After four consecutive defeats, the Philadelphia Eagles’ season is taking a dizzying turn. They will face an equally disappointing team on Monday Night Football, the Dallas Cowboys, who are obviously a major division rival. Normally, an Eagles-Cowboys game is a big event with a lot of pre-game hype. In this case, the Eagles’ discussions focused more on the team’s internal issues than the game itself. Here are our five things to watch out for.
1) The Cowboys defense stinks
The Cowboys had a historically bad defense in 2025, and it was arguably worse in 2026. Their team defense stats:
| Cowboy Defense | Statistical | Rank |
| Points per game | 26.5 | 25 |
| Yards per game | 382.5 | 31 |
| Yards per play | 6.0 | 32 |
| First downs per game | 22.7 | 30 |
| EPA per game | 0.12 | 31 |
| Success rate | 47.89% | 29 |
| Rushing yards per game | 149.8 | 32 |
| Rushing Yards Per Attempt | 4.7 | 26 |
| EPA per peak | -0.04 | 21 |
| Passing yards per game | 232.7 | 23 |
| Passing yards per attempt | 7.7 | 29 |
| EPA per pass | -0.29 | 32 |
| Average TOP (excluding OT) | 27:37 | 30 |
They can’t stop the run, they can’t stop the pass, and they have the fewest takeaways in the NFL, with just 3.
Of course, if the Eagles had a good offense, they would be salivating over this game. Unfortunately… 👇
2) The Eagles offense is worse than the Cowboys defense
Let’s continue with an update on the Eagles’ putrid offensive stats through the first six weeks of the season:
| Attack of the Eagles | Statistical | Rank |
| Points per game | 17.7 | 28 |
| Yards per game | 255.5 | 30 |
| Yards per play | 4.4 | 32 |
| First downs per game | 14.8 | 31 |
| EPA per game | -0.19 | 31 |
| Success rate | 37.14% | 30 |
| Rushing yards per game | 82.2 | 29 |
| Rushing Yards Per Attempt | 3.7 | 25 |
| EPA per peak | -0.18 | 26 |
| Passing yards per game | 173.3 | 26 |
| Passing yards per attempt | 5.7 | 29 |
| EPA per pass | -0.20 | 28 |
| Average TOP (excluding OT) | 27:23 | 31 |
The Eagles might have Saquon Barkley back from a hamstring injury, so that will help a bit. He’s definitely better than Dameon Pierce. But that should only be of limited importance, since the structure of the offense is very broken.
When asked Wednesday what gave him confidence he could get this offense where he wanted it, Sean Mannion said the offense was “totally fixable.”
“I think there are a lot of things we need to improve on, and I think they’re totally fixable,” he said. “It’s a double-edged sword, right? You look at it, and you can get frustrated with it. You can also look at it and put a silver lining and say, ‘Man, if we stick to our simple things, we’re going to perform better.’
“Like I said, it goes both ways. On the one hand, you’re like, ‘Man, guys, we should be able to execute this better. We’re there if we just fix a handful of things that are holding us back.’ So, on the one hand, it frustrates you. On the other hand, you say to yourself, “If we just master our own stuff, I think that will bring cumulative improvements to our entire offense.” »
Mannion was then asked if he could offer some of the simple solutions.
“I obviously don’t want to go into the details of the project, just for the competitive side,” he said. “But I think at the end of the day, (we) always look at: Are we communicating properly with each other, are our fundamentals strong and is our level of execution where it needs to be?”
“Usually it can kind of fit into those three categories to answer your question. Those are really the three main focal points for us, I think, to execute at a higher level (are) communication, fundamentals, and then the actual act of doing it with your execution.”
This makes me feel like they don’t have any answers.
The Eagles are missing Jalen Hurts and some offensive linemen, so challenges are to be expected. But if we rank the reasons why the offense stinks, I’d have coach higher on the list than injuries.
3) Eagles run defense against Javonte Williams
Williams had a breakout season in 2025 when he rushed 252 times for 1,201 yards (4.8 YPC) and 11 touchdowns. This season hasn’t been as good so far, as he’s averaging one less yard per rushing attempt. In six games, Williams has rushed 85 times for 317 yards (3.7 YPC). However, he has been a good “fantasy football” player, as he has 7 rushing touchdowns, plus one receiving touchdown.
“Javonte is a good runner,” Vic Fangio said. “I had him in Denver, so I know what he does, and he’s really good. They fell behind the other night, and it became a passing party for them, but they would really like to be more balanced, and I expect them to try to be.”
Maybe they would as to be more balanced, but they were not. Dak Prescott is second in the NFL with 246 pass attempts already. He’s on pace for 697 (!) pass attempts. This would rank fifth all-time. They also pass on 67.5 percent of their plays, which leads the NFL.
The Cowboys probably feel like they have to let Prescott throw it all over the court because they can’t stop anyone on defense. But against a team like the Eagles who can’t move the ball when on offense, I predict Dallas will try to be more balanced on offense, control the ball, and dominate time of possession like almost every other Eagles opponent has done to them this season.
4) Eagles pass defense vs. Dak Prescott and an explosive set of receivers
“They have great receivers, as everyone knows,” Fangio said. “Their tight end group is really, really good. They have a good offensive line. Dak is one of the best quarterbacks in the league.”
After a down season in 2025, CeeDee Lamb is posting big numbers in 2026 so far.
| Cowboys Receiving | Save | Yards | YPC | T.D. |
| Lamb CeeDee | 48 | 577 | 12.0 | 4 |
| George Pickens | 33 | 428 | 13.0 | 1 |
| Ryan Flournoy | 23 | 234 | 10.2 | 1 |
| Jake Ferguson | 17 | 115 | 6.8 | 3 |
| Javonte Williams | 19 | 103 | 5.4 | 1 |
The Eagles have had some communication issues in their secondary this season. As we noted in our article on the 10 Eagles-Panthers awards, the Panthers were able to put the game out of reach on a 19-yard TD pass to TE Tommy Tremble, who was left WIDE OPEN in the middle of the field.
When asked what happened on that play, DeJean simply replied, “Poor communication.”
It seemed like DeJean expected Riq Woolen to take Tremble, but ultimately, no one did, and it was an easy TD. You can see DeJean and Woolen both pointing at Tremble, like, “You got this,” lol.
This isn’t the first time this has happened this season. A similar failure involving DeJean and Woolen occurred against the Bears:
Motion reverses the formation’s passing strength, then DeJean/Woolen both take the same receiver, leaving Kalif Raymond wide open. I don’t know who’s making a mistake here, but either way, you’d like to see Mukuba recognize it and help you. None of this happens and it turns into… pic.twitter.com/NMvvMofxDD
— Shane Haff (@ShaneHaffNFL) September 29, 2026
I suspect the Cowboys will have a few plays in the game plan this week that will test the communication between DeJean and Woolen.
5) Where could the Eagles go #Feastin’™️
The Cowboys offensive line looks like this:
| L.T. | LG | C | R.G. | RT |
| Tyler Guyton | Tyler Smith | Cooper Beebe | Tyler Booker | Terence Steele |
The interior of the Cowboys offensive line is superb. Tyler Smith is an All-Pro caliber player, Cooper Beebe is developing into a solid starting center and Tyler Booker was good immediately as a rookie last season and he built on that in year two.
The Cowboys offensive tackles stink. LT Tyler Guyton was the Cowboys’ first-round pick in 2024. He had a poor rookie season, then an inconsistent season in 2025 before an ankle injury in Week 12 ended his season. PFF has already lost Guyton for 19 pressures allowed this season. At RT is Terence Steele, who received a lot of money after a decent season years ago, but has been a well-below-average starter ever since.
Unfortunately for the Eagles, they’re unlikely to exploit Guyton and Steele, as their top three defenders – Jalyx Hunt (knee, ankle), Nolan Smith (concussion) and Jonathan Greenard (ankle) – are all injured, to varying degrees.
#FeastinMeter™️: 3/10 turkey legs 🍗🍗🍗
Gn sports
