Eagles news: The Birds' secret weapon; wild stat from Cowboys loss; injury updates and next game

The Eagles’ under-the-radar weapon was Braden Mann, the 28-year-old punter who signed a four-year contract extension this offseason.

He averaged 51.6 yards per punt, with his longest coming on a 64-yarder. Mann helped pin the Commanders inside their own 10-yard line twice — once at their 6 in the first quarter, and later at their 2 in the second.

Elsewhere on special teams, Jalen Carter picked up where he left off last year on the field goal block unit. After Croskey-Merritt’s touchdown run in the second quarter, Carter blocked the extra point attempt. He now has four blocked kicks (two field goals, two extra points) in his career.

Several months before coaching his first game for the New York Giants, John Harbaugh told fans he wanted to build a team that could beat the Dallas Cowboys.

It took one game to accomplish that feat.

Jaxson Dart connected with Isaiah Likely for two touchdowns and Devin Singletary on another, Cam Skattebo ran for one in his first game back from injury and the Giants opened the season by rolling over Dallas 28-20 on Sunday night in Harbaugh’s New York debut. It’s just one victory, but it was a promising start of a new era.

One wild stat from the Cowboys loss to the New York Giants Sunday night — Dallas had just two drives in the entire second half.

It's as rare as you think. According to the NFL Researcher account, it's happened only twice in the past 20 years. The last time it happened was during an Eagles win over the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2024.

The Cowboys had just seven possessions all night, including one with just 20 seconds remaining in the first half.

The pressure Jalen Hurts faced wasn’t all on the quarterback, just as it wasn’t all on the O-line. But there were multiple breakdowns up front, especially vs. left guard Landon Dickerson. He looked like a turnstile at times. Was Dickerson solely at fault? Of course not. But the oft-injured guard who’s as tough as they come appeared slower than even a year ago when he returned too early after knee surgery.

It was downright ugly in the third quarter when Dickerson got toasted on back-to-back rushes, one of which led to a holding penalty. Earlier, the Commanders’ Javon Kinlaw beat the guard for a run tackle for loss in the first quarter. Dickerson was late to help on a third-down stunt in which Hurts was hurried in the second quarter.

Center Cam Jurgens struggled, as well, particularly in the first quarter. He had a holding penalty when Barkley was nearly dropped in the backfield and then another when it was all on him after he grabbed defensive tackle Shy Tuttle. Right guard Tyler Steen had a tough time getting to the perimeter on a pull block, but he seemed to hold up much more than the other two interior O-linemen.

The Eagles (1-0) will head south to face the Tennessee Titans (0-1) in Week 2 Sunday (1 p.m., Fox).

Calling the game will be Adam Amin and Hall of Famer Drew Brees, in his second season with Fox after replacing former Eagles quarterback Mark Sanchez following his alleged drunken assault.

Fans in Nashville sounded like Birds fans Sunday, raining down loud boos on quarterback Cam Ward and a Titans offense that only gained 195 total yards (and 65 of those were during a garbage-time touchdown drive).