The Philadelphia Eagles lost four games all last season, including the Super Bowl. All four losses were competitive deep into the fourth quarter.
Through 11 games this season, the Eagles’ only loss was to the New York Jets and the Jets didn’t take the lead until the final two minutes.
It seems like we could say that Sunday’s Eagles loss was their worst in two seasons, except that they got similarly blown out last week. The Eagles’ 33-13 loss to the Dallas Cowboys not only ties up the NFC East race with four games left, but the way the game played out has to be troubling for Philadelphia. Especially given how badly the San Francisco 49ers outplayed the Eagles last week.
The Eagles were never in the game. They were down 10-0 in the first quarter and 24-6 at halftime. It didn’t get better in the second half. Philadelphia didn’t score an offensive touchdown and lost by 20 despite a defensive touchdown. The Eagles came in with the better record, and nobody who watched the game would have identified them as the better team.
The worst part was that it looked eerily similar to the 49ers game. The Eagles are 10-3, tied for the best record in the NFL, and based on the past two games they’ve looked overmatched. That’s not supposed to happen to this Eagles team.
Eagles have a slow start
Maybe 10 or 20 years ago, the Eagles’ 10-1 start would have been taken at face value. But in this era of advanced stats, most attentive NFL fans realized that the Eagles were living a charmed life. Their lackluster point differential was a telltale sign. The Eagles were living off of wild comebacks and close wins, which was unsustainable. Other analytics indicated the Eagles weren’t in the conversation for best team in football, only best record.
The start to the Cowboys game was a continuation of the 49ers game for the Eagles. Dallas looked sharp. The Cowboys scored on all four of their possessions in the first half. Dak Prescott is the hottest quarterback in the NFL and he was rolling against the Eagles to start the game. He had 157 yards and two touchdowns before halftime.
The Eagles’ offense couldn’t find the end zone. It got a couple of field goals and moved the ball well enough, but didn’t have a touchdown in the first half.
The defense got one. Prescott was sacked by Fletcher Cox, fumbled and rookie defensive tackle Jalen Carter scooped it and scored on a 42-yard return.
It was a huge play, but the Eagles were getting beaten so badly they still trailed by 11 points. They never got closer than that either.
Jalen Carter with the scoop and score off a Dak Prescott fumble ‼️
(via @NFL)pic.twitter.com/Pva5eywsX6
— Yahoo Sports (@YahooSports) December 11, 2023
Eagles get outplayed again
Other than the Carter scoop and score, the Cowboys kept making the plays that the Eagles weren’t. Their kicker, Brandon Aubrey, continued his perfect streak on field-goal attempts to start his career, including kicks from 60 and 59 yards. Cowboys cornerback Stephon Gilmore, who forced an A.J. Brown fumble on Philadelphia’s first possession, had a clutch tackle on a fourth-and-8 catch by DeVonta Smith in the fourth quarter.
At every turn, the Cowboys were better. Prescott outplayed Jalen Hurts. CeeDee Lamb had a much bigger impact than Brown or Smith. Dallas tight end Jake Ferguson even had a handful of highlight plays. The Eagles turned it over three times in Cowboys territory, which didn’t help. The poor performance is concerning for an Eagles team that had the inside track to the NFC East title and NFC’s No. 1 seed as Week 13 kicked off.
The Eagles are still in fine shape for the NFC East. The Cowboys can’t win the division if the Eagles win out. If both teams lose once, the Eagles still might take the tiebreaker. There’s a little more concern with the No. 1 seed and the 49ers, but the Eagles have the easier remaining schedule of the two. Philadelphia doesn’t have one game remaining against a team that currently has a winning record.
It might all work out for the Eagles. You don’t win 10 games on dumb luck, and they still have perhaps the most talented roster in the NFL. The coaching staff is good enough to fix some issues before any playoff rematch against the 49ers or Cowboys. But the past two games have exposed some flaws from the Eagles that we hadn’t seen in a couple seasons.
