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Your in-depth Eagles at Cowboys Week 14 preview

Adrian Fedkiw|

Kamu Grugier-Hill fired the first shot.

“Look at Dallas’ history. They always choke. So we’ll go down there and make them choke”

Dak Prescott fired back.

“Coach Garrett has a great saying…winners worry about winning and losers worry about winners.”

Let’s remind everyone that Kamu is a Super Bowl winner and Prescott isn’t, so Dak basically just called himself a loser. Advantage Kamu.

Onto this monumental showdown between the 7-5 Dallas Cowboys and 6-6 Philadelphia Eagles in Big D.

 

EAGLES PASSING GAME VS. COWBOYS PASS DEFENSE
PHI- 96.8 PASSER RATING (14/32), 258 YPG (12/32)
DAL- 95.4 PASSER RATING ALLOWED (18/32), 227 YPG ALLOWED (7/32)

Carson Wentz was 27-of-39 for 306 yards and two scores against the Redskins on Monday, but left yards out on the field and had a poor goal-line interception when he threw behind Alshon Jeffery and Josh Norman undercut it for the interception. His mechanics were off and didn’t appear to be setting his feet consistently. He missed a couple touch throws in the first half, had the poor pick in the red zone, misfired badly on a 3rd-and-3 crossing route that would’ve given the Birds a first down.

Those are mistakes Wentz can’t make against Dallas.

He did bounce back from the pick to lead the key touchdown drive that bled into the fourth quarter and gave the Eagles a two-score lead. Wentz hit Jordan Matthews for the 4-yard TD pass on 3rd-and-goal to complete the 15-play, 85-yard march. Then Wentz rolled to his right to find Golden Tate for the two-point conversion and a 22-13 Eagles lead with 14:10 to play.

Wentz did have his highlights. This backyard play where he lofted this sick touch throw to Golden Tate down the left sideline was awesome.

Golden Tate hauled in all seven of his targets for 85 yards and a score. The Eagles have been using more bunch and stack looks in the slot with several different looks as a way to integrate Tate into the offense. Pederson spoke about it.

“I don’t know if it’s as much Golden Tate as I think it is allowing the offense to work. Just a lot of those throws Golden Tate wasn’t necessarily the primary guy. You just kind of get through your reads or a broken play, and Carson found him. So, he’s beginning — going back to Golden, he’s kind of found a rhythm. He’s kind of understanding the offense a little bit more. I think tonight it was really good to see because the ball got spread around a little bit in the passing game, and he had a nice night tonight.”

Wentz believes the chemistry with Tate is improving.

“I feel with every week, every practice, kind of every opportunity with Golden is just an opportunity to build that relationship, build that chemistry. Tonight, he made some great plays. He made some great plays after the catch, too, which is big. It was good to finally get him in the end zone too.”

He also thinks the offense is meshing.

“I think we are really playing well together, really meshing together. Kind of what we do best and that is run the ball. Kind of relying on those big guys up front from play-actions, nakeds to boots. Trying to stay on the field on third downs. We have to clean up some things in the red zone for sure, we left some plays out there no doubt, but we are kind of starting to mesh a little bit offensive.”

Pederson thinks it’s coming together too.

You’d like for it to start earlier but I think you’re still seeing — you’re seeing flashes of it. I think the flashes are a little more consistent now. It still wasn’t perfect in the game yesterday. Still some mistakes that we need to clean up.

We had more opportunities to score and we didn’t do that. So those are things we need to focus in on just a little bit, but I think what you’re seeing now is the offense kind of coming together, rhythm.

Obviously it starts up front. I think the offensive line is playing at a high level right now, and we kind of ride them. The running game has been consistent. We’ve gotten consistent play from [RB] Josh [Adams], obviously, and [RB] Corey [Clement], and then mixing [RB Darren] Sproles in there yesterday.

I think it’s a little bit longer than expected, obviously, but as I say, you should be playing your best football down the stretch and hopefully this is the spark that kind of gets us going.

The Eagles are most certainly playing their best football of the season at the right time.

EAGLES RUNNING GAME VS. COWBOYS RUN DEFENSE
PHI- 4.2 YPC (22/32), 103.3 YPG (23/32)
DAL- 3.7 YPC ALLOWED (13/32), 91.3 YPG ALLOWED (4/32)

It’s Josh Adams SZN!

Adams was given 20-plus carries for a second straight week and it’s not a coincidence that his emergence has helped the Eagles win two games in a row for the first time all year.

With Adams running the ball effectively, it has opened up the offense and helped out the offensive line, which didn’t allow a sack on Monday. Jason Kelce was also a beast in the screen game, which Corey Clement did a better job in following him and his blockers, gaining 47 yards on three receptions. Kelce’s block on Darren Sproles’ 14-yard touchdown may have been the highlight of the game. He drove Mason Foster back 10 yards with his right arm and then got another block with the left to spring Sproles free, wow!

The Eagles are also getting better production in blitz pick-up from their backs, evidenced by this block by Clement, which freed Wentz up to make this 39-yard completion to Nelson Agholor.

But it all comes back to Adams, who is showcasing great patience and vision for an undrafted back. It’s the balance that makes the offense work, says Pederson.

You have to run the ball. You have to have that balance. We had it again last night, the last two weeks, as you mentioned, it’s been positive. It opens up a little bit more in the play action world and getting the quarterback out on the perimeter, getting [QB] Carson [Wentz] on the edge and where he’s been good at seeing the field.

Yeah, again, it goes back to the offensive line, how well are they controlling the line of scrimmage and starting there, and we started fast last night and that’s a positive in the big scheme of things.

Started fast they did, scoring a touchdown on the opening drive after not tallying point in 9-of-11 first quarters all season.

Dallas’ defense is fourth in the NFL in rush defense, with its linebackers Jaylon Smith and Leighton Vander Esch leading the way in that category. They helped limit Alvin Kamara, arguably the shiftiest running back in the NFL, to 36 yards on 11 carries, a measly 3.3 yards per pop.

Can Adams continue his effectiveness? Here’s what I will say, Smith and LVE are a lot more comfortable going horizontally than straight downhill, which is where Adams is at his best. It’s a huge reason why they were able to shut down Kamara. This is where the game could be won or lost, because balance is what has allowed the Eagles’ offense to open up. If Adams struggles to get going early, will Pederson resort to his pass-happy ways?

 

COWBOYS PASSING GAME VS. EAGLES PASS DEFENSE
PHI- 95.7 PASSER RATING ALLOWED (19/32), 264 YPG ALLOWED (26/32)
DAL- 95.2 PASSER RATING (18/32), 200 YPG (27/32)

Dallas has won four in a row and Amari Cooper’s arrival in Dallas has been paramount.

Since coming over from the Oakland Raiders for a first-round draft pick, the Cowboys have increased their scoring average from 17.5 points a game to 21.4, while improving their third-down conversion rate from 32 percent to 39. The Cowboys went from being 29th in the NFL on third down to 17th.

Cooper, who has caught 30 balls for 424 yards and three scores for Dallas, feels like the Cowboys can beat anybody.

“I feel like we are good team. I used it personally as a measuring to see where we really were. We broke their winning streak. It proved I was right. I think it’s definitely a confidence booster. You beat a team like that you feel like you can beat any team. So yeah.”

It’s been a tale of two seasons for Dak Prescott. He struggled over his first six games, averaging just 190 passing yards per game to go with seven touchdowns, four interceptions and a completion percentage of just 61.9 %, but over the last six — five have been with Cooper –, Prescott has completed 70.9 % of his passes, is averaging 255 yards per game and has seven touchdowns to go with just a pick. Prescott’s yards per attempt have gone up as well, improving from 6.69 yards per pass over his first six to 7.93 over his last six.

What he needs to clean up is his fumbling, because he’s lost one in three of his last four games.

 

COWBOYS RUNNING GAME VS. EAGLES RUN DEFENSE
PHI- 5.0 YPC ALLOWED (29/32), 103.7 YPG ALLOWED (10/32)
DAL- 4.7 YPC (7/32), 131.5 YPG (6/32)

Ezekiel Elliott ran for 151 yards and a touchdown on 19 carries against the Eagles last month, he will obviously have to be shut down a lot more than that. The Eagles’ run defense has been better since, although the surrendered a 90-yard TD run to Adrian Peterson, which defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz didn’t like.

Obviously the 90-yarder wasn’t a good thing. When you give up a long run it’s very rarely one person’s mistake. You can give up a long pass and it just be one guy. Everybody can do something right and one guy trips and falls down or one guy miscommunicates, and you can look really bad on a pass by one guy. It’s hard to look really bad on a run unless you get mistakes at all three levels. We did on that play. Mistake on the D-line, mistake at linebacker and then a missed tackle on the back end. That’s where you end up.

Philly, however, allowed just eight yards on Peterson’s eight other carries.

I was proud of the guys the way they rallied behind that and didn’t let one bad play become another. I’ve been in that position before. I think it was 2013. I was in Detroit. We opened the season with Minnesota with Adrian Peterson. He was just coming off leading the NFL in rushing. Our whole game plan was getting him stopped.

The very first play of the game, very first play of the season, was an 80-yard touchdown. It was the same thing. One guy gets out of his gap and makes another guy miss and runs past everybody else. I think that game also, I mean, 80 [yards] on one play, and then we held them to like 95 [yards] or something like that. It was similar.

But I was proud of the guys the way they bounced back from that. I think limiting the run game not just with him, but with [Redskins RB] Chris Thompson, who I have a lot respect for as a back, that obviously was where we were in that game and got us to where we were in that game.

 

PREDICTION: Dallas’ defense is fourth in the NFL in rush defense, with its linebackers Jaylon Smith and Leighton Vander Esch helping lead the way. They limited Alvin Kamara, arguably the shiftiest running back in the NFL, to 36 yards on 11 carries, a measly 3.3 yards per pop. Smith and LVE are a lot more comfortable going horizontally than straight downhill, which is where Josh Adams is at his best. It’s a huge reason why they were able to shut down Kamara. This is where the game could be won or lost, because balance is what has allowed the Eagles’ offense to open up. I think they’ll get the balance and the win.

24-20 Eagles

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