Dallas Week — Eagles at Cowboys Preview

While this game has lost some juice because of the injury to Dak Prescott, it’s impossible to not get hyped up for Dallas week.

The Cowboys have had a rough start to the season, with a 3-5 record, and Dak Prescott probably out for the season. The Eagles have back to back division games in the next 5 days, and if they win both they could put themselves in the drivers seat for the NFC East crown.

Prescott Likely Out For Season

In their week 9 loss to the Falcons Dak Prescott suffered a hamstring injury that many thought would leave him out for a few weeks. Now, coming off multiple reports, it seems as if he may be done for the season. Prescott is planning on getting season ending surgery on his hamstring, which paves the way for Cooper Rush to be their starting quarterback for the second half of the season.

Cooper Rush has a career 5-1 record as a starting quarterback in the NFL. His only loss, came to the Eagles. In 2022 Rush threw for 1,051 yards, 5td and 3ints in his 6 starts. While Rush played well in 2022, the Eagles were able to take advantage of his weaknesses and cause turnovers, which is something they have to do again this week. The Eagles defense caused 2 turnovers last week against Jacksonville, and it will be a key to winning the game today.

The Cowboys will also probably lean on their running game today, but that is not exactly a strength of their team. While the Eagles, Ravens, and Texans signed big-name and high-price running backs, the Cowboys went back to the well with Ezekiel Elliott. Elliott did not travel with the team to Atlanta because of disciplinary reasons, but he will be available today. Elliott has only ran the ball 48 times for 149 yards and 2 touchdowns. They also have another running back in Rico Dowdle. Dowdle has run the ball 71 times for 321 yards this season. He had a good game last week with Elliott out rushing for 75 yards on just 12 carries. They also use him out of the backfield as he had 5 catches last week. The Eagles need to continue with their great run defense this week, against a horrible rushing offense that may be forced to run the ball.

Ankle Gate

During Wednesday’s practice, the Eagles had many players who were limited in practice, and one of them was Jalen Hurts. Hurts was listed as limited with a designation of “rest”. Many people who have covered the Eagles for a long time raised an eyebrow at that because to their knowledge Hurts had never been limited in practice for just rest. But, with a game in Dallas on Sunday, and then a game at home against Washington on Thursday, it makes sense for the Eagles to give everyone, including Hurts some extra rest.

During Fridays press availability Nick Sirianni was asked about Hurts being limited in practice, and he said that he was dealing with an ankle injury. Many reporters then spoke up to ask Nick if he has an ankle injury because he was listed as rest.

It was later reported by Tim McManus of ESPN that Hurts has been dealing with a minor ankle injury for the past few weeks.

While the Eagles will definitely be fined for this, I do not think it’s a big deal. What I would tell people who are worried about this is to think back to the games. Has Hurts looked slow, or hobbled, or that he is favoring one leg? The answer to all those questions is no, in fact, many believe Hurts has looked faster than he did last year. Everyone is dealing with stuff at this time of the year, and until he misses practice with an “ankle” designation I am not worried about it.

Dallas Week Trap Game?

While it may sound ridiculous to say that a game against the hated Dallas Cowboys could be a trap game, but with Prescott’s injury, and the division-leading Washington Commanders looming on Thursday night, it’s impossible as a fan to have that creep into your mind. For all those that are worried about that, I would say that Nick Sirianni has done a great job over his tenure at having this team ready to go and focused on one day at a time. I also believe that because of Jalen Hurts’ and this era of Eagles football’s struggles in Dallas, they will be extra motivated to end that. The Eagles have not won in Dallas since 2017, and they will look to end that streak today.

Programming note: 4:25 ET CBS and 94 WIP

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