Eagles Still Undefeated, Beat Dallas 26-17
When Jalen Hurts found Devonta Smith in the back of the endzone to put the Eagles, you could almost hear the collective sigh of relief around Philly. It put the Eagles up 26-17, and the drive ran over 7 minutes off the clock. After starting out by going up 20-0, the Dallas Cowboys scored the next 17 points. A game that looked like the Eagles would run away with, was suddenly way too close for comfort. But just like the Eagles did last week, they got a long scoring drive just when they needed it, to put the game to bed. Meaning the Eagles are still the lone undefeated team.
Dallas got the ball a couple more times, but with Cooper Rush at QB, there was not much of a risk for multiple quick-scoring drives. The next time the Cowboys offense took the field, Cooper Rush threw his 3rd pick of the night and his second to CJ Gardner-Johnson. Eagles managed to run more time off the clock before a snap blunder cost them a chance at a field goal. But it didn’t matter. On the next drive, the Cowboys took too long to get down the field, just to settle for an FG that they missed.
But I’d be lying if I said the game never made me nervous. Just like the Eagles owned the 2nd quarter, the Cowboys owned the third. Lane Johnson leaving the game completely changed things for the Eagles on offense. Lane shut Micah Parson down in the first half. For the first time all season Parsons had 0 pressures in a half. But Jack Driscoll unsurprisingly did not have that same success. Parson started to take over the game on defense.
And on the other side, the Eagles forgot how to tackle. After shutting down the run game in the first 30 minutes, Dallas had their way on the ground. They scored 17 unanswered points. But when the defense had to, it finally buckled down and forced a turnover. And before that, the offense did its thing to get a long scoring drive.
This team just keeps winning. It was not pretty this week, and it was not pretty last week. But the Eagles still capped off one hell of a weekend for Philly Sports. The Eagles go into the bye week undefeated at 6-0. And that bye could not have come soon enough. Every member of the offensive line is dealing with something. Mailata missed most of the Jaguars game and all of the Cardinals game. Landon Dickerson has been in and out with an ankle injury. Jason Kelce missed parts of the Arizona game. And now Lane is dealing with a head injury.
But assuming they get healthy, the Eagles have a chance to really rack up the ins out of the bye. First, they play a 2-win Steelers team at home. Then they face a 1 win Texans team. After that it the 2-win Commanders who they have already dominated in Washington. And the week after that it is a struggling Colts team. The next tough on-paper game they play is the Packers, in Philly, on November 27th. And that team does not look nearly as tough as you thought they would be. They also get to play the Bears and Saints.
Is there a chance for a letdown in any of these games? Sure. But the good thing is they have created enough of a buffer between themselves and the other top NFC teams that they can afford one letdown. A lot of the toughest teams on their schedule are behind them. And now the toughest games remaining may be the surprising Giants twice, and this Dallas team again. The Eagles have a very good chance to hold onto the top seed in the NFC.
Their defense continues to force takeaways, and the offense continues to protect the ball. That is one hell of a winning strategy. The Eagles are undefeated and have shown no signs of slowing down. Regardless of what happened in the second half, this was an impressive win over a tough division rival. They put 26 pts up on one of the elite NFL defenses. This team could be something special.
