PHILADELPHIA – Almost. Almost.
Doggone it, these new look Dallas Cowboys. The ones few, if any, were giving a Texas-summer snowball's chance of emerging here Thursday with a win over the defending Super Bowl champs, who were proudly parading real and oversized Lombardi Trophies all over The Linc.
Why, Dallas had them Eagles on the ropes, to the great surprise of so many writing off these Cowboys before the season began, having no clue this is not the same team that finished the 2024 season with a 7-10 record. Not the same Cowboys run over in the first two of three preseason games.
Kept most everyone – especially those revved up Philadelphia faithful, the vast majority of the 69,750 fans jammed into the place – on the edge of their seats when expecting to parade right over their most-hated Cowboys, having been once again greeted with the customary double-barrel one-finger salutes on the way into the stadium.
During the pregame celebration, the Eagles had turned this place green while unveiling their championship banner up in the rafters and singing their fight song, letting all know they can spell "Eagles" one letter at a time. But these underdog Cowboys surely were causing a green hue of another kind with stomachs turning for a good 58 minutes of game time.
Did you realize the Cowboys gained more total yards than the champs, 307 to 302? Did you realize they totaled more first downs in the end than the vaunted Eagles offense, 22-20? Threw for more yards, 188 to 152? The Micah Parsons-less Cowboys also recorded the only sack of the game and popped quarterback Jalen Hurts five times, compared to the Eagles hitting Dak Prescott but once. And get this, since this always seems to be a stat labeling Dallas as having a lack of discipline: Philadelphia was penalized nine times for 110 yards to the Cowboys' four for 42. And the Eagles even had their star defensive tackle, Jalen Carter, thrown out for spitting on Prescott at the conclusion of the first play of the game, a Cowboys kickoff return, of all things.
The Cowboys actually even led this game three times, 7-0, 14-7 and 17-14.
Fortunately for the hometown fans, the Cowboys inability – stop me if you've heard this before – to defend the run in the first half, the Eagles totaling 123 of their 158 yards rushing in those two quarters, and developing hands of steel in the second half, prevented anyone turning green from spitting up themselves.
Yep, Eagles 24, Cowboys 20, by the skin on their chinny-chin-chins. Philadelphia starts the season 1-0 with their third consecutive victory over Dallas, while the Cowboys are 0-1 for the first time since 2022.
"We had chances out there, and there are no moral victories for us," said Brian Schottenheimer, becoming the seventh of the Cowboys' 10 head coaches to lose his first game in charge. "We had a chance to win that game and weren't able to do it, and it'll sting."
And the shame of this is all came crumbling down during a 2-minute, 23-second span in the third quarter. The Cowboys were already trailing the Eagles by what the final score would be, 24-20, even after Dallas allowed Philly to score touchdowns on its first three possessions and then held them to a 58-yard Jake Elliott field goal to begin the third quarter.
Here is the way the unravelling began. Veteran and former Eagles running back Mile Sanders burst through the line of scrimmage, appearing to be on his way to a 60-yard touchdown run, only to be chased down from behind at the 11-yard line by Philadelphia linebacker Zack Baun.
Next play, of all things, at the end of a Sanders' 3-yard run to the 8, George Pickens is called for an unnecessary roughing penalty after hogtying an Eagles defender around the neck. That turned a second-and-7 at the 8-yard line into a first-and-22 at the 23. Although as fortune would have it, the Eagles drew their own unnecessary roughing penalty for lighting up defenseless tight end Jake Ferguson in the end zone, resetting the Cowboys to a first-and-10 at their 11 once again.
And who is to say if one play in the third quarter can determine what happens in the 19:44 remaining in the game, but it sure derailed a Dallas offense that had scored points on the first four possessions of the game, thanks to two short-yardage Javonte Williams' touchdown runs and Brandon Aubrey field goals of 41 and 53 yards.
But this one stunned the Cowboys about as bad as that lightning in the area and the ensuing heavy rain that caused a one-hour, four-minute delay in the game, sending both teams to the locker room and the majority of fans looking for cover.
A seemingly harmless run up the middle saw Sanders jump-cut for but a yard until grabbed from behind by Eagles linebacker Jihaad Campbell, which caused the ball to squirt out and right to cornerback Quinyon Mitchell at the 10-yard line. And if not for Dak's diving tackle at the 16, Mitchell would have taken that sucker 90 yards for a touchdown – the Cowboys' immediate pursuit thereafter just lumbering offensive linemen – to sort of turn this game upside down.
"We lost the turnover battle," Schottenheimer said. "That affects some things, right? We lost 1-0, and we're all about the ball. We've got to protect it better and have got to try to create some takeaways on defense."
From that point forward, though, the Cowboys defense got its stuff together, holding the Eagles scoreless for the first time in the game on their next three possessions. In fact, the unit limited Philadelphia to just 35 yards rushing in the second half.
But then, Dallas' potent offense dried up, picking up just one first down in each of its next three possessions after the game resumed right at 11:30 p.m. EST.
"We have to finish," Prescott said. "We have to come out and score in the second half. We've got to get points. All 20 were in the first half, and you can't score 20 in the first half and then lay a goose egg in the second half."
No, you can't and still expect to beat a quality opponent. And they didn't.
But face it, the Cowboys' young offensive line did a commendable job, considering all five guys were playing together in a game for the first time – rookie Tyler Booker making his NFL debut at that. Then there was left tackle Tyler Guyton, returning to start and going the distance in his first game back despite just one week of practice after suffering a knee injury in training camp. The guy played every offensive snap and played well.
Their work up front allowed the Cowboys to actually run the ball decently, churning out 119 yards on the ground. And for the most part, they kept Dak clean in the pocket, QB1 going out of his way to point out the only time he hit the ground occurred when making that diving tackle after the lost fumble.
So look, encouraging, even the gang of pessimists must admit. No, the Cowboys didn't win. Got beat. But the unsuspecting saw a competitive team out there even if Hurts gave them fits running for 65 yards on 11 real carries before kneeling out the game three times at the end for minus-1 yard on each.
"But again, we know we're good enough to beat the Eagles," Schottenheimer said. "We know we're good enough to beat anybody, but we have to do it. Those are just words, and we came up short tonight."
They surely did.
But on the other hand, they nearly didn't, betcha now raising expectations.
