The Dallas Cowboys fought admirably on the opening night of the 2025 NFL season on the road against the defending Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles. There are no moral victories in this league, but after all the drama the team has been through recently, Thursday was the closest thing.
Dak Prescott and the offense flexed their muscles a bit in the first game of the Brian Schottenheimer era. If it wasn't for a handful of uncharacteristic CeeDee Lamb drops and a key Miles Sanders fumble, perhaps today we would be talking about an incredible upset to kick off the year.
While the defense did not necessarily play poorly, it struggled to stop the run in the first half despite the recent addition of Kenny Clark. Cornerbacks Trevon Diggs and DaRon Bland clamped up on Devonta Smith and A.J. Brown, but it still was not enough to pull out the victory.
Cowboys DC Matt Eberflus' blunder allowed Jalen Hurts to ice game for Eagles
That's because defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus, in his first game with the Cowboys, made a brutal error on the final drive of the game. Despite Dallas having three timeouts, the Eagles still elected to throw the ball instead of utilizing Jalen Hurts and Saquon Barkley on the ground.
On 3rd-and-3, with the game on the line, Eberflus puzzlingly decided to call a soft cover 3 zone with a simple four-man rush. It seems like Eberflus forgot that Hurts is a dynamic runner, and he was able to scramble for a game-clinching first down, much to the dismay of Cowboys fans.
The Athletic's Ted Nguyen had harsh words for Eberflus' late-game blunder.
4-man rush, soft zone, cover 3 with the rotation coming from deep with 3 yards to go?
— Ted Nguyen (@FB_FilmAnalysis) September 5, 2025
Does Eberflus know that Jalen Hurts could run?
Continually failing at situational football https://t.co/Sc85XcsKdu
Nguyen was not the only one who noticed this decision, however, as Eric Crocker of the Locked On 49ers Podcast criticized Eberflus for the same decision.
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Philadelphia was in long field goal range anyway, so the smart play for them would have been to run the ball twice, tush-pushing if they had to, to get a first down and avoid giving the Cowboys the ball at midfield if they missed the field goal.
Eberflus and the Cowboys bailed them out, however, by running what they did. In addition to Lamb's drops, this was another missed opportunity by Dallas in what may ultimately be a major result as the season and playoff battle wear on.
Next week, the Cowboys will continue their early slate of NFC East games when they welcome the New York Giants to AT&T Stadium. Eberflus cannot afford to make similar situational mistakes if Dallas wants to get back to .500 early in the year.