A bad hand: 6 takeaways from Cowboys-Eagles a day later

When Saquon Barkley caught a 12-yard play-action pass from Tanner McKee on the Eagles’ first play from scrimmage Monday night, things looked promising. It was the first time this offense really started to look as advertised during the preseason.

One play later, Barkley ripped off a 29-yard run and limped off as his back locked up. Barkley would only see seven more snaps the rest of the night.

It was symbolic of the Eagles’ 38-21 loss to the Dallas Cowboys. The night started with assurance and ended with disavowal.

“Yeah, it sucks when it’s not going the way you want it to go,” Barkley said postgame. “But I don’t know, it’s kind of the school of thought I come from. I truly love this game and I feel like if you’re able to go sometimes you got to push your body to the limit and I’m trying and it’s not responding the way I want it to respond right now and it sucks because trying to be the best leader I want to be and it’s hard when you’re not able to be out there and perform for your team, but I can’t make any excuses. That’s just the hand I’m dealt with this year.

“Something I’m dealing with right now. I just gotta continue trusting the trainers and strength coaches and everybody, who are doing an amazing job. The fact that we were able to go out there two weeks after this hamstring, I think we did a really good job. I’m not an easy person to deal with when I’m hurt. The rehab process and the mental part of it, I appreciate them. But just gotta keep going. It sucks. Just got to keep fighting.”

That is how it is going for Barkley this season, who attempted to return Monday night after missing the previous two weeks with a hamstring injury. It is also how it is faring for the Eagles. They have been handed a putrid hand. And at 2-5 and through five straight losses for the first time since 2016, they must pick a direction.

Here are my six takeaways a day after the loss:

1. Bullied up front

The Eagles’ philosophy for the last two decades has been to build through the trenches, especially on defense. It has led to much success and the franchise’s most prosperous period.

Well, that ideology got exploited Monday night.

“It starts up front,” Jordan Davis said. “It starts from up front, and then it bleeds into all three levels. We didn’t play good enough against the run and it kind of opened up their whole playbook. Obviously, we see the result of that. Right now, it’s just re-focus. I know it seems redundant but right now it’s just re-focus.”

The Cowboys came into this game ranked 30th in the NFL with 76 rushing yards per game and 31st with 3.0 yards per carry. Against the Eagles, they rushed for 204 yards, the second-most the Eagles have allowed under defensive coordinator Vic Fangio, and 5.4 yards per carry. Javonte Williams plowed for 155 yards and a touchdown. It is the most rushing yards against the Eagles since Rashad Jennings had 170 back in 2016.

“Obviously, it’s never just one thing when you give up a bunch of yards like that,” head coach Nick Sirianni said. “We’ve got to do a better job coaching. We’ve got to do a better job executing, getting off blocks, tackling. We had a couple missed tackles, but it’s always going to be about block destruction, playing on their side of the line of scrimmage, and then us putting them in positions to succeed. I give them credit. They played a good game. Hats off to them.”

In turn, since the Eagles could not stop the run, they did not touch Dak Prescott. He could have grabbed a pillow and blanket in the pocket and been secure. The Eagles converted zero turnovers, zero quarterback hits, zero sacks, and just six total pressures. They have eight sacks this season.

They are banged up at that unit. Jonathan Greenard has had an ankle issue, Jalyx Hunt suffered that ankle/knee injury in London, and the Eagles were without Nolan Smith with a concussion. Still, with the following contracts the Eagles handed out this offseason and the fact that this group was supposed to be this team’s top strength, they have been a massive disappointment:

• Jalen Carter: four years, $152 million
• Davis: three years, $78 million
• Greenard: four years, $98 million

Both Carter and Greenard refused to speak to the media postgame.

“When you’re not getting pressures, you’ve got to try to simulate them in some way,” Sirianni said. “So again, it’s always a version of, how are we executing? How are we putting them in positions to succeed? Because all that matters is that it goes out onto the field and we try to give ourselves the best chance to win.

“In this game of football, just like anything, I think we always want to pin it on something, but there’s multiple things that contribute to it. We’ll look at that, look at some of the common themes and see what we need to do to get better.”

2. Secondary continues to underachieve

When you have two first-team All-Pros and another corner who was expected to be near that level, the way this secondary has turned out is embarrassing.

The Eagles allowed Prescott to toss three touchdown passes on Monday, now permitting seven in the last three games. While those passes were dimes, still, come on. We are seven games in, and the Eagles have three interceptions. The pressure up front is not helping, but this unit, we think, is still talented enough to create some turnovers.

Riq Woolen has been a disappointment and played pretty soft Monday night, Cooper DeJean looks like a shell of his former self, and Andrew Mukuba has dissatisfied in his second season. Quinyon Mitchell, who seems to get injured every game, cannot do everything.

“When our offense scores 21 points, that’s a game we should win,” DeJean said. “We got to be able to win on first down to set ourselves to do the things we do best on second and third down. And we didn’t do that tonight. I feel like we gave them a lot of second-and-shorts, third-and-shorts. Didn’t allow us to play the game we play best. Winning first down is key.”

3. Some more depressing defensive nuggets

Why not more?

Here we go…

• This was the most points the Eagles allowed in the Fangio era.
• The Eagles have allowed at least 399 yards in four consecutive games for just the second time in franchise history.
• Eagles surrendered 275 total yards at halftime, their second-most under Fangio. They surrendered 287 first-half yards in a 33-16 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2024.
• This was the most points the Eagles allowed in a first half since Week 6 last year against the New York Giants.
• Eagles yardage differential, last 5 games: Week 3 (Chicago Bears): -127, Week 4 (Los Angeles Rams): -243, Week 5 (Jacksonville Jaguars): -176, Week 6 (Carolina Panthers): -177, Week 7 (Cowboys): -95, Total: -818.
• The Eagles delivered the eighth-worst performance by any defense in a game this season (EPA/Drive).
• They allowed four touchdowns and three field goals on nine possessions.
• The Eagles have been out-gained by 745 yards this season. That is their worst yardage differential through seven weeks this century. It is over 300 yards worse than any other Eagles team since 2000.

The defense has been considerably worse than the offense this year. When you look at what our expectations were for this team, the defense was assumed to be the strong suit and carry them while the offense figured things out.

They do not get turnovers; they do not generate pressure; they do not get sacks; they cannot stop the run; they cannot cover.

What can they do?

“Whatever it is, we need to identify it,” Davis said. “We have to do better at it. We have to go out there and we have to make sure that we are affecting the pass and the run. We have to play stout in all three phases.”

READ MORE ON THE DEFENSE HERE:

Eagles Defense Has No Answers in Embarrassing Loss to Cowboys: ‘That’s a Game We Should Win’

4. Offense actually looked pretty good

The Eagles’ offense surprisingly was not too bad. Love some positivity.

It was good to see offensive coordinator Sean Mannion establish the running game early. The Eagles had more rushing yards on their first two drives Monday night (66) than in the losses to the Jaguars and Panthers combined (57).

Barkley was very good while he was out there, recording seven rushes for 62 yards. He was picking up steam, and then the injury cooled him and the offense right back down, which has been the story of his season. Barkley wants to be out there. Should be interesting to see how the Eagles manage him the rest of the way.

“Just can’t find a way to finish the game,” Barkley said. “But yeah, banged up a little bit. I just gotta — I don’t know — I don’t get it. Just gotta find a way to get healthy. It’s annoying, but that’s what the season is. What I’m dealing with so far in the season, I just gotta find a way to get healthy.”

Landon Dickerson also returned after his terrible Week 1 and missing five weeks with that bone bruise, and looked a lot better. While he was very hard on himself postgame, he did two positives for the Eagles. He, for one, solidified a solid left guard position for the Eagles for the rest of the way. Or he raised his trade value ahead of the Nov. 10 trade deadline. That is another offensive decision the Eagles will have to make.

Tanner McKee had another fluctuating performance. His numbers were not outstanding, going 23-for-35 for 211 yards, one touchdown, and a late interception, but his accuracy at times was excellent. He seemed pretty poised and managed three touchdown drives, including the first opening drive points and third-quarter touchdown of the season. It also helped that he had some time at points.

McKee had a couple of bad misses, especially on that drive that ended the first half, allowing Dallas to pick up points. But he is improving. He is still pretty inexperienced.

5. Lemon continues to take steps

Every week, Makai Lemon is proving why he was the 20th overall pick in April.

With DeVonta Smith and Dontayvion Wicks sidelined with injuries, Lemon had career highs of seven catches for 67 yards, including a big 15-yard pickup on fourth down and his first career touchdown.

Lemon is so quick, allowing him to work his way open, and is strong for his smaller frame, letting him make some tough catches and even block very well.

After suffering some tough draw-ups early in his rookie season, Lemon has kept his head down, gone to work, and it is paying off. The Eagles needed him to step up with the top two receivers down, and he did.

The injuries are obviously opening the opportunities, but he is taking advantage of them. Lemon has a real future.

6. Now what?

In what is a pretty rare occurrence, Barkley was the one who spoke to the team after the game.

“I’m not really a big talker, to be honest. Felt like the moment was right,” Barkley said. “Just how I look at life. I feel like you just never quit. You never give up. You just keep fighting, no matter what, whoever the situation is, how it looks. And I feel like that we have the men in the locker room to do it. We put ourselves in this situation. We gotta dig ourselves out of it.

“I know that I gotta take more of a a role of being vocal, using my voice. I’m more of a lead-by-example type of guy, but it happens when you have guys banged up, and a guy like Jalen [Hurts], who’s really basically the vocal leader. It’s gonna take you know me and Jordan, all all of us to kind of fill that void. I think we’re doing a great job leading, and we’re working our ass off. And it just it sucks when the results aren’t going the way you wanted to go. But I’m sounding a broken record. But I really bought into this mindset.”

The Eagles have lost five straight for the first time since 2016. They are three games under .500 and have two more divisional matchups before the bye week. The rest of their schedule is not favorable. The seat under Sirianni is getting fairly warm. Injuries are continuing to pile up. The decisions for the future are, as well.

“We just talked about being the same version of yourself every single day,” Sirianni said. “All that matters is we improve. I think back on the 2021 season, the way we finished that year — and I didn’t say this to them, but I’m thinking about it right now — the way we finished that year propelled us into the future Eagles way that we’ve been the last four years. Growth is important. We talked a lot about being the same version of ourselves regardless of the circumstances, and that football is going to deal you some tough hands at times, but can you get up and keep fighting? Life’s going to deal you some tough hands at times. Can you get up and keep fighting? We talked about that. We talked about being the same guy every day. We talked about being grateful.

“I mean, shoot, in the national anthem today, I was thinking to myself, ‘this is something I prayed for and dreamed of when I was a kid and even as a young adult.’ I wouldn’t ask many questions about who I’d be coaching, where I’d be coaching, what our record would be, anything like that. I’d have been grateful to be there and we are all blessed to be coaching and playing in the NFL. We know that this opportunity to get better, we’ve got 10 more games and then we’ll see after that. But just continue to be the same version of yourself. I thought Saquon did a great job of talking and letting everybody know he was going to — We got ourselves in this hole and it’s our job to get out of it. No one’s writing off anything. I think the division’s wide open. Obviously, it would’ve been nice to get one tonight in a division game, but we didn’t and hats off to them.”

This team is 2-5. Those two wins were against teams that now have a combined two wins, and they were both won by the skin of the Eagles’ teeth. Sirianni is now 0-8 as a home underdog, and the Eagles are the only team not to win as a home underdog since 2021.

Monday night was the same old script we have seen for the last few years: hang around in the first half, collapse in the second. They have the worst scoring offense in the second half, and the sixth-worst scoring defense. That falls on those who have been leading the charge.

The Eagles are no longer playing hard. They cannot fall back on that postgame. What can they say now?

2-5. Five-straight losses. Injured. Depleted. Poorly coached.

There is a lot of money tied here to just “blow it up.”

Time to choose a path.

Get New Articles Emailed Right To Your Inbox: