Eagles face must-win test against hideous Cowboys’ defense as brutal injury report delivers another major blow to offense
Philly might finally get some reinforcements back, while the receiver room and quarterback picture keep getting messier.
As crazy as it sounds, the Philadelphia Eagles and Dallas Cowboys both need this win as badly as ever, and both teams have been buried in turmoil. The Eagles sit at 2-4 on a four-game losing streak, and somehow they’re still tied with the Cowboys for second place in the NFC East. That is still mind-boggling to me. The New York Giants are in first place with J.J. McCarthy under center. Let’s be honest, nobody wants to win this division. This is shaping up to be another 2020 situation, maybe even worse.
Every twist and turn has gone wrong for the Birds this season. Things keep getting worse for Philadelphia, but they’re also getting a little better in some ways.
Eagles’ injury report is almost impossible to keep up with
The Eagles might finally get a couple of reinforcements this week. Michael Carter and Dallas Goedert didn’t practice early in the week, but Goedert got back on the field later, so he has a chance to play. Jonathan Greenard has been out with the ankle. DeVonta Smith hasn’t practiced with the hamstring and has been ruled out, Dontayvion Wicks has missed the week with an ankle injury, and Nolan Smith suffered a concussion last week.
The two big question marks for me are guard Landon Dickerson and running back Saquon Barkley. Dickerson looks like he could finally return from the knee injury this week. We’ll see if he has anything left in the tank. Barkley has had a tough go of it with nobody blocking in front of him, and Philly needs him back. No offense to Dameon Pierce, but that running game isn’t cutting it, and every other running back got hurt anyway. Jalyx Hunt was somehow practicing too. I can’t believe he avoided a season-ending injury after what we saw in London.
Now, the bad news. With no DeVonta and no Wicks at practice, it looks like the Eagles will be without their top two wide receivers, and Greenard and Nolan Smith are most likely out as well. The Greenard trade isn’t looking good right now. That’s not a knock on his talent. He just hasn’t been on the field, just like every other Eagles player.
And we all know Jalen Hurts isn’t coming back this season. It’s on Tanner McKee to string something together. So who is he throwing the ball to?
Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni would not say whether the team is considering shutting down DeVonta Smith given his ongoing hamstring injury. What does shutting him down even mean? He’s done now too? Sirianni did offer some praise on the depth chart. He likes the way Makai Lemon is practicing and that Hollywood Brown, who has been a healthy scratch, had one of the best catches he’s ever seen during practice this week.
There has to be another Eagles fan out there wondering where Hollywood Brown has been. This offense needs underneath routes, option routes, and rhythm plays to get the quarterback going. But a 52-yard bomb from Brown would stretch the defense and keep everybody off balance. Maybe we finally see it this week.
No, the Eagles should not start Joe Milton
A big question this week is whether Philadelphia should pivot to Joe Milton, who the Eagles signed off the Cowboys’ practice squad. Is it intriguing? Sure. Does Milton have a better arm than McKee? Yes. Should they start him right now? Absolutely not.
He hasn’t been with the team long enough, even if he brings some intel from Dallas. You just went to McKee and gave him essentially one game. You can’t switch quarterbacks every week. In my opinion, there’s a 0% chance Milton starts, even though watching that rocket arm would be fun in a lost season.
Cowboys’ defense is the cure, or nothing is
Here’s the thing: if the Eagles can’t get it going against this Dallas defense, they will never get it going this season. That isn’t an exaggeration. The Cowboys’ defense is hideous.
I like Christian Parker, and I wish he were still coaching this Eagles secondary. But just like everyone talks about the Eagles’ offense, Dallas fans are talking about their defense. Philly sits in the bottom third of nearly every offensive category, and the Cowboys sit in the bottom third of nearly every defensive one. This is the terrible against the terrible. The Eagles have scored 10 points combined in their last four second halves. That can’t happen for a professional team.
The Cowboys are last in the NFL in takeaways with one interception and three total takeaways. They’re near the bottom in sacks. They lost to a winless Tampa Bay team starting an undrafted quarterback, they lost to Green Bay last week, and they lost to the Giants in Week 1. They’ve scored 30-plus three times and 20 or fewer three times, so this team is a wild card.
The path for Philadelphia is simple. Establish the run, get Barkley going, hope the line improves with Dickerson, and bleed the clock. On the other side, Vic Fangio’s defense has to hold on for dear life against a top-10 passing attack and force Dak Prescott into turnovers. At the end of the day, though, it comes down to whether Sean Mannion can build a game plan that fits McKee.
Every fiber in my being says this will be more of the same. But the Cowboys have no excuse, and I can’t pick the Eagles to lose to Dallas. That would be sacrilegious. It’ll be ugly and sloppy, but the Eagles finally crack 25 points and win a nail-biter 27-24. Call it a little revenge for Christian Parker leaving, even though he made the Cowboys that much worse.
