The Eagles and Cowboys will be embarking on something Monday night we could call “The Dismal Bowl.” The Cowboys have the 30th rated defense in the NFL, giving up an average of 382.5 yards a game under Dallas’ first-year defensive coordinator and once-prized former Eagles’ assistant coach Christian Parker. The Eagles are not much better, with the 27th-rated defense giving up 363.8 yards a game.
The one glaring difference between these 2-4 teams that will be playing for their seasons on Monday Night Football is Dallas moves the ball. The Eagles don’t.
The Cowboys are 13th in the NFL in offense, averaging 343.2 yards a game while the Eagles are 30th, averaging 255.5 yards a game. Dallas is 12th in the league in scoring, averaging 25.2 points a game while the Eagles are tied for 29th, averaging 17.7 points a game this season.
The only real weapon on either team is Cowboys’ quarterback Dak Prescott, who remains one of the best in the league. Through six games this season, Prescott is No. 5 in the NFL in passing, throwing for 1,639 yards. He is No. 2 in the NFL in completions (163), only one behind the NFL leader, the Los Angeles Rams’ Matt Stafford (164).
Although, Dallas has lost three of its last four games, averaging 23.5 points a game, and failing to reach 20 points in its las two defeats. The Cowboys, fortunately, will be playing an Eagles’ team that has not scored over 24 points in a game this season, is riding a four-game losing streak in which they are averaging an anemic 14.5 points a game.
“I see a well-balanced, talented offense,” said Eagles’ defensive coordinator Vic Fangio when asked this week what he saw in the Cowboys’ offense. “They’ve got great receivers, as everybody knows. Their tight end group is really, really good. They’ve got a good offensive line. [Dallas Cowboys QB] Dak [Prescott] is one of the top quarterbacks in the league, and [Dallas Cowboys RB] Javonte [Williams] is a good runner. I had him in Denver, so I know what he’s all about, and he’s really good. They got behind the other night, and it became a passing fest for them, but they’d really like to be more balanced, and I expect them to try and be that.”
The Eagles have failed to get to the quarterback this season and been forced to rely on special team players like linebackers Arnold Ebiketie and rookie Keyshawn James-Newby to be edge rushers.
Fangio thinks the pair did a good job when they were pushed to play far more than expected in the 25-14 loss to Carolina last week.
“I think, for the circumstances, they did a good job,” Fangio said. “AK [Arnold Ebiketie], I think, played in the 70s of snaps, and Keyshawn played close to 50, I think. We were planning on playing Keyshawn a little bit in the game, but then when [OLB] Nolan [Smith] went down and [OLB Jonathan Greenard] JG’s ankle started bothering him, he went from a handful to close to 50.”
The NFC East is a collective train wreck this season. The division is a combined 0-6-2 over the last two weeks. The division is there for the taking, although that may apply more to the Cowboys than the moribund Eagles, who are on the brink of losing five-straight games for the first time since 2012, when the Eagles lost eight-straight games in Andy Reid’s last season as head coach.
With Jalen Hurts done for the season, with the skittish Tanner McKee now at quarterback, and a tired defense that is missing tackles, not getting any push up front, and breaking apart, the Eagles are flailing downward with nothing to grasp but the tank tonic.
Howie Roseman may be on an SEC tour, seen more at Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Ole Miss and Tennessee games than he is at Lincoln Financial Field in the coming months.
It looks like the Eagles are entering another white-helmet era (look it up), when the Eagles went 20-45-5 from 1969 to 1973 wearing white helmets and green wings. It was a nice clean look for very bad teams.