Blogging The Boys
Dallas Cowboys head coach Brian Schottenheimer is trying to avoid something that happened in his predecessor’s first season of 2020. At the start of the Mike McCarthy era, it took until Weeks 14 at the Bengals and the next week versus the 49ers to win consecutive games for the first time in that 6-10 season that fell short of the playoffs. Schotty’s Cowboys are coming off an emotional Monday night win at the Raiders, earning yet another chance to win back-to-back games going into an all-important Week 12 rematch with the Eagles.
Schottenheimer’s head coaching debut was against the Eagles in this season’s kickoff game, a loss that felt like an early moral victory at the time of the year where such a thing still exists. As September turned to October, and now November into the dawn of December though, the Cowboys have yet to break the pattern that week one game started which is to lose a disappointing game, follow it with a win or tie, and rinse and repeat. The only win/loss streak they’ve had were the two straight losses before the bye week that, even after beating the Raiders, leaves them as longshots to make a late playoff push. Coach Schottenheimer can still win on Thanksgiving Day against the Chiefs and on the following Sunday night at the Lions to win back-to-back for the first time sooner than McCarthy, but the opportunity that’s in front them, coming off the bye and looking rejuvenated, is one that can’t be passed up.
The Cowboys have won six of their last seven at home against the Eagles, and seven of the last nine. They had more first downs, yards, a better third-down conversion rate, didn’t allow a sack, and averaged more yards per carry than the Eagles in their four point loss in week one. A Miles Sanders red zone fumble that saw the Cowboys come up empty trailing by four, and then two out-of-character CeeDee Lamb drops still trailing by four on the final drive closed the door on the Cowboys pulling off a week one upset, losing 24-20.
Philadelphia has had continued success in close, lower-scoring games from this point on to remain in control of the NFC East. They won a Super Bowl rematch in week two 20-17 at the Chiefs. Coming into this matchup in Arlington, they are on a two-game winning streak 10-7 at the Packers, and most recently 16-9 on Sunday night versus the Lions. There are teams being labeled as “winning ugly” in the NFL right now like the Broncos, and those that are just comfortable winning in any way, shape, or form. The latter describes an Eagles team looking to sweep the Cowboys for the second season in a row, which would be the first instance of this happening since 2001-02. The Eagles won six straight against the Cowboys beyond this stretch, their second-longest winning streak in series history. The Cowboys’ longest winning streak against the Eagles is a remarkable 11 games...
