PHILADELPHIA — I feel like two sets of grades should be passed out tonight — before the lightning came and after.
But we will try to roll with just one following the Cowboys’ 24-20 loss to the Eagles, in which the visitors gave Philly a bigger scare than most of us anticipated.
Offense
The 20 points scored on the first four possessions had to stun teams around the league, even if Jalen Carter was missing from the Eagles’ front. Teams just didn’t move that steadily against the Philly defense a year ago. But it all fell apart with CeedDee Lamb’s drops, with Miles Sanders’ fumble with Dak Prescott having to throw under pressure at the finish even if he managed to avoid sacks. A scoreless second half was hard to accept.
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Grade: C-plus
Defense
Can’t say the run defense made that Great Leap Forward as Jerry Jones predicted following the Micah Parsons trade — not with Philadelphia running for 158 yards and dominating time of possession at 34:52. But the defense more than held its own against Hurts’ passing game and they forced the two punts in the fourth quarter Dallas needed to get chances to win the game. It just didn’t happen on the other end.
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Grade: B
Special teams
Started out poorly with Brandon Aubrey losing the coin toss (kidding on that one) and then putting the first two kickoffs into the end zone, which now moves the ball out to the 35. Aubrey was solid as ever on his field goal tries, and there was nothing really to measure in the punting game for the first 40 minutes. It was not a night where special teams played a significant role for either team.
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Grade: C
AdvertisementCoaching
I don’t imagine Brian Schottenheimer was gearing up for a close loss in his long-delayed head coaching debut, but it wasn’t like he didn’t have the Cowboys prepared. The offense may not have looked as wildly different from what we saw under Mike McCarthy as we were led to believe, but it did look very efficient for a long stretch of the game. The secondary gave up one big pass play to Jahan Dotson but didn’t seem surprised by the Eagles’ big-play receivers or anything else Philly cooked up. Stopping Hurts — that’s not really coaching, that’s finding defenders who can tackle.
Grade: B
AdvertisementOverall
Covering the spread may only interest the betting segment of Cowboys Nation (not a small segment, I wouldn’t think). But it also indicates that the “sky is falling” sense that has hovered over the team since Micah Parsons was dealt to Green Bay may have been less than accurate. Maybe they didn’t get the Eagles’ best punch in the season opener but they weathered the one they took and had footballs passing through their best player’s arms with the game on the line.
Grade: B-minus
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