Blogging The Boys
It’s incredible how many things can change after two and a half months of football. The Dallas Cowboys and Philadelphia Eagles feel like different teams entering Week 12 than the ones we saw take the field on opening night in Philadelphia.
Both teams were active during the trade deadline to make a push for the playoffs, and the Philadelphia Eagles feel like their locker room is on the brink of another meltdown, headlined by A.J. Brown. All remaining games for the Cowboys are considered “must-win,” but if they aim to contend for the NFC East title, they need to pull off a convincing win over Philadelphia at AT&T Stadium.
Here are five things that are different around both teams heading into Sunday’s divisional matchup.
People forget that the drama around A.J. Brown and Jalen Hurts started in Week 1 when the Cowboys’ secondary held him to just one catch in the game. Matt Eberflus’ game plan to run a lot of zone defense kept Brown in unfavorable matchups the entire night. It was only Week 1 and teams were still figuring things out, but this is Philly’s No. 1 wide receiver. For him to just get one target made no sense.
Fast forward 11 weeks, and Brown has been vocal for a while now about how unhappy he is and the role he has on offense. Despite winning eight games, we’ve seen this story play out before. In 2023, Philadelphia was 10-1 heading into Week 12. Then the team fell apart like a Jenga tower, and the Eagles went on to lose five of their remaining six games that season, placing them second in the division.
By mid-November that year, the Cowboys had a much better record, and the Philadelphia defense was not performing as well as they are now. However, if Dallas can maximize their game plan—such as building an early ten-point lead, forcing the Eagles’ offense into several three-and-out drives, and neutralizing Brown—it could ignite something in Brown on the sidelines that could not only impact the game on Sunday night but also have lasting effects on the Eagles for the remainder of the season.
All it takes is one spark, and it feels like Brown is looking for a reason to storm off the field.
After Week 1, the discourse around the Cowboys was positive despite being 0-1 because their offense looked great under first-year head coach Brian Schottenheimer, and the defense allowed just three points to the reigning Super Bowl champion Eagles in the second half. It was your stereotypical “moral victory” like it was for Dallas in 2021, where they went toe-to-toe with Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
However, unlike 2021, the moral victory this year didn’t propel Dallas on a six-game winning streak. Instead, they’ve sputtered into Sunday’s game with a 4-5-1 record, looking up at the Eagles in the division. The...
