Eagles can (effectively) end the Cowboys’ season if the defense can stop Dak Prescott

They practice at The Star and they play games at Jerry World, but the Eagles can turn the Arlington, Texas, stadium into Boot Hill if they beat the Cowboys on Sunday evening.

The Cowboys are in second place in the NFC East, but they’re 4-5-1, and they face the Chiefs, Lions, and Vikings in the coming weeks. The Eagles, at 8-2, also have a couple of testers left, but they face the Raiders once and the Commanders twice, all games in which they should be big favorites.

If they leave Dallas with nine wins, the NFC East race will be all but finished, and a four-win Cowboys team after Week 11 won’t have a realistic shot at a wild-card berth.

A Big W in Big D, in one fell swoop, essentially hands the Eagles the division title and renders their closest competitor impotent.

To get that W, they’ll need to handle Dak Prescott and the No. 1 offense in the NFC.

The Cowboys’ quarterback is best known for regular-season brilliance and big-game disasters, but, like him or not, he’s on his way to his fourth Pro Bowl. Those trips have been fueled, partially, by his proficiency against the Eagles — a proficiency attained during the Birds’ current golden era.

Prescott is 14-9 against an Eagles franchise in its heyday. His passer rating of 98.9 is slightly better than his career rating of 98.5, but then, the Eagles are the best team he has regularly faced in his 10 seasons.

He’s thrown 24 touchdown passes in those 23 games, a modest number, but he has just eight interceptions, which is a remarkable number, considering the quality of the Eagles’ defenses in the last decade and the fact that those defenses are more familiar with him than with any other quarterback.

He hasn’t produced gaudy numbers the past three meetings. He managed only 188 yards and no scores in the Thursday Night Football season opener in Philadelphia, and he was injured for both games last season. However, in the five previous matchups, Prescott averaged 305 yards, completed 72% of his passes, threw for 16 touchdowns, and had just one interception. His passer rating was 129.7.

» READ MORE: Eagles vs. Cowboys predictions: Rounding up the experts’ picks for Week 12

Granted, since 2021, he has faced four different defensive coordinators and has seen a complete turnover of defensive personnel, save for Brandon Graham, who recently unretired and missed the opener.

But there’s just something about Philly that brings out the best in Dak. And, after missing half of 2024 with a hamstring injury, Dak is back to being Dak.

He leads the league with 253 completions, a 74.9 quarterback rating (which includes non-passing data), ranks third with 258.7 yards per game, ranks fourth with a 69.9% completion rate, and ranks eighth with a 102.5 passer rating.

That final stat can be misleading, considering that Jalen Hurts ranks fifth at 107.0, but no sane person would argue that Hurts is playing as well as Prescott — not even Eagles defensive coordinator Vic Fangio.

“He’s having a hell of a year,” Fangio said of Prescott on Tuesday.

Fangio might be playing possum here.

Prescott struggles against Fangio’s defenses. He lost to Fangio’s defense when Fangio coordinated for Miami in 2023. Fangio flummoxed Dak in 2021, when he was the head coach in Denver. They didn’t meet in 2024, but Dak wasn’t great in the opener in September.

The opener in Philly was Prescott’s best chance against Fangio, and he was aided by the idiocy of Fangio’s best weapon.

Pro Bowl defensive tackle Jalen Carter spat on Prescott before the first play from scrimmage and was ejected from the game. Prescott still didn’t throw for a TD pass.

For Sunday, not only is Carter is back and playing his best, he has reinforcements.

The Eagles added edge rusher Jaelen Phillips at the trade deadline. Nakobe Dean, lost in the playoffs to a knee injury, finally returned to play as a linebacker four games ago, which amplified the play of All Pro linebacker Zack Baun, and the Eagles have allowed just one meaningful touchdown in each of those four games, all wins. Graham hit the field two games ago, and the Eagles surrendered 16 total points in those two games.

» READ MORE: Cam Jurgens a full practice participant Friday, listed as questionable vs. Cowboys

Those aren’t even the best players.

George Pickens caught just three passes for 30 yards in the opener, and, though he had seven catches for 110 yards, CeeDee Lamb had just one catch for 13 yards against second-year shutdown corner Quinyon Mitchell, who is playing even better now. Mitchell’s independent competence helps nickel corner Cooper DeJean, who is solid in coverage, serve as a third, punishing safety.

“This is a hell of a defense,” Cowboys coach Brian Schottenheimer told reporters this week. “I think they’re best in the league.”

Schott’s offense, behind Dak, is the best in the conference: tops in total yards, at 378.8; Dak’s passing yards, at 258.7; and, most significantly, points, at 29.6. That final number should be the most troubling for the Birds, because they’ve scored just 26 points in their last two games, combined.

Which brings up the bizarre nature of the Eagles’ 2025 campaign.

Amid all the winning, most of the recent discussion surrounding the Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles (who are the NFC’s No. 1 seed at the moment) has been the toothlessness of the Eagles’ passing offense. It’s currently ranked 28th, leading to acontroversy surrounding Hurts and malcontent receiver A.J. Brown, fueled entirely by Brown.

That’s why, this week, so much attention is being paid to the Cowboys’ atrocious passing defense, which is the worst in the conference. Maybe the Eagles’ air attack will resurface Sunday.

Irrelevant.

The real story lies in the opposite matchup.

If, as Schottenheimer contends, the Eagles have the best defense; and if that defense can dominate Dallas’ incendiary attack; not only will the pursuit of the NFC East title be a fait accompli, but a second straight Lombardi trophy also should be in the Eagles’ future, too.

Remember:

The Eagles’ passing attack ranked 29th last year.

The defense was No. 1.

» READ MORE: Follow the Inquirer's complete coverage of Eagles football right here!