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Dak Prescott and Jalen Carter open up on THAT incident

Football is finally back after long last. The Philadelphia Eagles beat the Dallas Cowboys on Thursday Night Football with more than a few surprises throughout. With the Cowboys recently shipping away their superstar pass rusher in Micah Parsons and the Eagles celebrating their Super Bowl victory, the highly anticipated matchup lived up to the moment.

Let’s take a look at some of the biggest takeaways from the contest, from ejections to heartbreaking drops.

Jalen Carter was ejected just moments into the game

This was a first: after the opening kickoff, Eagles star Jalen Carter was ejected from the contest. At first, everyone was wondering the same question: what the heck happened? And then the slow-motion replay came in, and it was beyond disgusting. Carter walked up to quarterback Dak Prescott and literally spat on him. Before he could play his first defensive snap of the season, he was ejected and could be facing possible suspension.

“According to two people with knowledge of the ordeal, Dak Prescott spit on the ground in the general vicinity of the Eagles’ defensive huddle,” Harris reported on X. “Carter thought it was hostile. While Prescott was explaining it wasn’t, Carter spit back.”

Referee Shawn Smith explained the decision to eject Carter during the game’s weather delay.

“It’s a disqualifiable foul in the game,” Smith told PFWA Pool Reporter Zach Berman. “It’s a non-football act.”

Dak Prescott and Carter share their version of events

Both Prescott and Carter gave their version of events once the game ended. Mauricio Rodriquez from A to Z Sports provided some insight into the encounter as both Prescott and Carter explained the situation postgame.

“I probably spit 1,000 times throughout the game,” Prescott told reporters postgame. “In that case, (Carter) was trolling, trying to mess with (Cowboys right guard) Tyler Booker. I was just looking at him, I was right here by the two linemen, guess I needed to spit, I wasn’t going to spit on my linemen, I just spit ahead.”

At that point, Prescott says Carter asked him if he was trying to spit on him. The Cowboys quarterback said at that point he felt like the Eagles defensive tackle was insulting him.

“When I stepped through [the huddle], I actually said the words [. . .] ‘Why would I need to spit on you for?” Prescott added. “He just spit on me at that moment. It was more of a surprise than anything.”

The Cowboys quarterback added he wasn’t expecting Carter to be ejected and called the situation “unfortunate.” Prescott added that the ejection immediately impacted the way the Cowboys ran their blocking schemes.

“It was a mistake that happened on my side, and it won’t happen again,” Carter said via Tim McManus. “I feel bad for my teammates and the fans out there [ . . . ] It won’t happen again, I can make that promise”

Carter refused to acknowledge whether Prescott had provoked him during the encounter.

Nick Sirianni discusses unsportsmanlike penalty after the game

Of course, Sirianni was going to be asked about the question on everyone’s mind after the game: what was Carter thinking?

Kelsey Kramer shared the update immediately following the contest, and it’s safe to say that Eagles coach Nick Sirianni was none too thrilled to have one of his top guys on defense out for the duration of the contest, but he is keeping everything in-house.

“Yeah, I’m going to keep all of our conversations and all of my disciplinary things in-house,” Sirianni said. “But we’ve got to fix it as coaches.”

The biggest point of emphasis that Sirianni addressed after the contest was limiting penalties, the personal fouls racked up for the unit, and almost cost them the contest.

“On personal fouls today, I want these guys to play with great energy, great tenacity, while doing it within the rules of the game. So, we’ll address that. We talked about that, obviously, at halftime. That’s a really good offense and every one of their drives that resulted in points were all penalties. Now, a PI (pass interference), that’s different. That’s in the heat of the game. Those are going to happen. But I know we had one with Nolan (Smith) and one with JC (Jalen Carter), and that creates short fields for an offense.”

The Eagles finished the contest with nine penalties for 100 yards, while the Cowboys had only four penalties for 42 yards.

CeeDee Lamb knows he needs to be better

The Cowboys kept this game close throughout and were never more than a touchdown behind throughout the duration of the contest. The first regular season game can be a little messy at times, but the Cowboys’ offense looked hot from the jump.

As Mauricio Rodriguez reported, “Lamb had two bad drops in the second half of the game, the most notable of which came on the Cowboys’ final drive. Dak Prescott hit him right in the hands on a deep route and No. 88 couldn’t haul it in. After the game, Lamb described his performance as ‘terrible’ even after racking up seven catches for 110 yards.”

“That’s terrible,” Lamb told reporters. “I can’t point fingers at nobody else, I take full accountability [. . .] I prayed for moments like that. I need to catch the damn ball.”

That’s not to say Lamb wasn’t dominant, despite his drops. Prescott connected on 62 percent of his attempts, while the team also rolled out a new rushing offense that utilizes gap concepts like power and counter more often than any recent Cowboys team.

Final thoughts

The Eagles wound up winning the contest 24-20, but it was greatly overshadowed by Carter’s actions and the injuries sustained by the defense. Ben VanSumeren spent the offseason recovering from a torn ACL to make the Eagles’ 53-man roster. Unfortunately, on the opening kickoff of the contest, he engaged in a block and immediately dropped to the ground, grabbing his right knee. He was quickly ruled out of the contest.

It was great to see the NFL back in action. Just don’t spit on people, that’s gross.

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