The Dallas Cowboys opened the 2025 season in Philadelphia with a 24-20 loss in what turned out to be a very chippy game. So chippy, one player was spitting mad.
Jalen Carter, arguably the Eagles best defensive player, decided to spit on Dak Prescott before the first offensive snap of the game.
Carter was ejected. The Cowboys were elated not to have to deal with Carter and moved the ball well against Philadelphia’s defense.
In the end, Brian Schottenheimer’s debut as Dallas’ 10th head coach ended with a close loss, but a loss nonetheless. The offense was able to move the ball, especially with Carter being ejected six seconds into the game.
The defense?
That unit needs a lot of work. But it did rally in the second half.
Dak Prescott was 21-for-34 for 188 yards with no touchdowns and no interceptions. Javonte Williams had 15 carries for 54 yards and 2 touchdowns.
CeeDee Lamb had 7 receptions for 110 yards.
The Eagles were plagued by penalties, getting flagged nine times for 110 yards.
Dallas hosts the Giants on Sunday, Sept. 14th at noon in their next game.
1st Quarter
The Cowboys got the opening kickoff and that’s when Carter decided to get tossed before the first snap for spitting on Prescott.
Williams scored the first touchdown of the game on a one-yard plunge after a six-play drive that featured four runs.
The Eagles answered with a 10-play drive capped by a three-yard run for the tying score by Jalen Hurts. Dallas’ defense does not put pressure on Hurts.
Nor did they stop the run.
Dallas returned the favor by committing two dumb penalties of their own on the ensuing kickoff to start the second drive at their own 12.
2nd Quarter
The Cowboys’ second drive, aided by a huge 34-yard pass interference penalty, bled into the second quarter. Williams capped the drive on the first play of the quarter with another one-yard plunge.
It capped a nine-play, 88-yard drive.
The Eagles answered with a 12-play, 65-yard drive capped by a Hurts’ seven-yard run to tie the game at 14-14.
Another dumb penalty by the Eagles defense put Dallas into scoring territory. Three straight incomplete passes stalled the Cowboys’ third drive.
Brandon Aubrey banged in a 41-yard field goal for a 17-14 lead with 2:34 left in the half.
Hurts hit Jahan Dotson on a 51-yard bomb to get inside the Dallas 30. Saquon Barkley capped an 8-play, 81-yard drive with a 10-yard run for a 21-17 lead with 51 seconds left.
Yet another dumb penalty got the Cowboys moving to close out the half. Aubrey’s 53-yard field goal made it 21-20 Eagles at the half.
3rd Quarter
The Eagles’ opening drive of the half stalled after a sack by Marshawn Kneeland and Kenny Clark. But Jake Elliott hit a 58-yard field goal to get the Eagles’ lead back to four points at 24-20.
For the most part, Dallas’ defense struggled to put any pressure on Hurts in the first game of the post-Micah Parsons era.
A 49-yard run by Miles Sanders put Dallas at the Eagles 11. Sanders then fumbled the ball away a few plays later.
Prescott made a touchdown-saving tackle on the recovery to keep the Eagles from turning the play into a back-breaking scoop-and-score.
The game was suspended immediately after, with 4:44 left in the quarter, due to lightning in the area. The game resumed a little over an hour later.
Dallas brought pressure when the game restarted and forced a three-and-out.
The score going into the fourth was Eagles 24, Cowboys 20.
4th Quarter
Dallas failed to convert on third and 10 on the first play of the quarter and punted the ball back.
The Eagles managed to move the ball back to midfield, taking a lot of time off the clock, before punting. Dallas took over at the 13 with 7:20 left in the game.
The Cowboys got a first down but couldn’t sustain it, punting the ball back with 4:43 left.
The Eagles also struggled to move the ball as both defenses stepped up after returning from the weather delay.
With 3:02 left, the Cowboys had one last shot at taking the lead. But Prescott and Lamb couldn’t connect on a fourth down pass with two minutes left.
They played a very competitive game, with a chance to win. That Sanders fumble was huge as they were pretty deep the Philly territory with a chance to retake the lead. DP made a great saving tackle to prevent a TD.
Lamb had 110 yards but had a couple of costly drops, especially that deep post pattern late in the game, right in his hands, that would have put them pretty deep on Philly side with a chance to take the lead.
Very tough loss but DP did look good. They did a good job on Barkley, with him getting just 60 yards. D-backfield played well limiting Hurt to just 150 passing yds, but he had more rush yards than Barkley with two rush TDs.
Bottomline, they played hard and with a real chance to win but that TO was killer.
If I’m the head coach of the Dallas Cowboys Sander’s would be looking for a job this morning! The old saying that “ special players ,make special plays, on special days” fits CD Lamb! I personally don’t believe that CD is a “Special Player” now , is he a good player…Yes he is ….. but in my opinion a special player would have not dropped 3 balls in a crucial situation! Just about any player can make the routine catches…… but it takes a special player to stretch out and catch the last pass that he missed last night! Hope he can become a special player as the season goes along!
That is a stupid take!! Ceedee was a special player before this game!! And just because he had a few bad drops, he’s all of a sudden not a special player!? And to make it even worse, you say hopefully he can be a special player as the season goes on…. He had a bad game, and that’s saying something considering he still finished the game with 110 yards receiving!! Ceedee is still the same special player he has been since being drafted, he just had a bad game!! And it’s not hard to see why considering he didn’t play at all in the preseason!! This was his first real game action of the season, stuff happens!! But I guarantee he won’t have dropped passes like that again!! He’s gonna come back mad that he dropped those passes and blame himself for losing the game and he’s gonna have one of the best seasons of his career!! And I’m sure of that!!
You forgot to mention the fact that we had 3 possessions stall because Ceedee couldn’t catch the ball!! And you didn’t write it the right way when you said Dak and Ceedee couldn’t connect on a 4th down play…. The right thing to say is that Ceedee couldn’t hang on to the ball that Dak threw to him to convert the 4th down!! It was a tough catch to make, but nothing Ceedee couldn’t handle!! We had at least 3 possessions stall because Ceedee couldn’t hold on to the ball, and between that and the Miles Sanders fumble, those are the only reasons we lost that game!!