Breaking down the Philadelphia Eagles' dominant win against the Dallas Cowboys in Week 6
The Philadelphia Eagles maintained their unbeaten start to the season with a 26-17 win against the Dallas Cowboys in Week 6.
After a scoreless first quarter, the Eagles put up 20 in the second to take control of the divisional game. Although the Cowboys picked up the pace in the second half, the deficit was too steep to overcome.
With the win, the Eagles improved to 6-0, taking a commanding lead in the NFC East.
Here, we look at the factors that contributed to the Eagles' victory:
Cowboys Offense vs. Eagles Defense
As an advocate for offenses zagging while everyone is zigging with two-high shells on the defensive side and taking advantage of favorable box counts in the run game, I certainly won't shame teams for sticking with the run game, even if they don’t find instant success, especially playing with a backup quarterback.
With that being said, there were way too many run calls on 1st or 2nd & 10 for Dallas, to where Philly routinely brought a safety down in the box late and even started to blitz, knowing what was coming.
In terms of the carries their running backs Ezekiel Elliott and Tony Pollard handled, they picked up just 43 yards on 13 attempts. The one time they did go play-action, Cooper Rush just blindly threw the ball over the middle to Michael Gallup. The ball was popped up and Chauncey Gardner-Johnson came up with the pick.
It's also a mystery as to why Zeke was in the lineup in no-huddle situation, when they didn’t actually leave him in protection. That was really evident on the two-minute drill before the break, where he was out in the pattern on all five of their pass plays, actually starting with a couple of empty sets.
He had a couple of nice carries in the second half and his stat-line at the end of the day looked good, but he’s definitely not more of an asset in space than Pollard.
And then of course we saw the real Cooper Rush stand up. He was under plenty of heat throughout the night, but also had some bad misses. He placed the ball low and inside on a corner route, which the safety was able to bat away. He also air-mailed the ball a couple of yards over the head of his tight-end on a glance route over the middle, because he didn’t look confident at all.
He also failed to lead Michael Gallup far enough towards the inside on a bang-eight route, after releasing to the sideline at the snap against Darius Slay, who ended up undercutting the throw for another pick.
The Eagles were in a lot of five-man fronts to allow guys like Jordan Davis to control their solo-blocks. They never really got any movement going, to where the backs for the Cowboys could press creases and influence the second level.
When Dallas was able to combo on the nose-tackle, they were able to create some momentum and open up a little bit of a lane on the inside, but that wasn’t really the case until they were down 20-3 at halftime.
The Philly linebackers deserve plenty of credit as well. When Philly was in two-high looks on early downs, even against 12 personnel, T.J. Edwards managed to blow up the pulling guard in the hole. Kyzir White also scraped over the top of blockers and chased things down towards the sideline.
Watching a couple of pass-rush snaps for Philly out of those five-man looks up front, you really saw them collapse the pocket from all angles and just take away any space for Cooper Rush to step into throws.
The Cowboys QB being pressured on a season-low 10.5 percent of dropbacks is a farce, because they never allowed him to get comfortable, with the walls closing in around him.
Those two corners for Philly are playing at an extremely high level right now, showing great football IQ, funneling receivers towards safety help and anticipating route combination in zone, along with using leverage to their advantage when matching up against guys on the perimeter.
Combine that with how opportunistic that entire secondary has been and they are number one with 14 takeaways on the year.
Eagles Offense vs. Cowboys Defense
In the run game, the one concept the Cowboys simply couldn’t stop was GT power, with the Eagles consistently getting a solid kick-out and then having those linebackers covered up by the tackle wrapping around.
Philly once again ran a ton of RPO variations, off split zone and power concepts, with a slant-flat combination on the backside. They also gave Jalen Hurts that extra option of keeping the ball or flipping the ball to A.J. Brown on a slide route coming underneath the formation.
Off those RPO looks with ta threat in the flats, faking a pick-play and having a Heisman trophy winner in DeVonta Smith sneaking behind the defense for an easy touchdown just feels unfair.
They make the offense look easy, putting different defenders in conflict as they option off them, flipping it out to receivers on quick screens whenever they have numbers advantages.
I really like what Philly can run out of those two-by-two sets, with Ace Duo (two TEs) and twins on either side of the formation. Dallas really overloaded that two-TE side and presented favorable looks running towards the weak-side or calling up double slants with Brown and DeVonta Smith punishing any cushion they were given with the inside access.
They went back to the well over and over again, as they presented issues for the defense out of those looks. Hurts didn’t make as much of an impact with his legs as we’re used to, but he’s now 13-of-15 on third or fourth-and-one this season. At this point they are so unstoppable in that regard, that they just line up in what looks like victory formation and let their power-squatting 230-pound quarterback power ahead, with everybody else pushing him forward.
Although the Cowboys gave up a season-high 26 points in Philadelphia, they did a really good job of settling back in, following that 20-0 start by the Eagles.
Following a five-and-out opening series, the home team did score on four straight possessions, but two interceptions thrown by Cooper Rush and that unnecessary turnover on downs set Philly up at the Dallas 44, 34 and 46. The Cowboys D held them to field goals on the latter two and forced their opponents to punt within four plays on all but one of their four second-half possessions.
Dallas also used some five-man fronts on Sunday to match what the Eagles could provide in terms of vertical movement in the run game. Their issues came when those guys were able to create angles and cover up bodies with pulling linemen.
However, what I liked watching were some of the three-man games Philly ran with the interior three, slanting a couple of guys one gap over and the third one over the top of them towards the opposite B-gap.
As long as Lane Johnson was at right tackle, he did a tremendous job of locking up Micah Parsons, who had his only game of the season with zero pressures. Nevertheless, he made a couple of nice plays in coverage.
Early on, as an off-ball player, he managed to get a hand on a pass to Dallas Goedert, and then in the second half he peeled off the edge and perfectly widened with the tight-end on a stick/out route, where he got both hands on the ball. However, he got into the face of Goedert and got called for unsportsmanlike conduct, to extend that drive.
The Eagles averaged just 3.9 yards per offensive play, but they gave Dallas some issues with the formations they presented, such as overloading the two-TE set in the two-by-two looks, and singling out an individual player and forcing them to commit.
Lack of discipline and poor game management plague the Cowboys
Where are the people asking for Cooper Rush to stay at quarterback even when Dak Prescott is healthy now? Their backup QB missed some easy throws and cost them with turnovers against the Eagles.
However, the more glaring problem is Mike McCarthy, who is truly one of the worst game managers in the NFL. Instead of either challenging or at least giving the refs time to huddle up about the spot, when CeeDee Lamb looked like he had clearly stretched the ball across the first-down marker, they quick-snapped the ball on a bootleg that they must have installed beforehand.
It's safe to say that the play did not work, with Lamb banging into fellow receiver Noah Brown tasked with sealing outside linebacker Haason Reddick. They didn't get the first down and set the Eagles up to go up by three scores.
Another re-occurring issue for Dallas is the lack of discipline. Dante Fowler had a really bad moment, jumping across the line with time running out in the first quarter, when the Eagles never intended to go for it. They ended up scoring the their first touchdown on the very next snap.
Altogether, Dallas got penalized 10 times for 72 yards, along with losing the turnover battle three-to-nothing. That’s not winning football and they absolutely need to clean things up. Having Dak Prescott back under center will be huge and give that offense some more explosiveness.
For the Eagles, the train just keeps on rolling, as they remain the lone undefeated team in the league at 6-0. They’re bigger and more physical than any other team in the league and they’re probably the most balanced in terms of how they've built up their roster.
The one thing you can critique is that in each of the last three weeks, they’ve been up two touchdowns and allowed the opposition to cut it down to single-digits. That’s surprising for a team that can run the ball as effectively as Philadelphia.
Yet, they did step up on Sunday night on both sides of the ball, when Dallas had come within three points. They answered with a 13-play touchdown drive and then a second interception for Chauncey Gardner-Johnson.
Looking at their upcoming schedule, the Indianapolis Colts and Tennessee Titans are the only teams they're scheduled to face with a record above .500 until Week 16. What follows will be a gigantic rematch against Dallas and then hosting the New York Giants.
Having won their first matchup against a Dak-less Cowboys team and having a two-game lead over Dallas is huge.