers, where they trailed 24-0 in the first half. Philadelphia has been a hard team to figure out in a lot of ways, and for all of the wrong reasons their opponent in Dallas this week has been easier to figure out. The Eagles have a clear path to control this game and leave little doubt the NFC East is a two-team race, but the Cowboys have one as well to at least make things interesting. A Cowboys win would mark the first winning streak for either team in this rivalry since the Cowboys won two straight from Week 16 of 2020 to Week 3 of 2021. Both of these games were in Arlington, where Eagles HC Nick Sirianni is 0-3 in his career.

To actually capitalize on this chance to avoid a nuclear 0-4 home start for the Cowboys, they will need to overcome perhaps the biggest discrepancy in talent between them and their opponent at running back that they will see going up against Saquon Barkley. The former New York Giant has three straight 100-yard games, something he has not done against the Cowboys since 2019 with NY, and his team has won four in a row. The Eagles have done a great job running the ball between the tackles, wearing teams down with Barkley, and then passing from favorable situations ahead of the chains to create big plays for Smith and A.J. Brown.

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The Cowboys defense has been at its best when it can force teams into more obvious passing situations and bring pressure. They will likely have Micah Parsons back in this equation to chase after Jalen Hurts in these spots on Sunday. The Eagles are one of the most aggressive fourth-down teams in the league, meaning any minimal gains they can get in neutral early-down situations are that much more important with a chance to keep drives alive on fourth and short. The Eagles have also had three turnovers in their last two losses at the Cowboys, an area Mike Zimmer’s defense is still figuring things out while missing so many starters but getting a Carl Lawson strip sack for a takeaway last week.

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The chances of this Sunday’s Cowboys/Eagles meeting being historically relevant in the total picture of one of the most passionate rivalries in the sport is slim to none. The likelihood of it being highly relevant to both teams for the remainder of this season is much higher. The Eagles would certainly see a loss here as a dropped opportunity to get a game they need to keep pace with the Commanders before hosting them on a short week next Thursday. A win would give them momentum going into that matchup that they’ve righted all of last season’s wrongs and can be considered favorites to win the East. For the Cowboys, a loss would strip even the slightest semblance of meaning from nearly all of their remaining games this season, while a win would get them off the hook of a larger four-game losing streak at home dating back to last year’s playoffs, and at least keep McCarthy’s record against division opponents strong as Dallas would be 2-0 with a prior win at the Giants.

From here, the Cowboys have upcoming NFC East games in Week 12 at the Commanders and on Thanksgiving against the Giants, meaning the hype machine of this team getting healthy and going on a run could just be getting warmed up if they scrap out a win against the Eagles to improve to 4-5.

For the Eagles following their Thursday game against the Commanders, they will test themselves against playoff contenders from both conferences on the road at the Rams and Ravens. Going into this stretch with seven wins instead of six, in a landscape where only the Bills, Chiefs, Commanders, and Lions have at least seven wins right now, is critical for them.

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No matter what happens Sunday, it’s probably best we won’t all be “waiting all day for Sunday night” to see how Cowboys versus Eagles unfolds.