Inside The Star
The first game of the 2025 NFL season is in the books. As expected, the Philadelphia Eagles walked off the field with the win.
But it was much closer than expected for sure.
The Cowboys have areas of concern to address after the loss. But they also had some bright spots to build on.
One thing is for sure, Thursday’s game was one of the strangest season openers in Cowboys history.
A player got injured on the opening kickoff. While said player was being attended to, another player decided to get ejected from the game before playing a single snap for spitting on an opponent.
Then the weather said, nah, y’all don’t want to go to bed early tonight, and caused a 1:05 delay late in the third quarter.
I’m not sure what Jalen Carter was thinking when he spit on Dak Prescott on Thursday night before the first offensive snap of the game.
It’s likely he’ll have plenty of time to consider it though. And he’ll be a little lighter in the wallet too.
Social Media erupted with “Spit Gate” as NBC showed a video of Prescott stepping out of the huddle, toward Carter, and spitting on the ground. Prescott then smiled and said something to Carter.
Carter stepped forward, Prescott stepped forward, and with an official standing right there, Carter let fly with the costliest loogie in history.
Been watching football since the late 1960s. I’ve never seen that before.
Philadelphia dodged an absolute bullet by escaping with a 24-20 win over Dallas.
The Cowboys’ biggest concern on offense was dealing with Carter.
Once he was gone, they were able to attack the Eagles with the running game effectively.
Yet, somehow, they settled for two touchdowns and two field goals. The Cowboys’ defense gave up three touchdowns and one field goal.
And those four points was the ball game.
Speaking of missing persons in the season opener…
In the first game of the post-Micah Parsons era, the Cowboys had a non-existent pass rush until after the one-hour-long weather delay.
By then, the Eagles had the lead.
The defense managed just one sack of Hurts for the game. Before the weather delay, Hurts was running free for first downs, and two touchdowns, when forced out of the pocket.
They will need to clean this up, especially with some solid quarterbacks on the schedule ahead.
Kenny Clark was in on the sack, but the Eagles still had 158 yards rushing. That too, needs to be cleaned up.
Mazi Smith was inactive on Thursday. Leading Chris Collingsworth to remark: “That’s as close as you can get to being cut.”
The Cowboys were thin at DT and leaving Smith on the bench isn’t a good sign for the 2023 first round pick’s future in Dallas.
Dallas had leads of 7-0, 14-7, and 17-14, on Thursday because they were pounding the ball with the...
