4:25 PM EST, FOX – Line: Cowboys -3, Over/Under: 46
As it has in so many years before, the fate of the NFC East will be decided in the waning moments of the Regular Season, as the Dallas Cowboys and the Philadelphia Eagles battle for the Division and a spot in the Playoffs, from Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It wasn’t that long ago that the Cowboys (7-7, T-1st in NFC East) were 6-4 and in control of the mediocre NFC East, but a dismal run of form over the last month has put them in the line of fire, with intense pressure raining down on them from Ownership, the Media, and the Fanbase to right the proverbial ship. On paper, this should not be a team meandering around at .500, and their outspoken Owner, Jerry Jones, has repeatedly thrown his Coaching Staff under the bus, particularly his Head Coach, Jason Garrett, who appears to be enjoying the final days of his lengthy tenure with the club. Of course, Garrett spent seven years as a Backup Quarterback in Dallas, winning a pair of Super Bowls (1993 and 1995) in the process, and would join their Coaching Staff in 2007 as Offensive Coordinator, before eventually taking over midway through the 2010 campaign. Under his watch, the club has gone 84-66 (.560), including three NFC East Titles, though he has never managed that feat in consecutive terms and has never led his charges past the Division Round of the Playoffs. With Jones opting not to engage him in extension talks coming into the season (his contract will conclude in January), the pressure was placed squarely on Garrett to deliver that long sought-after winner in Big D, particularly given the volume of talent that has been littered across the roster in recent years. Jones, alongside his General Manager and son, Stephen, have done an excellent job of scouting and drafting over the past five years, with Garrett and his Staff doing well for themselves in developing said talent, but the problem is that it hasn’t transferred to Super Bowl glory, and now that Jones is being forced to open up his checkbook and sign so many of these guys to lucrative, long-term deals (I.E. Ezekiel Elliott’s $90 million deal), the time is now to secure that elusive sixth Lombardi Trophy. Unfortunately, a team that should be entering their prime instead feels like it has hit the wall, particularly in a loaded NFC where so many of their counterparts have vaulted ahead of them in the standings; the conference currently features four teams with eleven wins, meaning that even if the Cowboys manage to win the Division, they’re likely to be considerable underdogs no matter who they meet in the Playoffs. A big reason for that sentiment is how they’ve performed against teams over .500 this season, which before last weekend’s impressive 44-21 victory over the Los Angeles Rams, stood at a harrowing 0-5. In those contests, the Offense could manage just 16.4 Points per Game, all the while posting a miserable Minus-9 Turnover Differential. Furthermore, in losing three consecutive games for the second time this season, they appeared to have capitulated completely in defeats at New England (9-13), at home to Buffalo (15-26), and on the road at Chicago (24-31), where they were outscored 48-70, despite outgaining the competition 1,155-1,020. And with that picture painted, you can see why that victory over the reigning NFC Champions came as such a relief for the Cowboys, who put together one of their strongest performances of the season, thoroughly besting the same side that eliminated them from the Playoffs last January. After punting on their first possession of the afternoon, Dallas put together four consecutive drives ending with a Touchdown, including a 15-Play, 95-Yard Series ending with a gorgeous 19-Yard Touchdown Reception from veteran Tight End, Jason Witten (57 REC, 491 YDS, 8.6 Y/R, 4 TD), followed a Quarter later by a similar 14-Play, 97-Yard Drive that culminated with the aforementioned Elliott (270 CAR, 1,188 YDS, 4.4 Y/C, 11 TD) barreling One Yard into the End Zone to push the lead to 21-7. In the end, the hosts absolutely dominated on both sides of the football, with the offense totaling 475 Yards and converting 7-of-13 Third Downs, with Elliott racking up 117 Yards and a pair of scores on Twenty-Four Carries, and the unheralded Tony Pollard (70 CAR, 395 YDS, 5.6 Y/C, 2 TD) adding a career-high 131 Yards and a Touchdown on Twelve Carries. In this case, the script had been successfully flipped from that postseason defeat in which Los Angeles fielded a pair 100-Yard Rushers of their own. Defensively, the Cowboys relegated the Rams to a mere 289 Total Yards and 4-of-12 on Third Down, completely snuffing out the Running Game which could muster only Twenty-Two Yards on Fourteen Carries. With Sophomore Linebacker, Leighton Vander Esch (72 TKL, 1 TFL, 1 QBH, 0.5 SK, 1 FF, 3 PD), continuing to be sidelined with a concussion, his veteran teammate, Sean Lee (66 TKL, 3 TFL, 1 QBH, 1.0 SK, 1 INT, 4 PD), stepped up with Four Tackles, a Sack, and an Interception of Jared Goff. Dallas’ Dak Prescott (65.5%, 4,334 YDS, 7.82 NY/A, 26 TD, 11 INT, 73.9 QBR), who is one of many young stars who is in line for a major raise in wages, deftly completed 15-of-23 Passes for 212 Yards and a pair of Touchdowns, including that dime to Witten. And this is precisely why this team is so damn maddening, for while they are capable of putting together dominant performances like this, they can just as easily find themselves on the opposite side of the outcome. So which Dallas will show up today? The one that hammered Philadelphia 37-10 at AT&T Stadium back in late October, or will it be the one that has struggled against so many opponents that are .500 or better in 2019? A win today will render next week’s Season Finale at home against the Redskins moot, but a loss will almost certainly bring this current era of football in Dallas to a definitive end.
Meanwhile, it’s now or never for the Eagles (7-7, T-1st in NFC East), who are under slightly less pressure than their opponent today to win the Division. Of course, when you deliver a championship-starved city such as Philadelphia their first Lombardi Trophy, you’re granted a bit more rope than usual, though Doug Pederson has spent much of his fourth season in charge testing the length of his leash. Indeed, some Head Coaches would be tempting fate given how his side has underperformed in 2019, for this is a team that harbored legitimate Super Bowl aspirations coming into the season. Instead, they’ve spent most of the term doing everything in their power NOT living up to those lofty expectations, and if not for the struggles of the Cowboys over the past month, there chances of returning for a third consecutive trip to the postseason wouldn’t even exist. The Eagles have been a hard club to figure out this year, with fourth-year Quarterback, Carson Wentz (63.4%, 3,431 YDS, 5.72 NY/A, 25 TD, 7 INT, 63.7 QBR), doing his best in carrying an Offense that has been absolutely decimated in the Receiving Corps, and a Defense that has all but collapsed on the back end. In his first full season removed from the ACL tear that ended his 2017 run and the back injury that followed in 2018, Wentz has courageously kept Philly in the thick of things, even if his targets have struggled to simply catch the football. In eleven games last season, he was victimized by Fifteen Drops, or in other words, on 3.8% of his throws, but this year he has seen that figure increase dramatically to 4.8%. That’s due in large part to what was supposed to be a clear strength decaying into a major flaw; Alshon Jeffery (43 REC, 490 YDS, 11.4 Y/R, 4 TD), Desean Jackson (9 REC, 159 YDS, 17.7 Y/R, 2 TD), Nelson Agholor (39 REC, 363 YDS, 9.3 Y/R, 3 TD), and Pro-Bowl Tight End, Zach Ertz (84 REC, 888 YDS, 10.6 Y/R, 6 TD) were supposed to comprise a balanced Receiving Corps, though of the group, Ertz is the only one that has remained healthy, with Jackson out since Week Two with an abdominal tear, Jeffery joining him on Injured Reserve with a with a torn ligament in his foot, and Agholor missing the last two games with an ailing knee. Needless to say, it’s been a MASH Unit of sorts, with the Passing Attack suffering greatly for it. As a result, Wentz has had to put the unit on his shoulders and fight for everything he can get, even against the NFC East’s bottom-feeders, the Giants (23-17) and Redskins (37-27), whom he faced in the past two weeks. Granted, though Philadelphia managed to win both contests, they absolutely EARNED them. Trailing 3-17 at Halftime against New York, the home side was forced to rally back, forcing Overtime inside of the Two Minute Warning. From there, Wentz engineered an 8-Play, 75-Yard Drive, in which he went 4-of-4 for 34 Yards and the game-winning Touchdown to Ertz in the middle of the End Zone. The Signal-Caller completed 33-of-50 Passes for 325 Yards and Two Touchdowns, with he and his prolific Tight End accounting for Thirteen Receptions, Ninety-One Yards and a pair of scores. In the end, the hosts dominated the box score, outgaining the visitors 418-255, totaling Twenty-Seven First Downs to Eleven, and possessing the football for a staggering 42:51, but as anyone that actually watched the affair would tell you, they very nearly came up short, against a 2-11 team no less. It was a similar story the following week in the Nation’s Capital, where the Eagles found themselves in a shootout that featured nine lead changes, 777 combined Yards of Offense, and Five Passing Touchdowns between the two Quarterbacks. Once again, Philadelphia dominated the box score, besting Washington in Total Yards (415-362), First Downs (27-19), Time of Possession (36:57) and on Third Down (11/16-4/10), yet still found themselves trailing in the Fourth Quarter. With the hosts taking a 27-24 lead following back-to-back Field Goals in the middle of the final stanza, the Wentz went back to work, orchestrating an 11-Play, 75-Yard Drive inside of five minutes, concluding with a with a short, 4-Yard Touchdown to the unheralded Greg Ward (18 REC, 140 YDS, 7.8 Y/R, 1 TD), to retake the lead. However, that wouldn’t be the end of the Eagles’ exploits, as veteran Linebacker, Nigel Bradham (46 TKL, 1 TFL, 1 FR, 1 INT, 5 PD), recovered a bad snap from the Redskins Rookie Quarterback, Dwayne Haskins, returning it Forty-Seven Yards for an emphatic score, ending the affair altogether. Again, Wentz was huge, completing 30-of-43 Attempts for 266 Yards and Three Touchdowns, with Rookie Tailback, Miles Sanders (192 Touches, 1,120 TYDS, 5.8 Y/T, 5 TD) enjoying arguably the finest performance of his young career, rushing for a season-high 122 Yards and a Touchdown on Sixteen Carries, while reeling in another Six Receptions Fifty Yards and another score. Indeed, this has been a disturbing trend of coming back in games that they really had no business falling behind in the first place, which doesn’t sound like a sustainable practice to us, let alone a strategy that figures to succeed against the Cowboys today. Yes, Dallas has their own flaws, but has proven capable of exploiting those of Philadelphia, which was very apparent when they met earlier in the campaign; the Cowboys moved the football at will against them (402 Total Yards) though you wouldn’t know since three promising drives in the middle stages of the contest ended in Field Goals. This was one in which the Eagles’ shortcomings in the Receiving Corps caused all sorts of issues, with Wentz being relegated to 16-of-26 Passing for just 191 Yards, a Touchdown, an Interception, and pair of Lost Fumbles. While they haven’t come under the level of scrutiny of their opponent, a loss today will likely lead to some major changes in the Offseason, as this team has dealt with the same inconsistencies in terms of passing the ball and defending it for two years now. So get a good look at these Eagles while you can, ladies and gentlemen, for they’re likely to look very different come 2020…