FRISCO, Texas – Cowboys QB Dak Prescott explained Dallas' current situation well earlier this week: "We can only say 'we've got a lot of games in front of us' for so long."
Only eleven remain for the Cowboys, and that number will fall to 10 after Monday night's matchup against the Eagles. Philadelphia is in the same boat, sitting at 2-4 with crucial injuries and personnel changes heavily impacting their start to the year, and certainly affecting them the rest of the season too.
In a year where the NFC East appears to be wide open, eventually, one team needs to go and take the lead of it. In the next five games, the Cowboys play one team with a winning record, the undefeated San Francisco 49ers. Starting Monday night, they have an opportunity to get a stronghold on the division, but they've had opportunities to early in the year as well, and came up short.
How can things be different Monday night? Let's take a look in this week's Here We Goooo:
Get right against the blitz on offense
A big topic of conversations for Cowboys offensive players and coaches in the last two weeks has been how to handle the blitz better. Dallas' offense has usually been one that welcomed blitzes and excelled and finding their blitz beating plays, but Tampa Bay's Todd Bowles and Green Bay's Jonathan Gannon got into the backfield and affected Dak Prescott quite a bit in back-to-back losses where the offense combined for just 29 points.
The good news for Dallas in this matchup is they're going against a defensive coordinator in Vic Fangio that doesn't blitz often, using four or fewer pass rushers 75.9% of the time, the fifth-highest rate in the NFL. That said, the NFL is a league that picks up on trends, so Prescott and the Cowboys are expecting an uptick, even if it's subtle, in Fangio's tendency to bring the heat.
When he does, Dallas needs to have shown they found the solution this week for nullifying heavy pressure looks. There's plenty of opportunities for yards to be gained when teams leave fewer bodies in the secondary to cover George Pickens and CeeDee Lamb. Philadelphia has struggled to get pressure this season (31.7%) when using four or more rushers, so Prescott and company will also need to move the ball downfield when there is extra time to set up some longer developing plays that they've tried to get to in the last couple weeks, but haven't been able to find because of the heavy pressure they've faced.
Feed Javonte Williams early and often
What's the best way to slow down a pass rush? Having success running the ball. The Cowboys haven't had a lot of that this season, entering this game with the 31st ranked rushing offense in the league at 76 yards per game. Javonte Williams has scored seven rushing touchdowns, but has yet to eclipse 100 yards in a game this season, with his high coming in Week 3 against the Ravens at 98.
Cowboys coach Brian Schottenheimer said earlier this week that Dallas has yet to play a "normal" game, in the sense that the offense has had to lean on their passing game because they've trailed in games. Well, they need to make this a "normal" game early by giving Williams some more looks in the run game early to allow he and the offensive line to get into a rhythm up front.
Dallas and Philadelphia are the 30th and 31st teams in time of possession this season. Whoever wins that will have a good chance to win this game, and the Cowboys have the offensive line and running back to be able to be the more physical team in the trenches and allow Williams to set up the full power of this offense by using the run to move down field, but also set up the play action passing game.
A look at Tanner McKee
With Eagles QB Jalen Hurts on injured reserve as he recovers from a scary blood clot situation, Philadelphia will start Tanner McKee for the second time this season. In a 25-14 loss to the Panthers last week, McKee was 26/45 for 215 yards and a touchdown. Back in 2024 when the Cowboys traveled to Lincoln Financial Field, McKee entered the game for four pass attempts, three of which he completed, and two of which were touchdown throws.
McKee had a lot of his work last week come on quick, short throws. He was 20/29 on throws under 2.5 seconds for 153 yards and a touchdown, and 20/29 on throws under 10 air yards for 134 yards. He'll likely look to do the same with his playmakers this week in order to get them in space and allow them to try and take advantage of the outsides of Dallas' defense.
With that being the case, the Cowboys defense needs to do a better job as a unit of tackling. They've missed 48 tackles this season, allowing 345 yards after those missed tackles. Dallas' first tackle opportunity conversion percentage is 78.6%, that will need to be much higher if they want to have a well-rounded performance against an Eagles offense that's without it's quarterback, but still has playmakers, especially with RB Saquon Barkley expected to play on Monday night.
