Eagles-Cowboys preview: Five things to watch

In Week 10, the Philadelphia Eagles will face the struggling 3-5 Cowboys in Dallas, where the Birds haven’t won since 2017. Here are our five things to watch.

1) Saquon Barkley and the Eagles’ rushing offense vs. the Cowboys’ run defense

One of the Cowboys’ biggest concerns heading into 2024 was their interior defensive line, and as expected, they’ve been bad in the trenches against the run. 2023 first-rounder Mazi Smith has been a major disappointment. A taste of his rookie season (via @Philly_Laz): 

Mazi Smith highlight reel:

The Cowboys also lost a bunch of linemen in free agency, and run-stopping stalwart DeMarcus Lawrence is on injured reserve. The Cowboys’ run defense stats this season: 

In other words, opposing offenses run it a lot against the Cowboys, and they do so successfully.

The Eagles are averaging 174.8 rushing yards per game, which is surprisingly only second-best in the NFL. Anyway, the Eagles should, you know, run the ball.

2) Micah Parsons vs. ???

In the Eagles’ win over Dallas in Philly last season, Dan Quinn was able to scheme up 1-on-1 pass rushing opportunities for Parsons against Tyler Steen, who was filling in for then-RG Cam Jurgens. That did not go well for Steen.

There was a lot of that 👆 during that game. The Cowboys haven’t moved Parsons around quite as much under Mike Zimmer as they did under Quinn, but the very obvious matchup that the Cowboys should try to exploit against the Eagles is Parsons against LT Fred Johnson, who has started the last three games in place of Jordan Mailata. Johnson was up and down against Brian Burns and the Giants, good against Trey Hendrickson and the Bengals, but shaky against Josh Hines-Allen and the Jaguars. He was also limited in practice this week with a knee injury.

The Eagles don’t like to give their offensive tackles help, even when playing backups, and I kinda get why. You don’t want to change your offense to account for one injured player. But, uhhhh, they probably should in this case.

Of course, this all assumes Parsons plays on Sunday.

3) The Eagles’ secondary vs. CeeDee Lamb

The Cowboys’ leading receivers this season: 

And then there’s a big dropoff from there. Lamb is actually having something of a down year, as he is on pace for 1403 receiving yards. In 2023, Lamb had 135 catches for 1749 yards and 12 TDs.

He torched the Eagles last year, making a combined 17 catches for 262 yards and 1 TDs in their two matchups. In one of those games, he caught 11 passes for 191 yards. Here are those 11 catches, Part I:

Part II:

Notice how absurdly wide open Lamb was on most of those catches. In 2024, the Eagles’ pass defense has been much better, and Cooper DeJean has been a significant upgrade over Avonte Maddox, Eli Ricks, Bradley Roby, or whoever else you want to name who played in the slot for the Eagles last season. Quinyon Mitchell has also been an upgrade over James Bradberry. The back end has also just played more cohesively as a unit.

Still, the focus of the Eagles’ game plan should be on slowing down Lamb, even if he won’t be 100 percent for this matchup. He’s really all they have.

My guess? The Eagles will play a lot of zone, and force Cooper Rush to make window throws.

4) Where might the Eagles go Feastin’™️ 🍗

The Cowboys’ rushing offense stinks.

They’re the most pass-happy team in the NFL, as they run it on just 33.3 percent of their plays. They’re going to have to throw the ball, even without Prescott. 

“I don’t think it will change a whole lot,” Vic Fangio said of the Cowboys’ defense, with Prescott out. “You know, Rush has been there a long time. He knows the offense as well as anybody there does and he’ll operate it efficiently.

That’s going to put added stress on the Cowboys’ offensive line, which looks like this:

There are concerns with four of those five starters:

• Steele stunk in 2023 after getting a big contract. PFF has him down for 6 sacks allowed this season, and the Eagles have eaten him alive in the past. For example, in a Week 9 game in Philly last season, Steele gave up 4 sacks — 1 to Haason Reddick, 2 to Brandon Graham, and 1 to Josh Sweat, which was a biggest play of the game.

• Guyton is a rookie who started just 14 games in college. He has committed 12 penalties already this season.

• Beebe is a rookie who never played center in college.

• Martin (34 in a couple weeks) is on the downside of his career, and he has not yet practiced this week due to a shoulder injury.

The only guy the Cowboys can really feel good about both in the short-term and long-term is Smith, who is playing arguably the least important position on the line.

The once-great Cowboys O-line is below average these days.

FeastinMeter™️: 6/10 turkey legs 🍗🍗🍗🍗🍗🍗

5) Special teams

The Cowboys are the 25th ranked team in the league by DVOA. Their offense is 25th, and their defense is 29th. BUT… their special teams are 2nd. Brandon Aubrey, their kicker, is awesome, and has a monster leg.

The Eagles must be mindful of his range and call defenses accordingly, especially if they get into a late game situation where a field goal could tie or win the game.

Aubrey also poses challenges to the returners on kickoffs.

The Cowboys also have one of the NFL’s best returners in Kavontae Turpin, who took a punt to the house Week 1 against the Browns.

The Eagles should probably just avoid kicking it to that guy.