Talk about a pleasant evening. Not only did the Eagles beat the Cowboys in Dallas for the first time since 2017, but they thrashed ’em pretty good, trailing for a grand total of zero seconds down in Jerry World, where the players needed military-grade glasses to deal with the first half sun glare. Once they settled in, they scored 24 unanswered points and it was Kenny Pickett and Will Shipley time in the Big D.

Dak Prescott didn’t play, but does it matter? It does not. You beat the guys they put in front of you, and in this case it was mostly Cooper Rush with a quarter of Trey Lance thrown in. The Birds’ defense didn’t allow a touchdown, giving up 121 yards and creating four takeaways before garbage time began around the 12:00 mark of the fourth quarter. They picked off Lance from there to make it four Dallas fumbles and an interception.

That’s five wins a row for the Eagles, who are 7-2 and now lead the NFC East after the Washington Commanders lost to the Steelers at home. Now the Commies have to come up to Philly on Thursday night and there’s a quick-turnaround chance to extend the division lead and keep the train rolling. All aboard! Choo choo!

To the observations:

1) I thought it was going to be annoying listening to former Cowboy Tony Romo call a Cowboys/Eagles game in Dallas, but he wasn’t bad. It’s like he knew the Cowboys sucked, so he was somewhat subdued.


2) CJGJ laying the wood on Jalen Tolbert was an appropriate way to start the game. A “tone setter” type of play that provided some foreshadowing of what we’d see from the defense.

3) Jalen Hurts’ ankle looked totally fine. He finished with 56 yards on seven carries, only one of which was a tush push.

4) That first Eagles drive looked promising until 3rd and 33 popped up on the screen. They’ve only scored once on their first possession in nine games this year, which was the field goal in Cincinnati. They have, however, scored in the first quarter two times in a row, after going seven games in a row without doing it.

5) Thank you to Cooper Rush for dropping a snap and giving the Birds the ball on the Cowboys’ 17 yard line. Rush may have had Philadelphia Eagles -7.5 at his favorite Pennsylvania sports betting app.

6) Sounds like Birds fans took over down there:

7) Hurts picked off in the end zone. That was his first turnover since the Tampa game. He killed three of the first four drives with two bad sacks and the red zone interception, then he killed the 5th drive with the fumble. It couldn’t have been easy to play with that horrific glare during the 2nd quarter in particular, but if you go back and watch the fumble again, he was looking at a curl on the left that was covered:

I thought at first it was a “four verticals” special, but he was staring down A.J. Brown on the left and didn’t pull out of the read fast enough. Saquon Barkley was injured trying to get the loose ball, but thankfully came back into the game.

8) The Cowboys’ 4th drive was a doozy. A swing pass for no gain, a two-yard run, and then a 3rd and 9 screen to CeeDee Lamb that went nowhere. The type of drive that makes you wanna call WIP on a Monday morning.

9) Not gonna lie, I panicked for a minute when Cooper DeJean lost his footing on that punt return. You see non-contact and think the worst, but he just slipped. Whew.

10) Thank you to Zeke Elliott for fumbling out of the end zone. Great play Zack Baun and CJGJ. Best part is Lamb just standing there, knowing what happens next:

11) Too many shadows for a dome stadium. Whatever the sun did to Hurts in the first half, it screwed up what looked like a surefire touchdown pass from Rush to Lamb in the end zone. Great job by Jerry Jones in building a stadium where the sun comes in directly from the side and blinds all of the players. Brilliant!

12) Fans and media love to use the word “adjustments” but usually can’t tell you what adjustment they want to see. Jalen on the drive right before halftime was a good example of seeing actual changes in real time. Credit to Kellen Moore as well. You saw shorter passes, better blitz recognition, and a heightened awareness in the pocket. He got out of there pretty quickly on the big gain that got them into the red zone, then sidestepped some fool on the touchdown pass. 7 plays, 84 yards, 85 seconds. The processing speed and quickness in play was noticeable. Combine that with the play calling and there’s your “adjustment.”

13) No political ads? It was beautiful.

14) Johnny Wilson came into the game with one catch for nine yards on six targets. He’s been out there blocking and running routes, playing some special teams and putting in the work, so it’s gotta feel good to hang in there and get your first NFL touchdown on a play where Hurts kept moving and stepped through the pocket.

15) Did Dallas throw the ball down the field at all? It felt like 90% of what they were doing was short and sideways bullshit. Maybe Rush underthrowing Lamb and hitting Big Play Slay right in the back was a good snapshot to explain why they called the game the way they did. They couldn’t throw the ball or run it, but other than that, their offense did a good job.

16) What do we think Trevon Diggs said to Hurts after he ran over Jourdan Lewis? Go sit down man.

17) That’s the 2nd time in three games that Hurts has scored a rushing TD on a zone read. It’s really nice to see that play be effective again. It was key to what they did in 2022 and makes them a lot more dynamic in the running game, which is already dynamic simply in the ways they run all of those different blocking schemes for Saquon.

18) BRYCE MOTHERFUCKING HUFF!

Never doubted him. Not once.

19) Nothing profound here, just wanna shout out Baun and Nakobe Dean. The linebackers have played really well during this winning streak. Baun might be the best 2024 free agent pickup in the NFL.

20) Final point – it’s funny to hear Rush and Lance do Dak’s stupid “here we go!” thing at the line, especially down by 28 points in the fourth quarter. Hilarious. HOW BOUT THEM COWBOYS! Poor Billy Gibbons had a rough one: