Seems like a long time ago when the Eagles gave the Dallas Cowboys everything they could handle down in Texas in what turned out to be an overtime loss. The Eagles left town that night at 4-3 and the ‘Boys were 6-1. Overall the seasonal prospects still looked bright for the Birds. By no means did Dallas seem out of our league.
That was Week 8. Now in Week 17, Dallas has spent the past two months seemingly getting better every game. The Eagles, instead of tweaking a few things to get better, just seemed to twerk themselves into a gradual descent into mediocrity.
What was the main difference between the two teams’ polar opposite paths from that point at which they both would have been 5-2 had the Eagles pulled off that overtime game in Week 8?
You can point to a few things, such as the extremely athletic Dallas offensive line getting stronger while the Eagles’ OL was progressively shredded by injury and Lane Johnson’s suspension; Dez Bryant playing at full strength again while Eagles’ wide receivers struggled in a variety of ways; Dallas’ DC Rod Marinelli getting more comfortable with his defensive personnel’s ability to shift into and out of increasingly complex calls; and rookie QB Dak Prescott’s showing the ability to learn his offense and read defenses while playing the position at a high level physically.
There are other more subtle reasons why Dallas got better while we didn’t. But those are the main ones in my head.
As for the incredible progress being made by Dak Prescott, I also think if you put Carson Wentz in the same situation within the Cowboys’ current infrastructure, you’d be seeing the same winning results with Wentz. So much of the Cowboys’ current success is simply having the best combination of healthy veteran and youthful experience surrounding their quarterback at all times. That has happened in great part due to some very good forward-looking drafts by Dallas over the past 5 years, too.
Unfortunately this Sunday we will probably not get to see a true rematch of that game we nearly took from Dallas two months ago. Dallas (13-2), who has already clinched the #1 seed in the NFC, may play its starters for a few series, but will most likely go with their backups most of the way. Ironically, that could mean the Eagles will be defending against QB Mark Sanchez in the quest to get their 7th win.
Eagles DC Jim Schwartz says he will approach this game the same as if the Cowboys’ starters play or not.
“There has been some leakage, too, and a lot of head scratching and tinkering in the scheme from Schwartz and his coaches on the defensive side of the ball. The pass rush hasn’t always been there. The back end of the defense has been challenged.”— Dave Spadaro, PE.com
Schwartz has taken his share of the blame for the Eagles free-fall since the last time they played Dallas.
“I expect the Cowboys to begin the game with their starters. They put a lot of pressure on you with the run game because they can run it. And they can put pressure on you to make big plays in the passing game because they have guys that can make big plays in the passing game,” Schwartz said. “They have guys that can move the chains on third down. (Cowboys WR Cole) Beasley and (Cowboys TE Jason) Witten are two of the best in the business doing that.”
“Then the quarterback not only can execute the quarterback position, but he can also scramble for first downs. That’s a lot to defend. Defending the run, defending the deep pass, defending the quarterback, but then also handling a scrambling quarterback. There’s not a lot of really good scrambling quarterbacks that are also really good in the pocket. He looks like he has a chance to be one of those guys.”
Schwartz doesn’t care who lines up against his unit on Sunday. He’s measuring effort:
“I’ve been proud of our effort down the stretch. I think our guys do have a lot of pride and they want to go out and find a way to win games,” Schwartz said. “We haven’t won enough games this year. There is no grading on the curve as far as, ‘We lost, but our effort is good.’ I would do anything to get a win. I think our guys are the same way. They have each other’s backs and they work hard to show that.”
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