Coming into Thursday night time’s NFL kickoff between the Cowboys and the reigning Tremendous Bowl champion Eagles, no one was believing in America’s Crew. They had been the most important underdog of any staff in Week 1, and hardly anybody was predicting the Cowboys to win.
They didn’t win, in fact; Philadelphia held on to win 24-20 in a recreation that noticed a flurry of scoring within the first half adopted by simply three mixed factors within the second half. However the method by which this recreation unfolded – Dak Prescott returning to kind, the Dallas protection shutting the Eagles out of the endzone within the second half – supplied actual hope for the season after every week that seemingly extinguished all of it.
It was a peculiar recreation by means of and thru, too.
The opening kickoff featured an Eagles participant, fullback Ben VanSumeren, struggling an damage that required him to be carted off. As that occurred, Eagles star defensive deal with Jalen Carter acquired ejected after spitting on Prescott. The Philadelphia protection misplaced its finest participant earlier than they’d even performed a down.
That prompted a sizzling begin from Prescott and the Cowboys offense of their first actual displaying with Brian Schottenheimer calling performs. And boy did the offense look good, too. There was pre-snap movement, play-action, jet sweep movement with KaVontae Turpin, and a few actually, actually robust operating from Javonte Williams.
Earlier than lengthy, Williams had two dashing touchdowns, and the Cowboys had been up 17-14 with simply over two minutes left within the half. A landing run from Saquon Barkley put the Eagles again up, however Prescott made simply sufficient performs to get in vary for one more Brandon Aubrey area purpose, chopping it to a 21-20 halftime rating.
The issue within the first half had been protection, and that went each methods. The Eagles couldn’t cease Prescott, however Matt Eberflus’ unit was additionally struggling. There was hardly any move rush, and Jalen Hurts was operating far and wide. He and Barkley helped rack up 100+ dashing yards in simply the primary half.
One thing clicked, although. The protection tightened up within the second half, making a giant cease on third right down to restrict Philadelphia to a 58-yard area purpose from Jake Elliott on their opening drive of the third quarter. It felt as if issues had been beginning to shift within the Cowboys’ favor.
That feeling was intensified when Miles Sanders, a former Eagle, broke off a 49-yard run to flip the sphere. Out of the blue, the Cowboys had been simply 11 yards out from taking the lead. Then, more unusual issues occurred. An pointless roughness penalty on George Pickens backed them up, an pointless roughness penalty on the Eagles moved them ahead, after which Sanders misplaced the ball.
The Eagles recovered that fumble, and a gutsy diving deal with from Prescott prevented a landing return, however the drive had been killed. And simply to make issues much more peculiar, lightning began to strike close by, and the sport went right into a rain delay that lasted simply over an hour.
When the groups lastly got here again out, the Cowboys protection was enjoying on one other stage. They held Barkley to -1 dashing yard the remainder of the best way on seven carries, and Hurts was consistently underneath duress. The Eagles by no means even reached Dallas territory from then on, and the one drive they didn’t punt on was the ultimate drive that noticed them take a knee.
The issue was the offense took a step again, notably star receiver CeeDee Lamb. All advised, Lamb had 4 drops all through the night time, with two enormous ones on the ultimate offensive possession for Dallas. The primary was a deep shot that Prescott dropped that was proper into his palms, one that will have set the Cowboys up proper outdoors the purple zone, however Lamb couldn’t corral it.
The second got here on fourth down, and was a bit harder to catch. Lamb had a step on his man, and Prescott lofted it up for him, however Lamb needed to absolutely prolong to get his palms on the ball. In the end, he was unable to deliver it in, however it’s the type of catch {that a} participant of Lamb’s caliber must be making, particularly in that scenario.
The sport was removed from good, however there have been notable positives to take out of this one. Prescott didn’t appear like somebody who wanted preseason reps, Lamb was electrical outdoors of these drops in massive moments, the run recreation really averaged extra per carry than the Eagles, and the protection proved it has some juice. The Cowboys had been additionally the extra disciplined staff, drawing simply 4 penalties in comparison with Philadelphia’s 9.
There was lots occurring on this recreation, and it will likely be remembered for a lot of issues, however Schottenheimer’s debut as a head coach was definitely promising. It’s a troublesome one to lose, however the truth that Dallas was even in it as the 2 minute warning arrived is healthier than almost anybody anticipated. If the Cowboys play this manner each single week, they’re going to win loads of video games.
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