Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni makes upwards of 7 million dollars per year and I’m just not sure that’s enough for what he’s done since has was hired to be the Philadelphia Eagles head coach back in 2021. He certainly doesn’t get the props he deserves for taking a team that had an epic collapse last year after starting 10-1, and then leading this year’s team to an NFC East Divisional Crown with a statement 41-7 demolition of the Dallas Cowboys today at Lincoln Financial Field. Here’s the skinny from the game at a glance before I get into my Heavy on Eagles Postgame Rant.
Cowboys 7, Eagles 41: How it Went Down
- Final Score: Cowboys 7, Eagles 41
- Records: Cowboys 7-9; Eagles 13-3
- Betting Winners: Eagles -7.5; Eagles -365
- Heavy on Eagles Player of the Game: C.J. Gardner Johnson: 2 INTs, 94 yds, 1 TD (pick-6 in first quarter)
- Next week for the Eagles: at home vs Giants TBD-Flex Game
WATCH & READ the Heavy on Eagles Postgame Rant: The Birds Make a Big Statement as They Dominate Big D to Capture The NFC East Crown
It was the 13th time the Eagles won the NFC East and the third time they did it by beating the Cowboys. The Eagles also clinched the number 2 seed in the NFC with still an outside chance of capturing the overall top seed in the conference.
Sirianni is the first coach in Eagles history to take his team to the playoffs in his first four seasons and is now 47-20, the winningest active coach in the NFL, and its not even that close.
It was a huge rebound game for the Birds as just seven days ago they collapsed in Washington as their defense yielded five touchdown passes to Commanders rookie Jayden Daniels, the game-winning score with just :06 seconds left despite their defense recording five takeaways last week. Today the gang Kelly green defense forced Dallas into four more turnovers today. It was the first time in 20 years that an Eagles team recorded a whopping total of nine total takeaways in back to back weeks.
And they did it without starting quarterback Jalen Hurts who sat out of today’s game with a concussion he suffered in the fist quarter last week. In his stead the Birds got a stellar tandem performance from back-up quarterback Kenny Pickett, who played today with a rib injury while his back-up Tanner Mckee contributed as well. Pickett was 10/15 for 143 yards and a touchdown toss to Devonta Smith in the 2nd quarter. McKee replaced Pickett midway through the 3rd quarter and went a smooth 3/4 with 54 yards and two touchdown passes. shoutout goes out to Birds quarterbacks coach Doug Nussmeier for getting both back-ups qbs to perform at a high level.
The Eagles MVP, Saquon Barkley churned out 167 yards on 31 carries to become just the 9th payer in NFL history to rush for over 2000 yards in a season. Barkley now has 2005 yards and is just 101 yards away from breaking Eric Dickerson’s record of 2,105 he set back in 1984 with the Los Angeles Rams.
C.J. Gardner-Johnson made up for his getting tossed from last week’s contest in Washington with two interceptions today, the first one a pick six that opened the scoring today. The game was tied at seven after the first quarter as the Birds only ran six offensive plays in the opening stanza. It wasn’t much of a contest after that. The Eagles swept the season series with Dallas outscoring the Boys 75-13 while winning the turnover battle with a +8 in the two games
The Eagles move to 13-3 on the year and can tie the franchise record of 14 wins in a season next week when the New York Giants come to town in the season finale.