What a glorious Monday morning #CowboysNation woke up to yesterday.
The sun was shining. The birds were chirping (not those; they were crying).
Our Dallas Cowboys find themselves with a 10-3 record, leaders of the NFC East, and the second seed in the NFC.
Yes, the Cowboys defended their home field, and what a way to defend it.
The Eagles came into Dallas wanting all the smoke but ended up leaving back to Philly suffering from smoke inhalation.
We have been talking all season about how the Eagles seem to be on the brink of destruction and good fortune steps in to save them.
They have been on the right side of penalties, fumble recoveries, and injuries to opponents’ key players.
Their fortune ran out in Arlington last night as the Cowboys dominated in all facets of the game, leaving no room for fortune in the 33-13 win.
From the first drive to the last, it never felt like the Eagles were able to gain any momentum.
Dallas won by a margin of at least 20 points for the sixth time in seven home games this season, and there is plenty of good to dissect.
Let’s dive into what went right for the Cowboys in the huge Week 14 win over the rival Eagles.
The Defense
I won’t even try to break the defense’s performance up into sections because each level played great.
First, the secondary played arguably their best game of the season as a unit.
Boundary cornerbacks Stephon Gilmore and DaRon Bland limited the big plays to AJ Brown and Devonta Smith.
Reports say that Brown told Gilmore he was old and couldn’t cover him, and it seemed to light a fire under the former NFL Defensive Player of the Year.
Gilmore led the team in tackles, most of them coming in coverage on Brown, and forced a key fumble late in the game.
On the other end of the field, we hardly heard the broadcast mention DaRon Bland at all.
When you play cornerback, not having your name called is usually an indication that you are playing well.
Bland was targeted just three times, allowing just one reception for eight yards.
Two of his five total tackles were for loss and helped put the Eagles in long down and distance situations.
The safeties also played arguably their best game of the season as a whole.
We finally saw Donovan Wilson take the form of the player that earned him that fat, new contract.
Wilson only had five tackles, but he was very active and aggressive, laying several big hits to force incompletions over the middle.
Jayron Kearse looked back to his normal self in coverage, as well, helping to limit Dallas Goedert to just four receptions for 35 yards.
Malik Hooker has always had range, but he also displayed physicality on Sunday night that I never knew he had.
Hooker, on more than one occasion, lowered his shoulder to jar the ball loose from Eagles’ wide receivers to force incompletions.
He also recovered a fumble.
The front seven were also a dominant unit, led by the fierceness of DeMarcus Lawrence and the ill but still dominant Micah Parsons.
Parsons was a late addition to the injury report after waking up Sunday morning with flu-like symptoms.
Two tackles, one tackle for loss, and 1.0 sacks later, Micah is home in bed resting after a novel performance.
The sack was impressive, to say the least.
Micah drove perennial All-Pro RT Lane Johnson right into QB Jalen Hurts’ lap with ease, a microcosm of just how dominant the defense was on the day.
Philadelphia’s offense was held to just six points on nine drives, committed three turnovers, and converted just five of 11 opportunities on 3rd and 4th down.
3rd Down Battle
One of my keys to victory this week was to win the 3rd down battle.
Let’s combine both 3rd down and 4th down stats for my own selfish purposes because it makes the Cowboys look even better.
Dallas was 9/16 (56%) on 3rd down and 1/1 on 4th down for a total conversion rate of 10/17 (59%).
That 59% rate is a whole 10 percentage points higher than their 49% season average, which is tops in the NFL.
Dak Prescott and the offense converted third downs from one, one, two, nine, two, one, six, six, and five yards out.
Their lone 4th down conversion was from two yards away on a rush where Tony Pollard gained four yards.
On the defensive side, the Eagles converted just 4/9 third down attempts and 1/2 fourth down attempts.
Their 44% conversion rate isn’t terrible, but not being able to turn those successful attempts into points was the real issue for Philadelphia.
They never were able to string together conversions to get in range to score besides field goals on back-to-back drives where they converted just one 3rd down on each drive.
Philadelphia also attempted two 4th downs, converting one in the first half on a well-executed fake punt.
The second attempt was snuffed out by Gilmore who ran across the field through a couple of attempted picks by Eagles pass catchers.
Devonta Smith caught the pass but was not able to turn upfield with Gilmore right there to make the play well short of the first down.
Seizing the Opportunities
Yet another one of my keys to victory was accomplished by the Dallas Cowboys in their big win.
As is the motto this year, I wanted the Cowboys to “Carpe Omnia”, translated into “seize everything”.
In the loss at Philadelphia, the Eagles put the ball on the ground three separate times, and each time were able to recover.
Recovering even just one of those fumbles could have been the difference in the five point loss for Dallas.
Sunday night was poetic.
The Eagles again fumbled the ball three times, except this time the Cowboys were there to recover all three of them.
Dallas turned those three turnovers into nine points.
It may not seem like much, but remember that taking the ball away also prevented the Eagles from scoring.
With an offense as potent as theirs, those three drives could have easily been 21 points, and the game could have ended completely differently.
It doesn’t count as a turnover, but I also count the failed 4th down attempt by Philadelphia as an opportunistic moment for the Cowboys’ defense.
Down 27-13, the Eagles were driving and hoping to score to make it a one-score game but faced and 4th & 8 at the Cowboys’ 30 yard line.
Eagles WR Devonta Smith ran a drag route across the field and made the catch, but a trailing Stephon Gilmore was there to make the play and end the drive.
The Cowboys seemingly made these type of plays all game long, and it led to a rewarding victory.