Eagles To Battle Cowboys With Division Lead On The Line

PHILADELPHIA, PA — Looking at the Eagles calendar entering the season, many fans and analysts would have been excused if they did not predict the Week 14 game with the Cowboys to be perhaps the most consequential of the entire season.

But following a series of stunning defeats of the NFL's best in Miami, Kansas City, and Buffalo, the Birds were brought back down to earth last week against their NFC Championship foes from a year ago, the San Francisco 49ers. The Niners decimated the Eagles secondary en route to a 42-19 drubbing that no one saw coming.

Now, despite their overall dominance, the Eagles find themselves heading down to Dallas for a nationally televised Sunday Night Football match with just a one game lead over Cowboys for the NFC East title. A loss would put the Birds and Boys both at 10-3, in a dead heat with just four games to go. Not to mention, recent history is profoundly against Philly's favor: the Birds have not beaten the Cowboys in Dallas since 2017.

Of course, there's plenty to like about the Eagles chances. They're going to come out kicking and screaming after the embarassing loss to San Francisco. It's likely that they've learned plenty in review of their tapes, and it's likely they know exactly what they need to do to limit the Dallas offense.

That's no secret, of course. The Cowboys have scored more than 40 points in three of their last four matchups in large part due to their dominant offensive line. Dak Prescott had plenty of time to throw for his 347 yards against the Birds on Nov. 5. The Birds will have a strategy for that. They know they need to change something: a week before they gave up 42 to the Niners, they gave up 34 points to the Bills.

Their first game against Dallas was like many other games this season: dominated by the opponent, with the Eagles playing clutch ball and making the right moves at the moments when they counted the most. They eeked out a 28-23 win in that Nov. 5 matchup in Philly, one of multiple games this season that will go down as an instant classic.

Kickoff is at 8:20 p.m. Sunday night. The Cowboys are 3.5 point favorites as of Friday, according to FanDuel Sportsbook.