Sometimes you have to observe things at surface level and keep it simple:

The Eagles are not going to lose at home, in prime time, to Cooper Rush.

We could start and end the column right there, but then it wouldn’t be much of a post, would it? Seriously though, if you think a backup game manager is gonna come into Lincoln Financial Field on Sunday night and defeat the 5-0 Philadelphia Eagles, then you’ve got another thing comin’, as Rob Halford said back in 1982.

In the win that improved the Cowboys to 4-1 this past weekend, Rush went 10 to 16 for 102 yards and zero touchdowns while the defending Super Bowl champion LA Rams turned the ball over three times, one of those cough ups a 19-yard scoop and score for DeMarcus Lawrence. Outside of a 57-yard Tony Pollard touchdown run, the Cowboy offense was only able to bag field goals while mustering 239 yards of total offense and going 5 for 15 on third down.

There should be no worry for the Eagles defense this Sunday. Coming into the game, the Cowboys have the following offensive ranks, according to Sport Radar data:


  • 18.6 points per game (24th)
  • 1,490 net yards (27th)
  • 5.07 net yards per play (23rd)
  • 15 plays of 20+ yards (24th)
  • 11 red zone drives (31st)
  • 30.9% on third down (29th)

So on and so forth.

What Rush has done well is play within himself. He’s taking what’s given and not trying to do too much, which has resulted in a safe and boring type of offensive display. He’s not throwing picks and taking horrific sacks. He’s managing the offense and doing enough to get the job done, oftentimes benefiting from great play provided by….

The Dallas Defense

This is the real challenge, and pretty much the only challenge of the game. If the Eagles get shredded by Rush, Pollard, Zeke Elliott, and CeeDee Lamb, then put the game film in the bagster and go back to the drawing board.

Here are some key Dallas defense takeaways, also from Sport Radar, but the thing here that nobody wants to talk about is that the Birds defense ranks almost the same or even better than the Cowboys in most categories across the board:

  • just 11 plays of 20+ yards allowed (tied for 2nd with the Eagles)
  • 25 hurries (3rd, Eagles are 4th)
  • 20 sacks (2nd, Eagles are 4th)
  • 17 opponent scoring drives (6th, Eagles are 3rd)
  • 14.4 points allowed per game (3rd, Eagles are 7th)
  • 47 quarterback hits (1st, Eagles are 7th)
  • 33 tackles for loss (2nd, Eagles are 7th)
  • 7 takeaways (tied for 13th, Eagles are tied for 1st)
  • 311 yards allowed per game (7th, Eagles are 4th)

The Birds defense is right there with the Cowboy defense on paper.

The key differentiator here is strength of schedule. Against a common opponent, the Washington Commanders, the Cowboys won 25-10 at home and the Eagles won 24-8 on the road. The defensive performances were very similar and the opposing quarterback was, well, you know.

The Cowboys’ best win is either the Rams this past weekend, or the road victory over the 4-1 Giants, a game that set football back several decades. You can say that New York is an overachieving pretender playing unsustainable football under a fantastic new coaching staff, but winning on the road in the division is never easy and you have to take them seriously until they start to slip.

The Birds’ best win is at home over a 4-1 Minnesota team. The Vikings had zero answers for the Eagles in prime time after dispatching Green Bay rather easily in Week 1. They went on to win three close games over the Lions, Bears, and Saints.

Dallas does have victories over the two teams that went to the Super Bowl last year. Hangover or not, their resume looks stronger going into Week 6. But anybody calling this defense the 1985 Chicago Bears is going way overboard at this point. That is a fantastic unit with Micah Parsons, Lawrence, Armstrong, Wilson, Hooker, etc – but across the board, the Eagles D is pretty much matching everything that Dallas is doing statistically, so there’s some subjectivity in comparing the Birds and Cowboys defenses based on whatever opinion you want to form about Matt Stafford, Joe Burrow, Kirk Cousins, and Kyler Murray in 2022.

Nobody is going to overlook a 4-1 division rival coming into Lincoln Financial Field, or guarantee a win or do anything naive like that, but this Cowboys team is not the world beater Twitter would have you think it is. If you’re scared of the Cowboys, get a dog. Birds win a close one on Sunday night, 17 to 13.