With nine minutes remaining, large sections of open seats began to appear at Lincoln Financial Field on Monday night. It didn’t matter, because the Linc seemed lifeless all night in a rare moment for an Eagles-Dallas Cowboys game.
The Cowboys’ anemic running game, which averages 76 rushing yards a game, certainly found relief in the Eagles’ tired and haggard defense in a 38-21 win at Dallas.
The Eagles are on a five-game losing streak, the first of Nick Sirianni’s tenure and the first for the Eagles since 2016, Doug Pederson’s first year as head coach.
Dallas moved to 3-4 and the Eagles fell to 2-5, and though the Cowboys were one game better, the teams seemed years apart from each other.
The Eagles looked like losers in their eyes. They look like losers in their play. They look defeated by their body language. They look like losers in trusting the game plan presented by the coaching staff.
In his search for the tank, Howie Roseman may be calling every former high school star in the Delaware Valley for the next few months.
The over-under apathy line was set last week in mid-November. Don’t look now, but the shroud of indifference descended on the 2026 Eagles under a full moon Monday night.
Dallas won for the first time at the Linc since 2021.
The Eagles made 2026 an extended exhibition season. That’s what the empty Linc felt like in the fourth quarter Monday night.
Get ready for the Linc to be up for grabs by contending teams like the New York Giants, Pittsburgh Steelers, and Seattle Seahawks—you know, teams that matter.
The Cowboys ran 65 plays and the vaunted Eagles defense had no tackles for a loss. Dallas outgained the Eagles for 416 total yards, averaging 6.4 yards a game, with 204 yards on the ground, averaging 5.4 yards a carry.
Whatever the Cowboys wanted to do, they did. Dak Prescott completed 15 of 27 for 212 yards and three touchdowns. Javonte Williams sliced the Eagles for 155 yards rushing, averaging 6.2 yards a carry.
Tanner McKee was okay, completing 23 of 35 passes for 211 yards with one touchdown and one interception.
But the spotty defense is really to blame for the Eagles’ latest woes. Dallas scored on seven of nine possessions. The Cowboys threw Jalen Carter and Jordan Davis around the field like ragdolls. Riq Woolen beat everyone for the best Halloween costume—he wore an Izel Jenkins mask.
In two years, the Eagles have gone from the top of the NFL, to one of the worst teams in the league with no solutions in sight.
This is a new low.
There was a little bit of good, a mountain of bad and a whole heap of smoldering, smoldering ugliness in the Eagles’ 38-21 loss to the Dallas Cowboys.
The Eagles’ first drive of the second half. It was the first time this season that the Eagles scored on the first drive of the second half, when Makai Lemon scored on a four-yard reception to give the Eagles a 21-20 lead. The Eagles’ 17-play, 9-minute, 16-second drive was their longest this season. They were 5-for-6 on third-down conversions and 1-for-1 on fourth-down conversions.
Makai Lemon’s 15-yard reception on fourth-and-one at Dallas’ 24 on the Eagles’ first drive of the second half. At that time, it was Lemon’s fourth catch for a team-high 50 yards. Lemon was one of the best in a bad situation, with a game-high seven catches for a team-high 67 yards.
Hollywood Brown’s 19-yard reception on the Eagles’ first drive of the second half. Saquon Barkley’s 12-yard run on the first play of the second marked the first time this season the Eagles not go three-and-out on their first drive of the second half.
Eagles first trip. It was the first time the Eagles scored on their first drive this season. The amazing thing about the four-play, 75-yard drive that took just 2:05 off the clock was that the Eagles didn’t face a single second down. The big play of the drive was Saquon Barkley’s 29-yarder that brought the ball to Dallas’ 34. Barkley’s two carries accounted for 37 of 75 yards on the drive. Tanner McKee’s 21-yard completion to Makai Lemon brought the ball to the Dallas 13.
Eagles second drive. The Eagles went up 14-10 on a great drive that traveled 76 yards in 13 plays. The big play was a McKee-to-Darius Cooper 17-yard completion on a third-and-10 at the Cowboys’ 12, made with Cooper’s run-and-after catch zig-zagging his way through the Dallas secondary. Hollywood Brown did a nice job blocking cornerback DeRon Bland on Dameon Pierce’s 5-yard touchdown run with 13:25 left in the first half.
The first punt of the game came with 2:37 left in the first half. Punter Braden Mann nailed a 48-yard punt that Darius Cooper overthrew at the Dallas two-yard line.
Running out of timeouts in the first half with 1:31 left in the half faced third-and-10 at the Eagles’ 41. The Eagles had to settle for a 5-yard completion on third-and-five with 1:24 left at the Eagles’ 46. The Eagles returned the ball to Dallas at the Cowboys’ 13 with 1:14 left and two timeouts. This led to a 27-yard field goal by Brandon Aubrey and a 20-14 halftime lead.
The Cowboys drove first. Dallascameout and drove 28 yards in seven plays, gaining 25 yards on the ground. The result of the series was a 55-yard field goal by Brandon Aubrey.
Cooper DeJean did not have a good season this year. Another case in point came on a 17-yard pass interference call with 14:11 left in the game. DeJean earlier in the game gave up a first-quarter touchdown covering CeeDee Lamb in the slot, which DeJean tried to cover—and failed.
Riq “Reek” Woolen has game. He has completely disappeared from CeeDee Lamb with 12 seconds left in the first half for a 30-yard completion to the Eagles’ nine-yard line. Woolen was lucky Lamb lost his balance and had to crawl out of bounds. The Cowboys had to settle for an Aubrey 27-yard field goal (3 points thanks to Woolen). The Cowboys scored on four of five drives in the first half. Woolen ran away from adversity, refusing to speak after the game.
Woolen didn’t have a good game. On a third-and-nine on the Cowboys’ first drive of the second half, he was flagged for holding, giving the Cowboys a new set of downs. He was later torched on the same drive by Ryan Flournoy for a 16-yard completion on a first-and-10 to the Eagles’ 27. On the same drive, Woolen was smoked by Lamb in the corner of the end zone for a 16-yard touchdown and a 28-21 Cowboys’ lead with 1:30 left in the third quarter (11 points thanks to Woolen after Prescott’s two-point conversion).
Early in the game, Woolen gave the Cowboys’ Flournoy a big gap on third-and-8 on Dallas’ second drive. Prescott found Flourney open on the sideline, and Woolen missed him, which turned into a huge gain, from the Cowboys’ 31 to the Eagles’ 34. This was the game breaking Dallas touchdown drive. Five plays later, Prescott hit CeeDee Lamb for a nine-yard touchdown pass in the corner of the end zone for a 10-7 Cowboys lead. Lamb caught a TD pass to DeJean, who has not had a good season. In two drives, the Cowboys scored twice.
Has anyone seen Jalen Carter and Jordan Davis? While Woolen was all over the place in his mistakes, Carter and Davis were invisible in theirs. They have no front push. They created no roadblocks to stop the Dallas running game. They could not be found. They had quarterback pressures and knocked the ball off all night. Carter, the highest-paid defensive tackle in the NFL, ran from poverty and refused to speak to the media after the game and wished everyone a good night.
McKee’s fourth quarter interception by DeMarvion Overshown on a pass intended for Dallas Goedert with 7:47 to play. The Cowboys went up 31-21 and the Herd started filing for the exits.
The Eagles’ first drive of the fourth quarter. Right guard Tyler Steen was flagged for holding, pushing the ball back to the Eagles’ eight, followed by a three-yard sack that pushed the ball further to the Eagles’ five.
Eagles last possession in the first half. Offensive coordinator Sean Mannion had his moments in the first half, then blew it on the final drive of the half, throwing three times, with two incompletions on a series that shaved just 15 seconds off the clock, giving the ball back to the Cowboys with 1:14 left in the half and two timeouts. McKee failed to make two open throws, and the Eagles would have had just one first down with a chance to kick a halftime walkoff field goal. Instead, it was a six-point turnaround as Aubrey hit a 27-yarder to end the first half. Bad play calling, bad execution, and bad game management, or, considering the way this season is going—basically the 2026 Eagles.
Cowboys first half. Dallas outgained the Eagles 275 to 154 yards, ran 39 plays to the Eagles’ 26, and averaged 7.1 yards a play to the Eagles’ 5.9. The Cowboys scored on four of five drives in the first half.
Three drives and three points. It’s hard to say which defense is worse—the Cowboys or the Eagles. The Cowboys scored on their first three possessions, scored touchdowns on their second and third drives to take a 17-14 lead. Through their first three drives, Dallas gained 191 total yards, averaging 6.6 yards per play on 29 total plays, while rushing for 95 yards on 16 attempts averaging 5.9 yards a carry. Dallas converted 4 of 6 first downs and one fourth down. Prescott completed 8 of 13 passes for 96 yards passing and two touchdowns, one to CeeDee Lamb and one to George Pickens. The Cowboys had plays of 11, 15, 21 and 35 yards. What helped was that Dallas was flagged 7 times for 42 yards—five of which were defensive penalties. The Eagles converted four Cowboys penalties on first down.
Javonte Williams’ 12-yard run on the Cowboys’ second drive. Zack Baun, Jalen Carter, Quinyon Mitchell, Arnold Ebiketie, Cooper DeSean and Andrew Mukuba all failed to bring him down. It was demoralizing how Williams churned through the Eagles’ defense.