Sloppy Eagles surrender 21-point lead, fall at Cowboys to end win streak

ARLINGTON, Texas — Everything’s bigger in Texas, including Eagles collapses.

After going up by 21 points early in the second quarter, the Eagles gave up their three-score lead to the Dallas Cowboys. Dallas scored 24 unanswered points, capped by a 42-yard Brandon Aubrey walk-off field goal to give the Cowboys the 24-21 victory and end the Eagles’ win streak at four games.

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The Eagles’ implosion was their own doing. They incurred 14 penalties, which tied the largest total in a single game in Nick Sirianni’s five-year tenure as head coach.

Here’s our instant analysis from the Eagles’ first loss since falling at the Giants in Week 6.

The Eagles defense came out strong in the first half for the most part, limiting the Cowboys to just seven points.

They dominated the turnover battle over the game’s first 30 minutes. Zack Baun had a fumble recovery early in the second quarter after Cowboys wide receiver KaVontae Turpin fumbled a handoff at the Eagles’ 31-yard line. The fumble recovery eventually set up a Tush Push touchdown from Jalen Hurts to extend the lead to 21-0. On the Cowboys’ first trip to the red zone of the afternoon, Reed Blankenship picked off Dak Prescott in the end zone on a pass intended for CeeDee Lamb.

Unsurprisingly, Vic Fangio’s unit wouldn’t remain flawless against the league’s second-ranked scoring offense. This time around, the Eagles defense couldn’t put a Band-Aid over the listless offense that couldn’t sustain drives in the second half.

Late in the second quarter, Turpin generated a 48-yard catch-and-run, breaking multiple tackles over the middle of the field. That play eventually led to the Cowboys’ first touchdown, a 1-yard pass to George Pickens with Adoree’ Jackson in coverage to make the score 21-7, Eagles.

The Eagles bent but didn’t break in the third quarter, as Aubrey missed a 51-yard field goal attempt.

But the Eagles defense got banged up in the second half. In the third quarter, Jackson entered the concussion protocol and Blankenship went down with a thigh injury.

Cooper DeJean took over on the outside with Michael Carter slotting in as the nickel cornerback. The 22-year-old DeJean was tested heavily, getting called for defensive pass interference on a pass intended for Lamb in the third quarter, which was declined because the receiver made a 48-yard catch.

Lamb drew another defensive pass interference two plays later, this time against Kelee Ringo, who came in for a play at outside cornerback. Ringo didn’t see the field again on defense. The Cowboys scored on the following play, a 4-yard pass to tight end Brevyn Spann-Ford to make it 21-14.

DeJean was also in coverage for Pickens’ 43-yard catch down the left sideline early in the fourth quarter. That explosive play led to yet another Cowboys touchdown, an 8-yard Prescott carry to tie the game at 21-21.

The Cowboys had an opportunity to pull ahead late in the fourth quarter after Xavier Gipson’s fumble on a punt return at his own 8-yard line. However, the Cowboys opted to go for it on fourth-and-goal from the Eagles’ 1-yard line instead of settling for a field goal. Prescott’s short pass to tight end Jake Ferguson was incomplete, leading to a turnover on downs.

Ferguson began to make up for the incomplete pass with less than a minute remaining in regulation. He caught a 19-yard pass over the middle of the field with Sydney Brown trailing behind him. Brown, the 25-year-old safety, had entered the game in relief of Blankenship.

That play, plus a 24-yard catch from Pickens two plays later, set up Aubrey’s game-winning field goal.

The Eagles offense was far more conservative after their three straight touchdown drives to start the game. With 17 seconds remaining in the first half and two timeouts, with the drive starting from their own 28-yard line, the Eagles opted for a handoff to Saquon Barkley.

He gained just 1 yard and both teams returned to their respective locker rooms, the Eagles squandering a potential opportunity to put Jake Elliott in position to kick a field goal.

The Eagles posted just 28 net yards of offense on their first three drives after halftime, punting on all three.

After the game, Sirianni pushed back at the notion that the offense became more conservative after going up three scores.

“I didn’t think so,” Sirianni said. “Obviously, we’re always trying to be a balanced attack. So I just think, again, we’ll have to look at ourselves and look at the schemes and we’re going to have to look at the execution and see what the issues were. We just weren’t very efficient as an offense in that second half. I didn’t really feel that we took our foot off the gas.”

The group suffered from a litany of self-inflicted wounds. DeVonta Smith and A.J. Brown incurred back-to-back penalties early in the fourth quarter — an offensive pass interference and a false start, respectively. The Eagles couldn’t overcome the 25-yard deficit, leading them to settle for a 56-yard field goal attempt from Elliott. The Eagles kicker missed, giving the Cowboys the ball back at their 46-yard line.

The offense seemingly had a spark halfway through the fourth quarter, moving the ball 45 yards down the field (a 19-yard Brown reception made up nearly half that total). But Fred Johnson’s illegal use of hands penalty killed their momentum, bringing up second-and-17 from the Cowboys’ 38.

On the following play, Hurts dumped a short pass off to Barkley while under duress. Cowboys defensive end Sam Williams knocked the ball out of the running back’s grasp and linebacker Kenneth Murray recovered it at the Dallas 33.

While the Cowboys failed to take advantage on the following drive, they got a gift of their own on the ensuing Eagles punt return. Gipson coughed up the ball deep in his own zone and Cowboys long snapper Trent Sieg corralled it at the Eagles’ 7-yard line.

Once again, the Cowboys couldn’t score following the turnover. But Hurts took a 13-yard sack from defensive tackle Osa Odighizuwa on third-and-2 at the Eagles’ 37-yard line, forcing them to punt.

With the Eagles’ run game practically nonexistent this season, Barkley couldn’t salt away the contest in the second half as he had so many times last season. He finished the game with 10 carries for 22 yards (2.2 yards per carry is a single-game season low for Barkley). Four of those carries (for a total of 5 yards) came on first down on the five possessions that followed their 21-0 lead.

It was a tale of two halves for the Eagles offense. Through the first 18½ minutes of the game, the Eagles passing game was practically unrecognizable from their performances in the last two weeks against the Green Bay Packers and the Detroit Lions.

Hurts surpassed the 135 passing yards he mustered last week against the Lions in the first half alone. The 27-year-old quarterback threw early and often, going 13-of-19 for 163 yards and a touchdown in the first 30 minutes.

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In the first half, Brown hauled in five receptions on six targets for 67 yards and a 16-yard touchdown, which occurred on the Eagles’ opening drive and gave them a 7-0 lead. Brown beat Cowboys cornerback DaRon Bland on a post route to haul in Hurts’ throw in the middle of the end zone.

The play marked Brown’s first touchdown in more than a month (Oct. 19 against the Minnesota Vikings). Against a zone-heavy Cowboys defense, the Eagles targeted the intermediate middle of the field to great success, especially on in-breaking passes to Brown.

The Cowboys defense also gave the Eagles a few early holiday gifts in the form of self-inflicted wounds. A roughing the kicker penalty on Dallas against punter Braden Mann gave the Eagles a fresh set of downs on their second possession. Hurts took advantage of their misstep, especially on a third-and-5 conversion when he connected with Brown for a 22-yard completion on an in-breaker.

The chunk play ultimately helped set up a Hurts 7-yard touchdown on a quarterback keeper, putting the Eagles up, 14-0. Hurts later added the Tush Push touchdown to give the Eagles the 21-0 lead and what would turn out to be their final points.

Smith’s acrobatic 41-yard reception on third-and-12 from the Eagles’ 48-yard line helped set up the push sneak at the goal line. But the offense couldn’t sustain its first-half firepower.

“Whatever it was, it wasn’t enough,” Hurts said of the passing game’s strides in the first half. “I think everything that we’ve been able to do hasn’t been a lack of capability. We’ve got a lot of confidence in how we can go out there and play. Ultimately, we can’t focus on that. ... I can only focus on the things that we can control that didn’t go our way.”

Gipson went down with a shoulder injury following his fourth-quarter fumble on a punt return. He was carted from the medical tent to the locker room. After the game, Gipson was in the locker room with his right arm in a sling.

With 35 seconds remaining in the game, Drew Mukuba went down after Pickens’ 24-yard catch. The rookie safety left the locker room after the game on crutches, not putting any weight on his right foot, which was in a boot.