You may find this hard to believe, but the Dallas Cowboys rode their running game -- yes, their running game -- to a season-saving victory over the Philadelphia Eagles on Monday night.
Widely circled as a must-win game to keep pace with the 4-2-1 Giants in the NFC East, the Cowboys took care of business. Were Tanner McKee and the Eagles more stubborn than you would have liked? No doubt. But backup quarterback or not, this was still a road division game. You don’t apologize for winning those.
But how much stock should Cowboy fans put in the win? Scott Van Pelt asked Troy Aikman, who was on the call for ESPN, if he was impressed by Dallas' win. His answer says plenty about how much room for improvement this team has before they should be taken seriously.
“Eh, not really," Aikman said on SportsCenter. "And I don’t mean that as a negative, but this is a beat-up Philadelphia team. Coming here and winning tonight, let’s not get carried away. They kind of did what you expected them to do.
It’ll bear itself out. This team’s capable. Defense did some good things. They’ve still got a ways to go, but that’s gonna be the key to this team, is how far along can this defense come between now and when the playoffs roll around, if they get in.”
The Cowboys' defense still isn't carrying their weight despite win vs. Eagles
Aikman hit the nail on the head.
At the end of the day, the Eagles were down to their backup quarterback, without their top two receivers, DeVonta Smith and Dontavious Wicks, and multiple starting offensive linemen, including All-Pro right tackle Lane Johnson, who retired midseason.
This was a shell of the offense Dallas would normally expect to see in Philadelphia, and for 45 minutes, Christian Parker's group didn't have many answers. The Eagles found the end zone on their first two drives and didn't punt until there were five minutes left in the first half.
And after Dallas forced two punts, Philly opened the second half with a draining 17-play, 84-yard touchdown drive that spanned 9:16. The game was very much teetering after that score.
Dak Prescott and the offense responded with their own nine-play TD drive to settle everything down, but this game followed a very familiar script until Dallas imposed its dominance late: The offense had to come away with points on every possession.
You may look at the final score and think the Cowboys' defense turned in a strong performance by holding Philadelphia to 21 points. If you watched the game, though, you know Parker's unit struggled for long stretches. The Eagles converted 5-of-12 third downs and averaged 4.8 yards per carry despite posing almost no threat through the air.
That last part is what makes it concerning. Dallas knew Philadelphia was going to lean on the run with Tanner McKee at quarterback and a depleted receiving corps, yet it still struggled to get off the field and consistently win at the line of scrimmage. Against a healthier offense, those cracks will be much harder to survive.
We've basically reached the two-month mark of the season. What, exactly, is this defense better at than it was in Week 1? Joey Porter Jr. has been awesome, but he can't paper over every hole in the secondary, let alone fix everything else that's wrong with the unit.
There's still plenty of season left, but it's becoming increasingly difficult to envision the defense making the leap Dallas needs. With the talent on offense, merely becoming a run-of-the-mill bad defense might be enough. Seven games in, even that modest bar still feels out of reach.
Dallas' win should be celebrated, but they still have much to prove
The Cowboys were 4.5-point road favorites for a reason. Beating the Eagles by two touchdowns at Lincoln Financial Field, one of the few stadiums Cowboys fans do not overwhelm, is always a treat. But given the state of Philadelphia's roster, this was a game Dallas was supposed to win. Anything less would have raised serious questions about Brian Schottenheimer.
And for most of the night, the Cowboys didn't exactly make it look routine. They trailed deep into the third quarter, and it remained a one-score game until 9:07 left in the fourth. It didn't truly feel over until DeMarvion Overshown picked off Tanner McKee with 7:55 remaining.
That doesn't diminish the win. Road division games have a way of getting weird, regardless of who is available. But it does explain why Aikman wasn't ready to treat Monday night as some grand statement about where the Cowboys are headed.
They beat a depleted team they were favored to beat. That's a necessary step forward, not proof that all of their problems have disappeared. This is still a flawed team led by a very questionable head coach that will have to scratch and claw their way to victory more often than not.
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