Eagles-Cowboys analysis: Birds rise to 6-0 after getting a jump on rival Dallas

On a national stage in front of a raucous crowd, the Eagles managed to live up to the gargantuan moment Sunday night.

A sellout crowd at the Linc, most of the fans riding the high of the Phillies’ playoff run and fueled by the hatred of the Dallas Cowboys, brought the energy and the Eagles answered the call with a 26-17 win. Notable attendees included first lady Jill Biden, rapper Meek Mill, and Los Angeles Angels star Mike Trout.

Dallas came in 4-1, but the Eagles jumped out to an early lead and held on to remain the NFC East’s leader going into the bye week 6-0.

After jumping out to a 20-0 lead in the first half, the Eagles gave their crowd reason for some nervous silence for a large chunk of the third quarter.

Dallas reeled off 17 points and trailed by just three early in the fourth quarter. But the Eagles answered with a 13-play, 75-yard drive that spanned more than seven minutes of game time.

The run game was instrumental in the drive, but the biggest plays came from Jalen Hurts.

There was a 5-yard scramble to move the chains on third down, and a 22-yard completion to A.J. Brown on a slant route to get into the red zone. The next play, Hurts rolled out to his right and found a wide-open DeVonta Smith for a 7-yard touchdown pass to give the Birds a nine-point lead with seven minutes left.

Hurts finished with a relatively modest stat line: 15-for-25 for 155 yards and two touchdown passes. Still, he made the necessary plays to win the Eagles the game, quite a big game, in fact.

“Given the opportunity to make plays and keep the ball in our hands at the end of the game, I want to take advantage of that,” Hurts said. “I put that on me. I just want to kind of impose your will on them at the end of the game like that. I don’t think we did that the way we wanted to, but we found a way and that was enough.”

The Eagles knew Dallas edge rusher Micah Parsons would be a tough assignment going into Sunday night and game-planned accordingly.

On two pivotal downs during the first half, Eagles coach Nick Sirianni employed the old adage, If you can’t block him, read him. Once on a fourth-and-3 and again on a third-and-2 in the red zone, the Eagles left the defensive dynamo unblocked in space and read him on an option play. Parsons would have to choose: chase Brown in space or try to get to Hurts before he threw it to the star wideout. Just as Sirianni drew it up, Parsons was wrong regardless.

Sirianni said the groin injury that limited Parsons throughout the week was part of the decision to get him in space as well.

“Hey, sometimes it’s like, you can’t block them, read them,” Sirianni said postgame. “I’ve said that before. And our guys did a good job blocking them in the run game, there is no doubt. ... We’re reading them at times, and we knew he had a groin that he was recovering from as well. But he makes it hard. He makes it really hard. That’s a really, really outstanding player.”

Brown had an 11-yard catch the first time the Eagles ran the play for him. The second resulted in a 15-yard touchdown to put the Eagles up 14-0. He finished with five catches for a team-high 67 yards.

Getting out to an early lead helped change the Cowboys offense, which had been centered around early-down runs and play-action passes off the ground game.

“They were a team that never played from behind,” Eagles cornerback Darius Slay said. “We knew we had to get up and force them to play from behind.”

The Eagles generally did a solid job protecting Hurts against the vaunted Dallas pass rush. The Cowboys were rated one of the league’s best defensive fronts in terms of generating pressure coming in, but the group didn’t wreck the game against the Eagles. Hurts was sacked four times, although only two were for significant losses. The Eagles also managed 136 rushing yards, which was pivotal on their lone fourth-quarter scoring drive.

The Eagles secondary continued its opportunistic ways against Cowboys backup quarterback Cooper Rush, coming up with three picks.

C.J. Gardner-Johnson led the way with two interceptions, one of which came after the Eagles safety had to go into the locker room with a hand injury so debilitating that he could barely jog into the locker room without doubling over in pain.

Gardner-Johnson’s first pick was set up by Eagles cornerback James Bradberry, who jumped a Michael Gallup route to set up the tip drill for Gardner-Johnson. The first pick set up an Eagles touchdown drive, giving them a 14-0 lead in the first half.

The second essentially sealed an Eagles victory. Brandon Graham pressured Rush off the edge and forced an errant throw, which Gardner-Johnson tracked to make an impressive diving catch despite the taped-up hand.

Gardner-Johnson downplayed the injury after the game, calling it a “boo-boo,” and noting he had a “soldier mentality” when dealing with the pain.

The second pick came from Slay, who undercut Gallup on a third-and-9 to snag his third interception of the season. Slay’s play set up a field goal, which gave the Eagles a 20-0 lead with 1:47 left in the first half.

The Eagles defense has proved it can make opponents pay for mistakes. They came into the weekend tied for the most takeaways in the NFL, and the secondary displayed its playmaking ability once again on a national stage. Each of Slay’s interceptions has taken place on national television.

Similar to one of his two picks against the Minnesota Vikings on Monday Night Football last month, Slay sought out a celebrity to give the intercepted ball to, this time gifting it to Meek Mill, who was seated in a box on the sideline.

The Eagles were without right tackle Lane Johnson for the entire second half due to a concussion. Jack Driscoll, who filled in for Jordan Mailata at left tackle the previous week, took Johnson’s spot on the right side.

Johnson was the only starting lineman not listed on the injury report in the week leading into the game.

Johnson’s absence was certainly felt. Driscoll allowed several pressures to Parsons when matched up against the edge rusher and the Eagles seemed to use more heavy personnel groupings to help slow Parsons during a second-half scoring drought.

Johnson’s injury comes just as the team is entering the bye week, which will buy him some time.