The Philadelphia Eagles are 10-3 after losing to the Dallas Cowboys at AT&T Stadium for a sixth straight time. Final score: 30 to 13. I stand by what I wrote prior to this game, when I very confidently predicted an Eagles loss. The TL;DR version is that this result hardly means the Eagles’ season is over. In fact — and I know you might not want to hear this right now but it’s true — they still control their destiny when it comes to winning the NFC East. The Birds will try to bounce back from two straight losses in a Week 15 Monday Night Football road matchup against the Seattle Seahawks. Read on for a recap and stay tuned for BGN’s postgame coverage, including the BGN Radio postgame show. FIRST QUARTER The Eagles won the coin toss and elected to defer. The Cowboys didn’t take long to drive into field goal range.
Then they moved into the red zone. Facing 3rd-and-2 from the 13-yard line, Dak Prescott scrambled left and hit a crossing CeeDee Lamb for a touchdown. There was a flag thrown (for a hold on Jordan Davis) and Kevin Byard signaled it was on Dallas … but the refs conferred and said it was actually no penalty. OK, then!? 10-play, 75-yard TD drive in 5:00. EAGLES 0, COWBOYS 7.
Fascinated by the mechanics of picking up that flag.Umpire saw Tyler Smith holding Jordan Davis so he threw the flag.Did he change his mind? Was he talked out of it?Feels like these picked up flags are happening more and more. Not a good look— Ross Tucker (@RossTuckerNFL) December 11, 2023 The Eagles’ first play was a designed QB run that Jalen Hurts took for a first down. Hurts slightly overthrew A.J. Brown deep. Dallas Goedert logged his first reception since getting injured for a first down into Cowboys territory. Lane Johnson got hit with a false start to knock the offense back. DeVonta Smith dropped a pass after taking a hard hit to bring up third down. Then Jordan Mailata got called for a false start. Facing 3rd-and-16, Hurts stepped up to avoid the pass rush and fired a pass to an open DeVonta for a first down.
Really nice job by the Eagles QB. Brown got called for offensive pass interference on a pick to knock the Birds back. Hurts took off running on another designed run and got stripped while going to the ground for a Cowboys recovery. Terrible turnover. Jalen Hurts up to 15 turnovers (so far) in 13 games this year. #Eagles— Brandon Lee Gowton (@BrandonGowton) December 11, 2023 Nolan Smith pressured Prescott and helped force a pass that was knocked down by Darius Slay. Would be nice if the Eagles played him more! Facing 3rd-and-9, Dak found an open Lamb, who beat Bradley Roby in the slot. Facing 3rd-and-2, Dak missed Michael Gallup high. Mike McCarthy went for it on 4th-and-2 … and Tony Pollard took the carry for a first down. Jalen Carter got held after exploding into the backfield for a potential turnover on downs, no call. Fletcher Cox drew a holding call and then deflected a pass on back-to-back plays but Slay got called for DPI to bail the Cowboys out of 3rd-and-17. Pretty weak call.
The Cowboys got set back after another holding penalty. Facing 3rd-and-20, Prescott’s pass short of the sticks was broken up by Byard. Omg, a stop! And then Brandon Aubrey naturally hit a 60-yard field goal. But better than a touchdown! Progress! EAGLES 0, COWBOYS 10. The refs call this a pass interference on Darius Slay. It’s a divisional game, guys are aggressive, even then it’s still a little much to call. pic.twitter.com/iFOaJrwbSq— MLFootball (@_MLFootball) December 11, 2023 Hate to be the “officials stink” guy, but one of the early realities so far is that Dallas got 3 free on that drive as a result the bad Slay PI call (I doubt they’d have tried a 65-yard FG), and 4 free points on their first drive on the holding flag they picked up— Jimmy Kempski (@JimmyKempski) December 11, 2023 The Eagles went with a screen to Goedert and a Swift run to bring up third down at the end of the first quarter. SECOND QUARTER Facing 3rd-and-2, the Eagles ran their favorite play with Goedert crossing in motion but he was covered and Hurts threw to DeVonta, who couldn’t hang on to the ball.
Nick Sirianni decided to punt … or not! It was a fake with Braden Mann delivering a good throw to a wide open Olamide Zaccheaus for 28 yards! Unironically, yet another shining moment for Eagles special teams coordinator Michael Clay. Facing 3rd-and-5, the ball went right through Brown’s hands along the sideline. Looks like he struggled to fully track it in the air after having to turn his head. Really gotta catch a great throw from Hurts like that. Jake Elliott came in for the 52-yard field goal make. EAGLES 3, COWBOYS 10. Philadelphia cuts the deficit to 3-10 in the second quarter with a 52-yard FG by Jake Elliott.Elliott, who is the #Eagles all-time leader in 50+ yard FGs (27), has connected on a franchise-record 7 FGs of 50+ yards this season.#FlyEaglesFly— John Gonoude (@john_gonoude) December 11, 2023 Dak found Jake Ferguson, who tortured the Eagles’ defense in Week 9, open over the middle for a big catch-and-run into Cowboys territory. Dallas methodically moved into the red zone without much resistance.
Facing 3rd-and-1 at the 7-yard line, the Cowboys went Brotherly Shove and got the first down to bring up goal-to-go. Nicholas Morrow did a nice job of breaking up a Dak pass to bring up 3rd-and-goal from the 1-yard line. Rico Dowdle was then ruled down short of the goal line … but a McCarthy challenge overturned the call. 12-play, 75-yard TD drive in 6:21. EAGLES 3, COWBOYS 17. Eagles defense looks like a unit that has played 4 games worth of snaps in their last 3 games. (It is.)— Brandon Lee Gowton (@BrandonGowton) December 11, 2023 Last 10 possessions for the Eagles defense:8 TDs1 FG1 kneel-down— Sheil Kapadia (@SheilKapadia) December 11, 2023 The Eagles took six plays to drive into the red zone. Hurts took a hit after sliding but did not get a call. Hurts got sacked to knock the Eagles out of the red zone. Facing 3rd-and-18, Hurts’ pass was tipped and incomplete as the Cowboys brought a blitz. Really bad to not get seven points. EAGLES 6, COWBOYS 17.
The Cowboys took over at their own 25-yard line with 1:48 on the clock and two timeouts to work with. Haason Reddick notched his 10th sack of the season to knock the Cowboys back. Facing 3rd-and-6, Kelee Ringo was in the game for some reason (?!) for his second-ever defensive snap in the NFL and allowed a catch to Brandin Cooks AND committed a rare two penalties (DPI, face mask) that both got enforced to allow the Cowboys to move to the Eagles’ 35-yard line. What the hell. Have never seen that before. Prescott completed a pass to the Eagles’ 1-yard line with Brandin Cooks cooking James Bradberry. Two plays later, Dak found Gallup for the touchdown. Awful. For the second time in this game, a flag was thrown on a Cowboys score and then called no penalty.
EAGLES 6, COWBOYS 24. Eagles getting crushed regardless of officiating but what is up with flags inexplicably being picked up on two Cowboys touchdowns.— Brandon Lee Gowton (@BrandonGowton) December 11, 2023 Nothing cooking for the Eagles after taking over with 0:20 in the second quarter. Halftime scores of Eagles’ last six games: W14: Cowboys 24, Eagles 6W13: 49ers 14, Eagles 6W12: Bills 17, Eagles 7W11: Chefs 17, Eagles 7W9: Cowboys 17, Eagles 14W8: Commanders 17, Eagles 10— Zach Berman (@ZBerm) December 11, 2023 As of halftime: #Eagles defense has allowed 66 pts on last 10 drives (6.6 pts/dr), allowing 40/41 series converted for first downs. FWIW, the offense’s 2.00 pts/drive in the first half is above league average (1.95). As I said, it’s a “short” game. Have to score every chance.— Deniz Selman (@denizselman33) December 11, 2023 Eagles organizational philosophy when building the defense is to over-invest in the pass rush at every turn. On third downs this season, the Eagles are sacking opposing quarterbacks 5.1% of the time.
