A championship team doesn’t give away wins. That’s exactly what the Eagles did at Dallas.
It looked like the Eagles had their Thanksgiving turkey at halftime, perhaps drowsy with tryptophan as they went scoreless for two quarters. A 21-0 lead meant nothing.
ARLINGTON, Texas — For the first 30 minutes, the Eagles did everything necessary to win a key game in a hostile stadium. They looked like a team worthy of a title defense.
For the next 30 minutes, they did everything necessary to give it away. They looked like a team unworthy of even a division title.
Two lost fumbles.
Two huge passing plays.
Fourteen — 14! — penalties, their most this season by five, and tied for the most by the Birds since Sirianni took over in 2021.
It was, to borrow A.J. Brown’s descriptor from two weeks ago, a (bleep)-show after the first 18 minutes. Cam Jurgens’ false start crippled one drive. An illegal formation stymied another. Brandon Graham couldn’t get off the field fast enough, and that negated an interception. On consecutive snaps to start the fourth quarter, DeVonta Smith committed offensive pass interference and A.J. Brown false-started, so a promising drive ended in a long field goal miss. In the middle of the fourth quarter, at the Cowboys’ 28, Fred Johnson turned second-and-7 into second-and-17; Saquon Barkley fumbled on the next play.
By the time Dak Prescott found George Pickens for 24 yards with 35 seconds to play, all the good that had been done — the offensive breakout of the Eagles’ passing game, the stinginess of the defense early — all of it had been undone.
Brandon Aubrey kicked a 42-yard field goal as time expired Sunday, leaving the Birds 24-21 losers. They now face a short week and a Black Friday afternoon game against a hot Chicago Bears team whose 8-3 record mirrors their own.
It looked like the Eagles had their Thanksgiving turkey at halftime, perhaps drowsy with tryptophan as they sleepwalked through the Texas evening.
“All it is is a lack of focus,” said left tackle Jordan Mailata. “First, look internally, because that’s the only way we can move forward.”
Focus? Focus? From a veteran team that won a Super Bowl nine months ago? Focus, in a game against a losing team that you beat in September — a game that would virtually wrap up the NFC East title with six weeks to go?
“We’ve got to make sure we’re mastering the things that require no talent,” coach Nick Sirianni said, trotting out one of his most careworn aphorisms.
Mailata and quarterback Jalen Hurts said the same thing. Give him credit: Even if Sirianni can’t manage to scheme a running game, he can manufacture a maxim and embed it.
Mottoes won’t win another Super Bowl.
The win saved the Cowboys’ season, for the moment. Now 5-5-1, the ’Pokes have won two in a row; have made their abysmal defense respectable; and have a legitimate shot at the playoffs.
Seriously? Sure.
For all of the Eagles’ mistakes, the Cowboys made the plays winning teams make. They didn’t wilt down by three touchdowns. Prescott is now 10-5 against an Eagles franchise that is in the middle of the best decade in its history. He entered with gaudy numbers against the Birds, and burnished them with 354 passing yards, two passing touchdowns, a rushing touchdown, and, yes, another win.
Hurts fell to 5-4 against his archrival, and, despite a fine statistical performance — the Eagles’ inconsistent passing game showed its head for 45 minutes or so — he chose to wallow in the defeat.
“Whatever it was, it wasn’t enough,” Hurts said.
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The loss will lead to more questions about an Eagles offense that has been under siege all season.
Hurts passed for 289 yards, threw for a touchdown and ran for two more, but he sputtered after the first half. Malcontent receiver A.J. Brown caught a season-high eight passes for 110 yards, but virtually disappeared after the first half.
It was a magnificent first 18 minutes.
It was a pathetic final 42.
Both Barkley and punt returner Xavier Gipson fumbled in the fourth quarter.
Cornerback Cooper DeJean gave up a 48-yard bomb to CeeDee Lamb, which led to Prescott finding tight end Brevyn Spann-Ford for a touchdown from 4 yards with about two minutes to play in the third to make it 21-14. DeJean then gave up a 41-yard bomb to Pickens, which led to Prescott running 8 yards to tie it at 21 early in the fourth.
But the Cowboys went nowhere after Barkley’s fumble and punted, which led to Gipson’s gaffe, which eventually led to fourth-and-goal from the Eagles’ 2-yard line, which led to Dallas’s inexplicable decision to go for it with less than four minutes to play against an offense that had been enfeebled for the second half.
Prescott threw incomplete from the Eagles’ 2. He threw short of the goal line to tight end Jake Ferguson.
With two minutes left, the Eagles faced third-and-2 from their 37. Two Tush Pushes, right?
Nope. Straight drop back. Hurts couldn’t pull the trigger, took a 13-yard sack, gave the ball back to Dallas, and watched as the Cowboys saved their season.
The only question:
Did the Eagles give theirs away?
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