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Dak Prescott Hasn’t Lost an NFC East Home Game Since 2017, but it’s WORTH NOTING that Dak Doesn’t Play Defense
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The BOYS at 105.3 the fan think it’s gonna be a close game between Dallas and Philly this weekend. They’re pointing out a stat you may have heard 47 times this week already, that Dak hasn’t lost an NFC East home game since 2017:
That 2017 game wasn’t even close. Dak threw three picks against a team that would go on to win the Super Bowl a few months later. The Birds put up 215 rushing yards in a 37-9 win. It was a total blowout.
The thing about the Eagles and Cowboys is that they typically split the season series, and/or they don’t have their 1st string quarterbacks facing each other. Dak Prescott and Jalen Hurts had only faced each other three times before Week 1 of this year, which is crazy. That was in Week 3 of 2021, when the Eagles lost 41-21 in Dallas, then both games in 2023, when the Eagles won at home and lost on the road.
Since 2017, here’s what the road games in Dallas have looked like:
- 2018: Carson Wentz vs. Prescott – Cowboys win 29-23 in overtime
- 2019: Wentz vs. Prescott – Cowboys win 37-10
- 2020: rookie Hurts vs. Andy Dalton – Cowboys win 37-17
- 2021: Hurts vs. Prescott – Cowboys win 41-21
- 2022: Gardner Minshew vs. Prescott – Cowboys win 40-34
- 2023: Hurts vs. Prescott – Cowboys win 33-13
- 2024: Hurts vs. Cooper Rush – Eagles win 34-6 (the Sun Glare game)
The games have largely hit their overs. Only one has gone under 41 points since 2017, and that was last year, when the Birds smoked ’em. You’d be inclined to play the over again this weekend, considering that the Cowboys offense is really good and their defense stinks, but it’s been the opposite lately for the Eagles, with the defense being incredible and offense being pedestrian.
Jalen Hurts is only 1-3 at AT&T Stadium. He lost there as a rookie late in the season and the 2021 team was just average. If he plays in 2022, and not Minshew, they likely win that game. And 2023 was part of the late-season collapse, when nobody was playing well. All told, Hurts is 78-125 for 1,067 yards, 5 TDs, and 5 picks inside Jerry World. The rushing stats are average for him.
One of the storylines you hear this week is that the pressure is on the Eagles, that there’s turmoil in the locker room with all the A.J. Brown stuff. That’s possibly true, but there’s no pressure on the Cowboys because they stink. They’re ass. They’re 4-5-1 and the defense is an atrocity. Their wins this year are against the Giants, Raiders, Jets, and Commanders. They lost at home on Monday night to Jacoby Brissett and a three-win Cardinals team. They lost to Carolina and Chicago and needed overtime to beat Russell Wilson. So let’s not act like the Cowboys are anything more than what their record indicates. This whole Dak Prescott love fest is sickening. Sure, the guy is slinging the rock this year, but he’s only out there for half the snaps. He doesn’t play defense. It’s kind of like when Gisele Bundchen said of Tom Brady, “my husband cannot fucking throw the ball and catch it,” only in this case Dak isn’t lining up across from DeVonta Smith.
These NFC East games are typically slugfests, and nobody expects the Eagles to go down there an annihilate the Cowboys, especially after squeezing past them at home in the season opener, but they’d really have to play like butt to lose to this bang-average Dallas team.
Don’t overthink it. Take the Eagles at -170 on the moneyline.
Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports department and started with the Union during the team's 2010 inaugural season. He went to the academic powerhouses of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University. email - k.kinkead@sportradar.com