AN INCREDIBLE WIN

BY MARK HALPERN

Yesterday, the Dallas Cowboys came back from a 21 point deficit to defeat their long-time division rival the Philadelphia Eagles by the score of 24-21. On “Sunday Sideline Report” I discussed the importance of the game. If you want to hear what I said over 6 hours prior to kickoff please go watch this clip at 49:40 on our YouTube page here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDImMxxuZ1s&t=2983s. 

     The Cowboys were coming off a monster win over the Raiders. Most people saw it as just a win over a bad team, but something I noticed was that maybe after the trade deadline the Cowboys might have found something in this defense.

    The Eagles were in control of this game in the first half. The Dallas offense was moving the ball but would end up self sabotaging itself. Cee Dee Lamb was dropping passes again against Philly. The Eagles were winning the line of scrimmage and getting to Prescott. With under a minute the Cowboys were finally able to get on the board with a 3 yard pass from Prescott to Pickens to make it 21-7 at Halftime.

     I don’t know what was said by head coach Brian Schottenhimer and DC Matt Ebberflus but, I would have killed to be a fly on the wall. Whatever was said inspired this team because they looked like a different squad in the second half. 

    The second half was the complete opposite of the first half. The Eagles offense was a trainwreck, and the Cowboys were going up and down the field. I had predicted earlier that day Javonte Williams would be the fantasy point leader for the Cowboys (had a good day with 87 yards on 20 carries) but Dak Prescott went 23/35 for 354 yards along with 2 TD’s and 1 INT and also ran in a touchdown. You know who the big difference maker was in this game? George Pickens, who had a game high nine catches for 146 yards and a touchdown. In the week one meeting, Pickens was a non factor with three catches for 30 yards. This offense for the Cowboys isn’t a secret on how good it can be even against tougher defenses. The question becomes what is this defense?

    Through the first half this looked like it was going to be a trouncing of the Cowboys as the Eagles were up by 21 in the middle of the second quarter and all signs pointed to a very embarrassing day at AT&T Stadium. One thing that the Cowboys did was completely take Saquon Barkley out of the game limiting him to only 33 rushing yards (did have 50 yards receiving). Barkley also had a costly fumble. The Eagles put  everything on Hurts shoulders and the Cowboys were ready. The Defensive line made up of Clowney, Clark, Williams and a mix of players at DE on the right side were in Hurts’ face the whole half. The Defense only managed one sack but forced Hurts and company off the field and forced punts. The Cowboys and the Eagles could have won this game if BOTH Place Kickers had made respected field goals but to overtime, we went.

     The momentum was on the Cowboys side, but the Eagles had first chance and the Cowboys defensive plan hadn’t changed and they forced a Punt. Dak led a 9 play 49-yard drive with big passes to Jake Ferguson Once down to the 26 yard line Brandon Aubrey came out and did what he does best and kicked the ball straight through the uprights to put an exclamation point on the comeback.

    What’s next for the Cowboys is their Thanksgiving Day game against the Kansas City Chiefs, who had an impressive win of their own against the Colts this weekend. This game will be more of a test again for this re-tooled Dallas Defense as Patrick Mahomes and company are playing for their playoff lives.