The Dallas Cowboys went to Philadelphia and spotted them 20 points thanks to bonehead penalties, errant throws, and a refusal to challenge an obvious bad spot. Okay, maybe the Eagles made some good plays too, but the Cowboys did themselves no favors by digging a deep hole.
Luckily for the fans who stood by and cheered them on, the Cowboys put up a fight to cut the lead to three points in the fourth quarter. The Eagles finished strong and put the nail in the coffin to come away with a big divisional win, but it was still a noble effort by the Boys. There were some good things, and there were some bad things, and today we’ll highlight some of each as we see what we can learn after further review.
The Eagles are cheaters!
The first sting of the game came in the form of an encroachment penalty from Dante Fowler when he took the cheese on a 4th-and-4 play. The infraction gave the Eagles a fresh set of downs and instead of holding them to a field goal, the Cowboys surrendered a touchdown on the next play.
While it was a complete lack of discipline on Fowler’s part, credit the Eagles’ coaching staff for going the extra mile to sell this hard count. Jalen Hurts starts moving his arms, the tight end perfectly times his motion across the line of scrimmage, and the left tackle even turns his head. Fowler was the mark, and they got him.
Watch the Eagles initiate movement during the hard count with not one, not two, but three different players selling the snap. The Cowboys absolutely must show more discipline here. pic.twitter.com/a2M9liVwOH
— Dan Rogers (@DannyPhantom24) October 18, 2022
Bossman fat got in the way!
Kevin Joseph has been quite the disappointment when compared to his draft cost as he’s low on the cornerback depth chart, but to his credit, he’s been a very good special teams player as of late. However, on Sunday night, he was off his game. He got flagged for a block in the back and a personal foul penalty, but his most costly play came when he just got in the path of kick returner KaVontae Turpin.
Kelvin Joseph has been playing well on special teams, but he had a rough game Sunday night.
— Dan Rogers (@DannyPhantom24) October 18, 2022
KaVontae Turpin hits the hole, did an inside-out move to juke the defender, and should have been off to the races...that is until Joseph showed up like Leeroy Jenkins. pic.twitter.com/NJEq1t2uV1
Zeke was fighting
If you remove the three interceptions from Cooper Rush, the offense was pretty much on par. They weren’t explosive at all but found ways to move the ball. And one of those ways was to leverage off of their veteran running back Ezekiel Elliott. The workload was well balanced between Zeke (14 touches) and Tony Pollard (13 touches) and that extra rest helped Elliott churn out over six yards per rushing attempt.
Zeke was physical and turned what looked like small gains into larger ones that put the team in more favorable down and distance. He showed a lot of toughness in this one.
I really like how Ezekiel Elliott finished runs. He made some nice cuts to the outside and spun off tackles to fall forward for extra yards. It was a gritty performance by the Cowboys' veteran RB. pic.twitter.com/1J6ZQk1rzn
— Dan Rogers (@DannyPhantom24) October 18, 2022
Setting up the pass
The ability to run the ball enabled the Cowboys to work some play-action, and several times Rush would bootleg and hit his tight end for a nice gain. No Dalton Schultz, no problem as he found Jake Ferguson, Peyton Hendershot, and Sean McKeon at different points in the game.
And when you can successfully run the ball, it becomes very easy to catch the defense cheating down leaving themselves vulnerable to the tight-end bootleg. pic.twitter.com/0Vl17GGeYa
— Dan Rogers (@DannyPhantom24) October 18, 2022
Couldn’t stop the run when it mattered
The Cowboys weren’t the only team to commit to the ground attack as the Eagles worked a lot of inside zone runs. The threat of Jalen Hurts taking off kept the defense honest as Micah Parsons laid back not allowing Hurts to fly around the edge. The defense was able to hold Hurts to a respectable 27 yards rushing on nine attempts, but it came at a price as the Eagles' running backs found room to run inside.
One way to slow down Micah Parsons is to...well, slow down Micah Parsons. Freeze him by forcing him to respect Jalen Hurts legs and you've taken him out of the running game. pic.twitter.com/DRZF90FKX0
— Dan Rogers (@DannyPhantom24) October 18, 2022
If containing the run wasn’t hard enough, the Cowboys also had a tough time stopping A.J. Brown whenever he came across in motion.
And Micah chasing after A.J. Brown from a dead stop is not ideal. pic.twitter.com/03P2fQVygE
— Dan Rogers (@DannyPhantom24) October 18, 2022
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