PHILADELPHIA — Give Dak Prescott this much. He can take 10 months away from the game, then come out and make a season opener against the Super Bowl champs look like he’s back in Cleveland for the opener last year.
At least he can in a 20-point first half.
The entire complexion of the NFL’s season opener changed after halftime, and especially after a one-hour delay for lightning in the third quarter, in what turned into a sluggish 24-20 victory for the champions. Neither team punted until the third quarter and it looked like the first team to 40 was going to win Thursday before a little lightning put a damper (literally) on both offenses.
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The Cowboys went toe to toe with the Eagles and were poised to regain the lead in a 24-20 game down at the Philadelphia 10-yard line when Miles Sanders — the former Eagles back who had put Dallas in scoring position with a 49-yard run around left end — fumbled for the game’s first turnover. Suddenly, with 4:44 left in the third quarter, lightning arrived in the area of Lincoln Financial Field and a game that had been a back-and-forth scorefest between the two offenses was hit with a lengthy delay.
After the suspension was lifted, shockingly, neither team scored a point. CeeDee Lamb, clearly the most dangerous Cowboy of the night, dropped at least three passes although his final one would have been a fairly spectacular diving catch on a fourth-and-three. Lamb went for the ball at the Eagles’ 25 but the ball went through his arms with less than two minutes to play.
“I can’t put the finger on anybody else,’’ Lamb said. “I need to catch the damn ball.’’
The one thing Dak couldn’t do — and this isn’t likely to change any time this season or in the future — is run the football anything like Jalen Hurts. The difference in a four-point game Thursday was really Hurts’ ability to run for first downs virtually any time he was inclined to do so. On the last big play of the night — a third-and-three in Dallas territory as the Cowboys were exhausting their timeouts, Hurts ran up the middle for four yards, and the game was over. Hurts finished with 14 carries for 62 yards and two touchdowns.
Prescott’s numbers at the finish line were nothing extraordinary — 21-for-34 for 188 yards. But the Lamb drops and the Sanders fumble were really what kept the Dallas offense from outshining the Eagles. Prescott left the game with no interceptions, no fumbles, and not even any sacks. Explain that last one to Kansas City’s Patrick Mahomes.
And let’s go back to the start of this game, Prescott’s first since being injured in Atlanta in the Cowboys’ eighth game of 2024. With the Eagles favored by 9 1/2 points in some corners, the Cowboys were the biggest underdog on the NFL board for the opening weekend. There was no shortage of folks who felt both the Dallas offense and defense were likely to be overmatched. After all, the last time we saw Philadelphia, the Eagles had pinned a 40-6 lead on the Kansas City Chiefs before settling for a 40-22 triumph in the Super Bowl.
If the Cowboys needed a gift to get started, Dak produced that, too. After the opening kickoff he was suddenly going jaw-to-jaw with the Eagles’ all-pro nose tackle Jalen Carter. The next thing you knew, Carter was not just penalized 15 yards but ejected from the contest for spitting on the Cowboys’ quarterback.
Replays (yes, replays of spitting) showed that Dak spit first but not at anybody or on Carter. Dak said he did not expect Carter to be ejected and called it “an unfortunate circumstance.”
A second spitter? This was truly a strange start to opening night.
I have no idea if the Cowboys could have run the ball as effectively with the combination of Javonte Williams and Sanders without the Eagles losing Carter for all but six seconds. Prescott acknowledged that they changed their blocking scheme early, and they had success. But Prescott did the rest, moving the club efficiently for touchdowns on their first two possessions. Although Williams, the former Broncos running back, found the end zone on a pair of one-yard runs, the scores were set up by Prescott and the passing game. On the first drive, Prescott hit favorite target CeeDee Lamb for a 32-yard gain to the one-yard line. On the second drive, Dak went for new Cowboys receiver George Pickens, and the former Steelers wideout drew a 34-yard pass interference penalty to the Eagles’ 12.
The Cowboys continued to move the ball on their two second quarter possessions but both ended with Brandon Aubrey field goals of 41 and 53 yards. The second one came after Dallas had allowed Philly to take its first lead at 21-17 with 51 seconds to go before halftime. A misplay on the kick return by KaVontae Turpin gave Dallas possession at its own 12 with 44 seconds remaining, but Dak moved the team 53 yards in seven plays and very little time to set up Aubrey’s second kick.
No one would have guessed that was the end of the Cowboys’ scoring for the night. No one could have imagined the Eagles were only going to add three to their halftime total.
“No excuses,’’ head coach Brian Schottenheimer said. “There are no moral victories.’’
Two different ballgames were played and, yes, the Cowboys lost both of them. But a 0-1 start doesn’t feel nearly as bad as it might have with Dallas opening up against the NFL’s very best.
Slipped through their fingers: See photos from Cowboys’ season-opening loss against Eagles
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