National Football League

Greg Olsen's biggest takeaways from the Eagles' win over Cowboys

Published Nov. 7, 2023 4:17 p.m. ET

The Eagles' thrilling 28-23 win over the Cowboys on Sunday lived up to the hype of one of the top games in the 2023 NFL season.

It also provided a good benchmark flow as to where both NFC East rivals are roughly halfway through the season. Philadelphia improved to 8-1, remaining the only one-loss team in the NFL, while Dallas dropped to 5-3, sustaining questions about whether it can defeat the league's top teams.

Greg Olsen, who was on the call for Sunday's game on FOX, shared his biggest takeaways from the matchup on "The Herd."

Dak Prescott was ‘excellent,' but Cowboys needed more urgency late

The Cowboys had multiple chances to take the lead late in Sunday's game. After Prescott threw a touchdown pass but stepped out of bounds on the two-point conversion to make it a 28-23 game with 6:23 left, Dallas got the ball back with 4:52 remaining from its 26-yard line.

While Olsen remarked that Prescott was "excellent" and played "pretty well," he wished the Cowboys quarterback played with more urgency on that drive. They only ended up moving the ball 32 yards down the field before the two-minute warning as they faced a third-and-21 from the Eagles' 42-yard line. After getting a 13-yard pickup on third down, the Cowboys let the clock tick down to 1:22 remaining before Prescott threw an incomplete pass on fourth down.

Olsen took more issue with that drive by the Cowboys than their final drive, which he said "kind of defied all odds" as they moved the ball to as far as the Eagles' 6-yard line despite starting from their own 14-yard line with 46 seconds left and no timeouts.

"We said on the broadcast that you have to be careful," Olsen said. "You don't want to say, ‘This is the game-winning drive. Go slow and get one shot at it, knowing that you need a touchdown.' They had all three timeouts. You're going to save those for defense. You want to make sure you go up-tempo so you can say, ‘If we don't score on this possession, we've got three timeouts.' You know Philly is going to run the clock, try to get it under the two-minute mark and make you waste all of their timeouts.

"I just thought that they went so slow."

Nick Sirianni's aggressiveness gives Eagles an advantage over other teams

The Eagles' aggressiveness on fourth downs might be the thing they've been most known for over the last couple of seasons. Of course, the tush push has worked for them on fourth-and-1s at a near-100 percent clip.

Olsen said that while the tush push is "the highlight" of the Eagles' aggressiveness, their ability to be aggressive in other areas of the game helps elevate the team. They went for it on fourth down twice on Sunday, both on their opening drive (fourth-and-1 from their 32-yard line and fourth-and-3 from the Cowboys' 27-yard line) as they converted on each try before scoring a touchdown.

Following Week 9, the Eagles lead the NFL in fourth-down conversion rate (76.47%). With their aggressiveness often being rewarded, Olsen noted that no one "gains more winning percentage with decision-making than Nick Sirianni and the Philadelphia Eagles."

Greg Olsen praises Eagles aggression in win vs. Cowboys

"Every decision they make, everything they do from a philosophical approach — both offensively and defensively — all fit onto the same platform that they're going to be aggressive," Olsen said. "They're in four-down territory the second they get around midfield and they're going to play that 100 percent of the time. Nick Sirianni's not going to waver. They could fail on a fourth down. It's not going to happen a lot. It happened two weeks ago against Washington. It is not going to alter [his decision-making].

"He's the guy that's going to hit on 16 on blackjack 100 times in a row even if 99 times in a row he breaks. He just believes in everyone. You can be so consistent in your approach. But everything you do is about finding the smallest advantage in situational ball, extending drives with four downs. You can base your entire offensive and defensive playcalling knowing that that's going to be a constant."

Eagles' offense might be better than last season, but they need to find a knockout punch

Philadelphia's offense for much of the 2022 season felt unstoppable, ranking third in yards and points per game with a 14-1 record when Jalen Hurts started.

Following the departure of offensive coordinator Shane Steichen, there were some doubts they could replicate their performance on that side of the ball in 2023. But they rank third in yards (376.8) and second in points per game (28).

Olsen thinks that they can be "potentially even better" offensively, but they aren't there yet due to their run game, which is averaging nearly 20 fewer yards per game from last year (147.6) to this year (129.7).

"I think they still want to have that killer instinct with the run game, to be able to run the clock out and not have to give the ball back to Dallas," Olsen said.

Still, Olsen thinks that their aggressiveness widens their margins to winning.

"The problem with aggressive playcalling is that it makes you a little more turnover-prone. Some teams are good enough to overcome it. I think that's the point with Philadelphia," Olsen said. "They don't have to play clean. They don't have to play perfectly. I think that's what makes them such a challenge. They can win so many different-styled games — ugly, high-scoring, low-scoring, run game, a high-flying 30-point shootout. There are so many different ways for them to win. That's just not the reality for most NFL teams."

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The Cowboys should feel better about themselves, though there's room to improve

Dallas seemed to be in control for a good portion of Sunday's game, especially late after it gave up two touchdown drives to Philadelphia to open up the second half. The Cowboys also significantly outgained the Eagles (406 yards to 292).

But Olsen noted that Dallas didn't play well in the spots it needed to. It went 3-of-5 in the red zone while Philadelphia converted on all three of its red zone drives. It went 6-of-15 on third downs while Philadelphia went 7-of-14.

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That's what Olsen harped on as far as why the Cowboys lost Sunday's game, though noted that they have to feel better about themselves moving forward.

"You have to beat them soundly. You have to beat them in situational football," Olsen said. "You can't miss a fourth-down try at the goal line. You can't miss a two-point play. They put so much pressure on you to be perfect and Dallas was as close as you can get.

"That formula that Dallas played with, more times than not, is going to win a lot of games. The question is, when they get to the playoffs, can they beat the top teams? I think that's the part they're still trying to figure out. I think Dallas is saying, ‘We can go toe-to-toe with everybody.' It's a lot different than what it was a few weeks ago following that Sunday night game against San Francisco."