Dallas Cowboys lose again at home in embarrassing, lopsided drubbing by the Eagles
From bad to worse, the Dallas Cowboys season is officially in a downhill spiral after yet another lopsided loss in front of the home fans at AT&T Stadium, as the Philadelphia Eagles ran away in the second half with a 34-6 victory.
In the team’s first game without Dak Prescott — who is trending toward missing the rest of the season with a torn hamstring — the offense could only produce a meager 146 total yards.
While the defense was able to hold up in the first half, the bending eventually gave way to breaking by allowing 27 unanswered points down the stretch.
The Cowboys moved to 3-6 on the season and will need a massive revamp just to start competing in games again.
It was a familiar ending for the Cowboys’ fifth straight loss at AT&T Stadium, going back to the defeat by Green Bay in the playoffs last season. During that span, Dallas has given up 201 points at home, losing each game by an average of 22 points.
Here are the takeaways from Sunday’s loss.
No need to Rush it
Cooper Rush had a lot of confidence around the building in Frisco coming into Sunday as someone who could come in and keep Dallas’ offense intact. Instead, the offense slowed to a standstill with Rush at the helm, as he was able to generate only 45 passing yards and six points of offensive production. The issues were amplified by a dropped snap that resulted in a turnover deep in Dallas territory that led to Philadelphia’s first score.
Gifted an opportunity late in the first half after a Micah Parsons forced fumble on Jalen Hurts inside the 10, Rush and the offense could muster just one yard before having to settle for a field goal.
“Just didn’t play well enough,” Rush said postgame. “We ran it well in the first half. We didn’t capitalize a couple of times in the red zone. A couple of long drives, a defensive turnover, but it snowballs fast when you don’t take care of the ball as well. We spotted them one early in the first quarter. Turnovers will always kill you.”
The poor production eventually paved the way for an opportunity for Trey Lance to take his first snaps with the Cowboys in the second half.
Trouble around the corner
Despite a solid day from Trevon Diggs that saw him notch a tally to his interception total on an end zone throw from Jalen Hurts, rookie Caelen Carson experienced yet another rough outing that made the overall secondary effort look poor.
He was picked on in the first half by Hurts and the Eagles offense and was targeted seven times and allowing 67 yards on six completions. It continued into the third quarter before the coaching staff made the decision to replace him with Israel Mukuamu.
With DaRon Bland now having been on the active roster for two games, the decision needs to be made to either shut him down for the season and add another corner or have him out on the field against Houston if he is ready to go.
Overshown’s career day
If the Cowboys season continues to trend downward, don’t be surprised to see an increase in snaps for younger players over the next few weeks. Going into 2025, it makes sense for the decision makers up top to see what all they have so they can better attack a draft that is expected to have them pick 11 times next spring.
Well, there’s no need to see what DeMarvion Overshown has anymore. The second-year linebacker out of Texas seems to have somehow gained a step after having his rookie year wiped out by a torn ACL. He was used in situational blitzes both off the edge and over center, he was active in sealing the edge in the run game and he notched a career-high 11 tackles before leaving in the third quarter with a knee injury.
“I missed a lot of time in training camp, so I can definitely tell that these past couple of weeks is something that I feel like I would’ve saw earlier in the season if I hadn’t missed so much time last year and in training camp,” Overshown said.
This offseason will see a lot of change, no doubt. Especially for a defense that ranks near or at the bottom of the NFL in just about every metric. But if the front office is looking for a piece or two to build around, a healthy Overshown is separating himself as a prime candidate.
Zeke fumbles away opportunity
After a week that saw Ezekiel Elliott not make the trip to Atlanta with the team after being disciplined for missing a meeting, the veteran appeared to be on a short leash.
However, Elliott was not only still on the team by Sunday, but he played a healthy amount of snaps that yielded very few productive yards.
The moment that took the spotlight, though, was a fumble inside the 5-yard line that could have helped Dallas score its first (and only?) touchdown of the day. Elliott had it punched out of his grasp while lunging forward for extra yardage.
“He got his helmet on the ball,” Elliott said. “That’s an unacceptable fumble in the red zone. That’s disgusting. It makes my stomach hurt.”
Whatever is left for Elliott seems to only be a formality. His days in Dallas have been overstayed.
“I’ve been better,” Elliott said when asked how he’s doing mentally. “We’re working things out. We’ll move in the right direction.”
Trey gets some real game time
While Trey Lance did throw an interception in his garbage time opportunity (the receiver never looked for the ball) there was a bit of a spark in the running game that he provided that is simply impossible with Rush. If Rush cannot produce more than 45 yards, then the keys need to be passed to Lance to see what the last year-plus has done for his development in a real regular season game.
“We had a package for him,” head coach Mike McCarthy said. “We wanted to get him into the flow of the game, that was the thought process coming in here.”
Going into a matchup against Houston that will see Dallas play one of its four remaining standalone/prime-time games, it may be best for the Cowboys to at least throw some entertainment on the field in the form of Lance. Whether Rush starts or not, it’s time for Lance to see a lot more action moving forward.
“It’s something we’ll obviously discuss tomorrow,” McCarthy said.
This story was originally published November 10, 2024 at 6:54 PM.
