Following a surprising trade right before the start of the NFL season, attention turned to the Dallas Cowboys’ defense, especially with defensive end Micah Parsons gone, as they faced the Philadelphia Eagles on a Thursday night matchup.
Despite a rough start, the Cowboys’ defense ended up holding their ground in a close 24-20 defeat to the reigning champion Eagles. Meanwhile, it was largely the Cowboys’ offense that contributed to their 0-1 season start.
In the first half, the Cowboys seemed to be fulfilling expectations set after trading Parsons — one of the top pass rushers — to the Green Bay Packers on August 28. Their offense was effective, while their defense struggled against the Eagles. Dallas scored on all four of their initial possessions, but the defense allowed three touchdowns on three Eagles drives, leaving Dallas trailing 21-20 by halftime.
The second half was a different story.
However, in the last 30 minutes, Dallas conceded only three points and compensated for their pass rush deficit by applying frequent blitzes to put pressure on Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts. With a resilient secondary, this tactic proved beneficial.
Overall, the Cowboys limited Hurts to 152 passing yards, held star running back Saquon Barkley to 60 rushing yards (which would have ranked as his second lowest last season), and kept wide receivers DeVonta Smith and A.J. Brown to a mere 24 receiving yards combined.
The strong defensive effort gave Dallas’ offense four opportunities to take the lead in the second half, but Dak Prescott and Co. faltered each time.
In the third quarter, on their first drive, the Cowboys advanced to the Eagles’ 15-yard line but lost the ball to Philadelphia due to a fumble by Miles Sanders.
On Dallas’s next possession, the team punted following a drop by star receiver CeeDee Lamb on third down — a potential conversion that instead went right through Lamb’s hands.
Then, after both sides traded punts, the Cowboys had the ball trailing 24-20 with 3:02 to go, but turned the ball over on downs after only seven plays. Lamb once again dropped a perfect pass from Prescott during the drive, and on Dallas’ final offensive snap, Lamb couldn’t make a difficult diving play on a 4th-and-3 deep shot down the left sideline.
Prescott started the game on fire, completing 12 of his first 17 passes for 127 yards. But in the second half — in part due to the critical drops — he completed only 9 of 17 attempts for 61 yards.
The defense held up its end of the bargain in crunch time, allowing Philadelphia only 86 yards of offense in the second half.
Of course, if the Cowboys could have stopped the Eagles in the first half, perhaps their margin of error would have been larger in the third and fourth quarters. But considering how widely Dallas was criticized for shipping away Parsons, its defense actually gave the team plenty of opportunities to win Thursday night.
For one game, at least, it was the offense that was lacking in the game’s biggest moments.
