
10 thoughts on the Cowboys 41-7 loss to the Eagles
The Dallas Cowboys did not have what it takes on Sunday, losing to the Philadelphia Eagles 41-7. While there was some hope early, but the game got out of hand as the Cowboys weren’t up to the task. The Eagles victory clinches the NFC East for them and takes much of the mystery out of any season-finale storylines next week. Here are 10 thoughts on this woeful Cowboys performance.
1. RUSH NO GOOD AGAINST THE BIRDS
Cooper Rush has been what you might expect him to be. He can be efficient at times, and then jaw-droppingly bad at others. The Cowboys’ first drive of the game depicted exactly that. He made some good throws to move the ball but then made one mistake and it was six points for the other team. It’s strange, but Rush continues to have a hard time against the Eagles. He is now 0-3 against them when starting while he is 9-2 against everyone else. For whatever reason, the Green Birds appear to have his number.
2. GIVING THE GAME AWAY
Whenever you thought the Cowboys might get something going, they would make a terrible mistake and ruin everything. This happened again and again in this game. The Cowboys turned the ball over four times against the Eagles, including a pick-six on the game’s opening drive. And the defense didn’t take the ball away at all, finishing with a minus-4 turnover differential. That’s not a winning formula.
3. RICO
Even though the game script didn’t favor it, the Cowboys’ ground attack looked decent thanks to another strong performance by Rico Dowdle. The team’s lead back ran hard and put up 104 yards on 23 carries. It was his fourth 100-yard performance over the last five games. Dowdle now has 1,007 yards on the season, making it the fourth-straight season a Cowboys running back has eclipsed the 1,000-yard mark, done by three different players.
4. BARKLEY FINALLY CUTS LOOSE
While 1,000 yards is good, 2,000 yards is better. And that is now where Saquon Barkley is on the season after a 167-yard performance on Sunday. Oddly enough, Barkley didn’t touch the ball until less than three minutes left in the first quarter and he hasn’t eclipsed 81 yards rushing against the Cowboys over his last eight games. But that streak is no more as he continued his historic season. He’s now just 100 yards away from Eric Dickerson’s single-season record of 2,105 yards, a record that has stood for the last 40 years.
5. NO ANSWER FOR DEVONTA SMITH
With all their injuries this season, the Cowboys have used eight different arrangements of starting cornerbacks. In this game they had to reach deep, meaning practice-squader Andrew Booth was thrown into action. It was pretty evident that trouble was coming and the Eagles attacked him early and often. Eagles’ WR DeVonta Smith finished the game with six catches for 120 yards and two touchdowns. It was almost three, but Smith fell just short of the goal line after catching a long pass near the end of the first half.
6. NO PASS RUSH
The pass rush for this Cowboys defense has improved recently as they’ve compiled 22 total sacks over their last five games. But against the Eagles, the Cowboys defense just couldn’t get home. Whether it was Kenny Pickett or third-stringer Tanner McKee, neither quarterback was sacked and was afforded a clean pocket to find their receivers. Of course, it didn’t help that the Eagles offensive line got away with holding Micah Parsons, but we’ve grown accustomed to that.
7. NOT ENOUGH TURPIN TIME
For the first 12 games of the season, the Cowboys would sprinkle in a run by KaVontae Turpin here and there but he never had more than one rushing attempt a game during that span. This month, they’ve increased his rushes to two (he got three last week against Tampa Bay), which is great because he explodes through the creases. He would have taken one to the house against the Eagles had he not been tripped up by his own teammate. Turpin has had a run of 10+ yards in all four of his December games, but it’s still puzzling why the coaching staff doesn’t give one of their splashiest playmakers more opportunities.
8. IT WAS CHIPPY
Right from the start, these two teams were going after each other. In the first quarter, Cowboys’ linebacker Marist Liufau shoved DeVonta Smith to the ground and fans (and Greg Olsen) wanted a penalty. Eagles’ corner Cooper DeJean was grabbing on KaVontae Turpin’s facemask causing him to freak out and fans wanted a penalty. These teams stayed in each other’s faces all game. There was booing, there was pushing, there was shoving, and eventually, players tossed. Cowboys defensive back Troy Pride, receiver Jalen Brooks, and Eagles’ defender Sydney Brown were ejected after getting into a skirmish.
9. ANOTHER NO-SHOW
There’s been a lot of talk about the fight this team has shown lately and it warrants attention. Even undermanned, this team kept coming and you have to tip your cap to the job the coaching staff has done. It was a stark contrast to what we were seeing earlier in the year when they were getting blown out of games. Unfortunately, this one was another beatdown and it makes the sixth time this season that the Cowboys have trailed by at least 20 points at some point in the game. When things started to go south, they stayed south and the team looked defeated way too early in the game. That’s not pleasant.
10. OFFICIALLY LOSERS
Mike McCarthy is the first coach in team history to win 12 games in three straight years. Of course, he benefited from a 17-game season as Tom Landry had six straight 11-win seasons back in the late ‘70s/early ‘80s. With Sunday’s loss, McCarthy also has the distinguished honor of being the first coach since Dave Campo (2001) who has two losing seasons with the Cowboys. There’s been good and bad with McCarthy and it will be interesting to see how this latest showing impacts his job security.