National Football League

What's gone wrong for the Cowboys and Eagles? We examine the factors

Updated Dec. 21, 2023 4:49 p.m. ET

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Ralph Vacchiano

NFC East Reporter

Things looked grim for the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday after they were blown out by the Buffalo Bills. All that momentum they had built was suddenly gone — likely along with their chances to win the NFC East.

There was only one thing that could make it all feel better. It happened when the Seattle Seahawks rallied to beat the Philadelphia Eagles the next night.

"It was marvelous," Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said during his weekly interview on 105.3 The Fan in Dallas. "I couldn't sleep until 4 in the morning because of the impact it can have on our year."

The loss by the Eagles did indeed keep the Cowboys alive in the race for the NFC East title and the coveted home playoff game that comes with it. But there's another reason why Philly's stunning, 20-17 defeat was so comforting to a Cowboys team that had just lost 31-10 to the Bills:

Misery loves company.

And right now, there's a lot of misery atop the once-powerful NFC East.

Granted, these are problems most teams would love to have, but both the Eagles (10-4) and Cowboys (10-4) looked very vulnerable last weekend. The Eagles have looked that way for three weeks in a row. It's a somewhat stunning turn of events given that just two weeks earlier, when the Eagles were getting ready to play in Dallas, the game was billed as a possible preview of the NFC Championship game.

Now, neither team looks like a lock to reach it. And they certainly appear to be a notch below the San Francisco 49ers (11-3), who have blown out both squads this season.

How have things gone wrong so quickly for these two NFC East "powerhouse" teams? Here's a closer look.

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Deflating defenses

The standards were high on defense for both of these teams, which is why their shortcomings are so prominent. The Eagles' defense had a ridiculous 70 sacks last season and helped power the team to the Super Bowl, after all. And back in Week 1 of this season, Micah Parsons declared that the Cowboys had "the best defense in the National Football League."

Parsons wasn't far off — the Cowboys rank sixth in total yardage — but they've still had some particularly bad moments, especially on the road against better teams. The Bills, for example, gained 266 yards on the ground in the rain in Buffalo on Sunday night. Earlier in the season, the 49ers ripped through them for 170 rushing yards. Overall their rushing defense ranks a middling 12th, giving up 117.4 yards per game. Their 4.3 yards per carry allowed ranks 18th.

Cowboys defensive coordinator Dan Quinn said tackling was the issue in Buffalo, that it "wasn't up to the standard we've set. That is our ‘secret sauce'—our tackling and our ball-hawking — and we didn't have it."

The Eagles, meanwhile, have lacked that all season. Their tackling, at times, has been atrocious. So has their positioning. It's a big reason why Nick Sirianni demoted defensive coordinator Sean Desai and handed the defense over to Matt Patricia last week.

Not that it helped. The Eagles' tackling in Seattle was as bad as it's been, particularly in the open field where teams are killing them with short passes. Between that and their inconsistent pass rush, their passing defense has sunk to 28th in the league (255.4 yards per game). Their defense ranks 22nd overall. And over the last six games, they've given up a stunning 410 yards per game.

They were better in Seattle, though certainly not in the final two minutes when they let Seahawks backup quarterback Drew Lock march his team 92 yards for the game-winning touchdowns.

Quarterback concerns

When the Eagles and Cowboys played two weeks ago, the game was thought to be a showdown between Jalen Hurts and Dak Prescott for the lead in the MVP race. That seemed pretty reasonable at the time, the way both were playing.

The MVP race is now 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy's to lose.

What happened? The problem is far more serious in Philadelphia, where the big picture shows that Hurts hasn't looked quite right all season long. His numbers are fine and he's on pace for career highs in receiving yards (3,335), touchdown passes (19) and has already topped his career high with 14 rushing touchdowns. 

Unfortunately, he's also got a career-high in turnovers. He's thrown 12 interceptions — double the six he had last season. And he's turned the ball over 17 times overall, just two fewer than he did in 2021 and 2022 combined.

"We have to be better. I have to be better," Hurts said. "Minimizing the mistakes, penalties, mental errors. It starts with me. We've lost games because I can be better."

Prescott is proof that it can happen. He shook off his interception problem from a year ago (when he had 15 in 12 games) and has thrown only seven this year. And to be fair, the rest of his numbers (3,639 yards, 28 touchdowns, 68.8 completion percentage) probably are good enough to keep him in the MVP race, especially with a strong finish.

His issue has been more about big-game performances. He threw for only 134 yards (21 of 34) and threw an interception on a cold and windy day in Buffalo on Sunday. He was far worse in the blowout loss in San Francisco back in October (14 of 24, 153 yards, one touchdown, three interceptions). He is, as always, leaving people wondering if he's truly a big-game quarterback, particularly outside of Dallas' AT&T Stadium — a reasonable question since to reach the Super Bowl, the Cowboys may have to play all their playoff games on the road.

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Injury woes

The NFL is often a war of attrition. Neither team is winning that battle right now.

The Eagles, who have been without nickel cornerback Avonte Maddox (torn pec) most of the season, are now without cornerback Darius Slay (knee) probably for the rest of the regular season. They're also without safety Justin Evans (knee) and middle linebacker Nakobe Dean (Foot). On offense, guard Landon Dickerson might be out until the playoffs after undergoing thumb surgery this week, and guard Cam Jurgens has been out with a pectoral injury too.

Of course, their big injury has been to Hurts' left knee — what has been described as a bone bruise that he's been able to play through, but has affected him all season long.

As for the Cowboys, the loss of cornerback Trevon Diggs (torn ACL) early was painful. So was the loss of linebacker Leighton Vander Esch (neck). But their bigger concerns at the moment are along the offensive line — where left tackle Tyron Smith (back) and guard Zach Martin (quad) are banged up — and along the defensive line, where the loss of defensive tackle Johnathan Hankins (ankle/knee) was clearly evident in the Buffalo loss.

Intangible issues

The Dallas Cowboys are the most penalized team in the NFL, and they also have a knack for committing those penalties at terrible times. The Buffalo Bills, for example, took a 21-3 lead on the Cowboys by scoring touchdowns on three of their first four drives — and all three of those drives would have ended before they reached the end zone if it weren't for a Cowboys penalty.

When they lost to the Eagles 28-23 back in Week 8, they committed 10 penalties for 83 yards.

As for the Eagles, their intangibles have more to do with coaching — particularly their two embattled coordinators. Sirianni tried to fix some of that by demoting Desai, but so far he has stood by offensive coordinator Brian Johnson, despite rumblings about unhappy players and comments by opponents — like 49ers running back Christian McCaffrey — claiming the Eagles offense has become predictable.

Sirianni said the criticism "unfairly goes to Brian" and he added that, "no mistake about it, this offense has been consistently similar throughout the (last) three years."

It just looks different, less efficient and less powerful than it has been.

Ralph Vacchiano is the NFC East reporter for FOX Sports, covering the Washington Commanders, Philadelphia Eagles and New York Giants. He spent the previous six years covering the Giants and Jets for SNY TV in New York, and before that, 16 years covering the Giants and the NFL for the New York Daily News. Follow him Twitter at @RalphVacchiano.

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Ralph Vacchiano