Brett's Cowboys Corner

A 24-20 loss for the Cowboys to open the season. But we asked them to keep it close and to erase memories of last years team. They did exactly that. There are a lot of positives to take away from the game, considering no one picked Dallas to win and many thought Dallas would be blown out.

Instead they came out of the gates with the offense rolling. Scoring on all four drives of the 1st half. It was during the Cowboys first drive in the third quarter that changed the tide of this game. Miles Sanders had a breakaway 49-yard run. Three plays later he would fumble and give the ball back to Philly. At this point neither team had failed to score on a drive.

But immediately following the end of the fumble play. The referees would call for the field to be cleared. As bad weather in Philly would result in an hour delay of the game. When play would resume neither team would score another point.

The Slip-away for Dallas

One of my ‘keys to victory’ was pressuring Jalen Hurts and keeping him contained in the pocket.

The Cowboys get a 50% as they applied the pressure on Hurts, but he was able to slip away and gain yards. What the graph doesn’t show effectively is the impact on some of those runs. Third downs and short first downs.

Hurts gained 63 yards and 2 touchdowns on 9 scramble runs on the night, including a career-high 5 first downs (and his first scramble rushing touchdown since Week 15, 2023). Hurts also relied on shorter passes against a zone-heavy Cowboys defense (100% of dropbacks), averaging 4.5 air yards per attempt, his 3rd-fewest in a game in his career. Hurts completed his only downfield attempt (10+ air yards) on a deep pass to Jahan Dotson for 51 yards late in the second quarter.

The other major slip-away is hard to criticize, something that is abnormal. Ceedee Lamb who had 100+ yards receiving, had 3 major drops in the second half. One on 3rd down, a diving play on the final 4th down. But the one that hurt the most, a 42-yard bomb that bounced off his chest. This play would have set-up Dallas in the redzone.

Some Good Looks

The Cowboys were able to limit Saquon Barkley, he only gained one yard after the weather delay.

As for the Cowboys running game, Javonte Williams totaled 15 carries for 54 yards and 2 touchdowns, with 44 of those yards and both touchdowns coming on 11 carries between the tackles.

Williams managed just 10 yards on 4 carries outside the tackles. Williams is now one of just two running backs to have multiple rushing touchdowns in a game against the Eagles since 2023. Ironically the other is Saquon Barkley in 2023.

Cowboys managed to keep AJ Brown to only one target all day.