Vic Fangio had no answers for the Cowboys’ run game, which raises questions for an Eagles team on the brink
The Cowboys ran straight through an Eagles front seven that was supposed to be a team strength. Anyone who thinks it was a blip hasn't been paying attention.
The worst teams aren’t the ones without any answers.
The worst teams are the ones without questions worth asking.
The Eagles reached that point in a 38-21 loss to the Cowboys on Monday night. The troubling thing wasn’t the lopsided final score, or the resulting 2-5 record. It wasn’t the five-game losing streak that the Eagles will carry into Week 8. Rather, it was the lack of mystery about how it occurred.
The Cowboys didn’t just beat the Eagles. They beat them in the most basic way one football team can beat another. And they did it in a way that calls into question a lot of what we assumed about the fundamentals of this Eagles roster.
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Even at full health, with Jalen Hurts under center, and Lane Johnson at right tackle, and Saquon Barkley at the peak of his powers, the Eagles were not a team one could expect to beat an opponent who rushes for 204 yards at a 5.4 yard-per-carry clip. We would not have considered them serious contenders at the start of the season had we known their defense was capable of allowing such a thing. They would not have won a Super Bowl in 2024 if they had such a defense. They did not win a Super Bowl in 2022 because they did have one. Both years, the offense was better than anybody could have reasonably projected this year’s would be. Nowhere within the Eagles’ range of probable outcomes at the start of 2026 was a team that could have won with the defense that was on the field on Monday night.
The only real questions are thematic and forward-looking in nature. There is no mystery about what the Cowboys did or what the Eagles failed to do.
Left tackle.
Right tackle.
Fake a handoff and pass.
Line up and do it again until they stop you.
The Eagles never did.
“We need to fix that, because when an offense is able to run the ball like that, it opens up the whole offense,” said linebacker Jeremiah Trotter Jr. “We got to stop the run.”
It is rare that you will see a Vic Fangio defense struggle on even two consecutive possessions the way the Eagles did for four straight quarters on Monday night. The numbers do a pretty good job of telling the tale: 38 carries, 204 yards, including 25 and 155 from veteran running back Javonte Williams, the highest individual rushing total against the Eagles since 2022. What those numbers do not capture is the simplicity of the Cowboys’ attack.
This was bully ball. And it sure felt individually targeted, at least to the naked eye. Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott walked to the line and found Jalen Carter and Jordan Davis and Jonathan Greenard (when he was in there), and then he decided where he was going to run the ball. Early, this took the form of running where Jihaad Campbell or Jaylx Hunt or Moro Ojomo was lined up. Later, it was reserve outside linebacker Arnold Ebiketie in the crosshairs. One-by-one, Dallas ran each of them off the field. When A.J. Epenesa got his turn on the edge, the Cowboys ran him over too.
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Maybe a deeper look at the film will reveal something different.
“It’s never one thing,” Eagles coach Nick Sirianni said.
It sure looked like one thing, at least in real time.
If it were anybody but Fangio on the headset, you could err on the side of coaching and schemes and play-calling and the like. But when an opponent’s tack is as predictable as the Cowboys’ was on Monday, and the guy charged with stopping it has a long track record of adjusting as well as anybody, the only conclusion you can draw is that there ain’t no stopping it. And that, right there, is how you can logically deduce the answer to any question you could ask about where this Eagles season goes now.
You can call it a blip, sure. Greenard has battled injuries all season and was clearly limited again on Monday. Hunt missed last week’s game with knee and ankle injuries. Starter Nolan Smith Jr. did not play against the Cowboys while recovering from a concussion. Ojomo left the field with an injury on Monday.
A blip? That depends on one’s definition of the word. The Eagles’ vision for the future has been based on the assumption that their 2024 defense was a beginning. Quinyon Mitchell and Cooper DeJean were rookies. Carter and Davis were just reaching their peaks. That team allowed 399 or more yards of offense once in its last 18 games of that season. They allowed 300 or more yards five times. In the first nine games of the 2025 season, they did not allow more than 387 yards in a game.
Since then? They’ve allowed 399 or more yards of offense in six of 14 games. Of Fangio’s seven highest yardage totals allowed as Eagles defensive coordinator, five have come since Week 11 of last season.
“I think it’s just a matter of being more physical, getting off blocks and creating negative plays,” said Ebiketie, who was pressed into action given the absence of Smith and the limited Greenard.
The edge has been a lingering concern for longer than this season. There is a reason the Eagles coaxed Brandon Graham out of retirement and traded for Jaelan Phillips in 2025. Greenard was supposed to be a more sustainable solution after the Eagles acquired him from the Vikings and signed him to a big-ticket extension. He has not been. Meanwhile, Minnesota is the NFL’s lone remaining unbeaten team on the strength of its defense.
This Eagles defense was supposed to have capabilities similar to the Vikings. An offensive showing like the one they got from Sean Mannion, Tanner McKee and the offensive line was supposed to be enough. That it wasn’t is something the Eagles will need to consider as they decide where to go from here.
The Eagles seem reluctant to address the handling of the Jalen Hurts blood clots saga, but the key questions involved in the story aren’t going anywhere. Throughout the week, in the absence of remarks from general manager Howie Roseman or team medical personnel, head coach Nick Sirianni was peppered by reporters. He’s offered few details in return. After speaking with high-ranking medical officials currently or previously employed by NFL teams, The Inquirer’s Jeff McLane frames four central issues that remain unanswered, while also looking at what this situation means for Hurts’ future in Philadelphia. Listen here.
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