ARLINGTON, Texas – The Cowboys' losing streak now stands at six following Sunday's 33-27 loss to the Eagles at AT&T Stadium – the second overtime defeat for Dallas in the past four games.
On Saturday, the staff writers gave their gut feeling for Sunday's game. Check out the instant reactions from the staff of DallasCowboys.com.
David Helman: I picked a 27-20 Philadelphia win, and the Eagles escaped AT&T Stadium with a margin of 33-27. So I picked the result right, but I wasn't as close about the way it would play out. I honestly thought the Dallas defense would perform admirably and the offense would struggle, but it was the opposite. Yes, Matt Cassel threw a costly pick-six, but he also led the Cowboys to 412 total yards, and he engineered multiple late scoring drives. Darren McFadden was great against a solid Philly front seven, and I nailed my prediction that Dez Bryant would score a touchdown. The defense, meanwhile, surrendered 459 total yards – including a walk-off touchdown in overtime. I actually said the defense would force "a turnover or two," which looks laughable in retrospect. This Cowboys defense is not terrible, but it lacks any kind of ability to make a play when it needs to. They had no shortage of chances to step up – in the fourth quarter and in overtime, for example – and they couldn't. It was the difference in another winnable game that turned into a loss.
Bryan Broaddus: I had a feeling that this game would most likely come down to the final drive and this Dallas defense would have to make a stop to win it. As misguided as that might sound, I had faith that somebody would step up and make a play when they needed it the most, but that just wasn't the case. The Philadelphia Eagles might be a team that plays with tempo and a wide-open style, but tonight they played old school football and physically beat this defense up. I don't want to hear about excuses of missing players or poor calls from the officials - this game was personal for DeMarco Murray and he took it out on this Dallas defense. With the losing streak at six, I feel stupid believing this was going to end any other way.
Nick Eatman:I'm officially horrible when it comes to my gut right now. In the past, I've done fairly well with these predictions but I can't buy one right now. OK, great, I said Cole Beasley would become a factor in the offense, but the rest of the sentence said Christine Michael would have his best game as a Cowboy. The only carry he had was his backpack over his shoulder about 10 minutes after the game. Everything else I had was way off. I said the Cowboys would win rather convincingly … wrong. They don't do anything convincingly. I said the Eagles wouldn't win the game and that's exactly what they did. When you lose to Sam Bradford, it's bad. And that's exactly where things are for this Cowboys team, who has now lost six straight. I can't get a good read on this team for anything. I'll try to do so in my column here in a little bit, but as we stand right now, I'm at a loss because teams that fight and scrap and all that usually get a win or two here and there. And this team just can't make enough plays to get one in this dreadful month and a half without their quarterback.[embeddedad0]
Rob Phillips:Yeah, what Nick said. I've been expecting this team to break through since the bye week ended, and particularly since Dez Bryant returned from foot surgery. They've had the lead or been tied in all three games, and in all three games the opponent made the big play late: The Giants had the Dwayne Harris kickoff return touchdown; Russell Wilson delivered the deciding field goal drive; Sam Bradford hits Jordan Matthews for a 41-yard touchdown in overtime Sunday. That's just the way this season's gone – nothing comes easy, even Dan Bailey's 44-yard overtime-forcing field goal hitting the post before bouncing in. I did expect Bryant to be more of a factor in his second game back, but the defense never really disrupted Bradford, and DeMarco Murray was a much, much bigger factor in the second meeting. As competitive as they've been for most of this stretch, it's hard to fathom that this team has lost six games in a row for only the fourth season in franchise history.
For the initial gut feeling predictions of the staff writers posted on Saturday, click here:
