Tag: Dallas Cowboys vs. Philadelphia Eagles

Week 14 Final Injury Report: Cowboys, Eagles entering rematch with obscenely clean bills of health

A look at the final roll call of the walking wounded ahead of Sunday night’s showdown.

There are always two trains of thought when it comes to high profile matchups. On one side, there are fans that could care less who is able to suit up for the opponents. Missing a key piece? Oh well, suck it up; everyone has injuries at some point or another. On the other side of the aisle, are those fans who want their favorite team to face their rivals at their utmost best.

Those fans are in luck in Week 14. The final injury report for both the Dallas Cowboys and Philadelphia Eagles have been released and neither team has ruled out any of their active roster for the contest. In fact, not only is no one ruled out, no one is doubtful and not a single player is ruled questionable.

Now of course each team has players on IR, but as far as the active roster goes, everyone is going to work through their nicks and bruises and give it a go on Sunday night. Here’s a look at the final injury report.

Watch: Dak Prescott suggests defecating on Eagles in new commercial

Pitching a product? If you have a chance to take a shot at your rival in the process, you better take it.

It would be so glorious to provide without comment, but alas, articles must have words. Here, ahead of their Week 14 rematch with the Philadelphia Eagles, Cowboys QB Dak Prescott leans into the not-so-friendly banter that comes his way by fans of the opposition and sometimes his own fanbase.

It’s all with good reason, as the salesman is pitching something very important, colon cancer screening. It’s just done in the absolute best way, suggesting aiming at the stool collection pot by placing something that you really want to besmirch. Take a look at the commercial and enjoy.

Can the Cowboys offense copy the 49ers blueprint to beat the Eagles? Should they?

The Cowboys can learn a lot from the way the 49ers rolled the Eagles defense last week. Which items might Dallas borrow in Week 14? | From @ReidDHanson

When the Cowboys and Eagles last met, Dallas endured a significant drop in their offensive point production. Despite the Eagles struggles on defense this season, they were able to hold the Cowboys to just 23 points; nearly 10 points shy of their season average of 32.3 points per game. It was only the fourth time the Cowboys failed to score at least 30 points this season and something Dallas hopes to correct in their Week 14 matchup on Sunday night.

As the Cowboys strategize their attack for the upcoming showdown, they need only look to last week to see how the Eagles can be beaten. San Francisco had no trouble putting points up against the Eagles, beating them to the tune of 42-19 and laying out a blueprint for attack to anyone who may be interested in dethroning the defending conference champs.

With over 300 yards through the air and nearly 150 yards on the ground, the 49ers seemingly moved the ball at will last week. While their suffocating defense is probably due the lion’s share of the praise, it was the San Francisco offense the Cowboys may be able to best emulate.

The Cowboys have quietly taken some recent cues from Kyle Shanahan already this season.

Since their Week 5 matchup, Dallas has increased their motion usage, used their WRs as running options more often, and emphasized middle of the field passing opportunities. Many of the 49ers’ staples are getting adopted in Dallas and Mike McCarthy’s offense has never looked better.

Are more copycat moves on the horizon?

Mike McCarthy back home, working remotely to prep Cowboys for massive Eagles rematch

From @ToddBrock24f7: The 60-year-old coach plans to handle all his normal duties this Sunday night after undergoing an emergency appendectomy Wednesday.

Mike McCarthy is back at home after an emergency appendectomy on Wednesday. And while the Cowboys head coach isn’t fully up and around quite yet, just 24 hours after the procedure, he is still planning on manning the sideline Sunday night when his team takes the field against the division-leading Eagles.

“Full steam ahead,” said offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer on Thursday at the pre-practice press conference normally handled by McCarthy. Schottenheimer confirmed that McCarthy has already gotten back to work, doing what he can remotely on refining the Philadelphia game plans that were put in place earlier in the week and with an eye toward resuming normal playcalling duties for the Week 14 clash.

“We don’t anticipate anything different,” Schottenheimer explained. “Again, he’s involved in all the things. We’ll have a long conversation again this afternoon. He’s watching the practices and yeah, full steam ahead.”

McCarthy, 60, wasted no time in reconnecting with his staff after Wednesday’s surgery; Schottenheimer told reporters that he and McCarthy spoke by phone Wednesday night and again multiple times on Thursday, with the coach giving notes on the week’s game prep.

“He’s been very involved. He’s in good spirits,” Schottenheimer said. “It’s always good when he has a lot of suggestions when you talk to him on the phone: ‘Well, what do you think of this?’ That’s when I know he’s feeling good.”

McCarthy was not feeling so good Wednesday morning. Defensive coordinator Dan Quinn said that he saw McCarthy at the facility early and that his boss “just didn’t look good” while complaining of abdominal pain. After consulting with the team’s medical staff, McCarthy went to a hospital for further evaluation, where a diagnosis of acute appendicitis was given.

The players didn’t even find out what was happening until McCarthy wasn’t at the team’s midweek walkthrough; Quinn and special teams coordinator John Fassel led the day’s practice on next to no notice.

“There wasn’t much warning. It was like, ‘Here you go. You’ve got it.’ [Practice] was already scripted,” Fassel said, per the team website. “We just followed along with the plan that was already in motion, and we’ve got good bodies that can pick it up and keep it going.”

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The Cowboys staff quickly fell back on lessons learned during the 2020 and 2021 seasons, when any player, coach, or staffer was just a nasal swab away from being sent home.

“You always have to have a contingency plan. Mike’s great about that; he does,” Quinn explained. “I think we all learned a lot a few years back in COVID: when a coach is down or a player is down, how does that go? He’s done a fantastic job of mapping- not just him or me or anybody else- who could then in that same spot say, ‘Hey, this is the next step and this is how we go.’ So we’re super organized and ready for that.”

Adjustments were made on the fly, and the business of football has continued in Frisco. The Cowboys don’t seem to have missed a beat in prepping for the biggest game of the year, even without their recuperating head coach. And all indications are they won’t be missing McCarthy, either, when kickoff finally rolls around.

Joked Quinn: “Do you think that tough Irishman is going to miss this game?”

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Cowboys’ Quinn on defending Eagles’ 3rd, 4th downs: ‘We’ve got to go make those stops’

From @ToddBrock24f7: The Dallas DC believes the way to stop the “tush push” is to prevent 4th down at all. But Philly’s been awfully good on 3rd down, too.

Every team that’s faced the Eagles this season has had their own tactic to defending the “tush push.” Some have tried to go up over the top of the Philadelphia linemen, some have attempted to dive underneath to the bottom of the pile for leverage, some have sent a defender shooting around the scrum in hopes of pulling Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts from behind before he can squeeze past the line to gain.

But Cowboys defensive coordinator Dan Quinn maintains that a more effective strategy would be to not let the Philly offense get into a fourth-and-short-yardage scenario to begin with.

“I wouldn’t say it’s the only way,” Quinn said this week at The Star, “but it is one thousand percent the best way.”

Delivering Wednesday’s pre-practice press conference in place of Mike McCarthy as the head coach dealt with an emergency appendectomy, Quinn acknowledged that his unit didn’t fare too well against the Eagles on late downs when the rival clubs met in Week 9.

Philadelphia converted seven of their 14 third-down attempts and both fourth-downs that they tried in their 28-23 win.

Quinn believes his troops will have to do much better than that to knock off the division leaders in this critical Week 14 rematch, but he knows it won’t be easy.

“One of the things Philadelphia does really well, amongst many,” he offered, “is third downs.”

The Eagles are currently moving the sticks on 47.85% of their third downs, a mark that places them third in the league.

Dallas’s defense, on the other hand, is coming off a couple games in which their third-down success rate was less than stellar. The Seahawks went 9-of-14 on third-down tries in Week 13. Washington converted nearly 50%, 7-of-15, on Thanksgiving Day.

Prior to those two games- both of which were tightly-contested affairs going into the fourth quarter- whenever the Cowboys defense allowed its opponent to convert third downs at a rate of .500 or better? The team’s three losses.

“To me, that’s where some of the secret sauce in this game is going to live,” predicted Quinn of this Sunday’s showdown, “because some of their third downs can turn into fourth downs where they go [for it].”

And when they do go for it, tush push or otherwise, the Eagles are converting at a 73.68% rate.

“That’s one of the games within the game, to say on our third and fourth downs, that’s a really big deal,” Quinn told reporters. “We’ve got to go make those stops in that space.”

When looking at the season as a whole, the Cowboys have actually done that reasonably well. Over 13 full games played this season, Dallas’s opponents have converted just 36.94% of their third downs (10th-best) and 48.15% of fourth-down tries (14th-best).

Holding Philadelphia to those levels or below would ostensibly go a long way toward a Cowboys win on Sunday night.

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Here’s how the Cowboys fix their most underperforming personnel groupings

It’s time for the Cowboys to lean into their strengths and away from their weakness which means addressing certain personnel groups.

In many ways the roster dictates the success rates of the various personnel groups and whether coaches like it or not, they have to embrace what’s working and ease off what isn’t. 12 games into the 2023, the Cowboys have a pretty good indication where their personnel groups rank on offense.

Overall, the Dallas offense ranks third in the NFL in EPA, fifth in yards, and first in points scored. Despite all that success, they have some personnel groups who aren’t just bringing down the average, but they are producing at negative EPA output. In many ways, these personnel groups are hurting the Cowboys more than helping and should be adjusted or used more sparingly if the Cowboys want to keep the good times rolling through December.

Every team has their own specific strengths and weaknesses. Some are by design. Other by sheer luck of the draw. If a coach who prefers a wide-open spread offense doesn’t have a deep WR room, he may not be able to run 11 (1RB, 1TE, 3WR) or 10 (1RB, 0TE, 4WR) personnel as much as he’d like. If an old school coach who like smash mouth football doesn’t have a very talented TE and/or RB room, he may not be able to play 12 (1RB, 2TE, 2WR or 22 (2RB, 2TE, 1WR) as much as he’d like.

Cowboys 53-man roster, elevation-eligible players vs Eagles in Week 14

A look at the Cowboys’ roster for Week 14, who is on the practice squad and how many call-ups remain, plus an update for guys on IR. | From @KDDrummondNFL

The Dallas Cowboys are starting their preparation for the Philadelphia Eagles, with the first of three practices in Week 14. The rematch will give either the Eagles a firm path to the division title or the Cowboys hope in a miracle finish. Dallas has been working in tight end Peyton Hendershot over recent weeks and have now made a move in the direction of him returning to field, adding him back to the active roster.

With the uneven pace of the last two games being played on Thursday night’s it’s been tough keeping up with the coming and going of the 53-man roster and which practice squaders have remaining elevations. Each of those players is allowed to be brought up to the game-day roster three times in a season without being officially added. Here’s how things look as the week of practice kicks off.

Cowboys HC Mike McCarthy to have appendix surgery, plans to coach vs Eagles Sunday night

From @ToddBrock24f7: The 60-year-old coach experience abdominal pain Wednesday morning, but is expected to be released from the hospital later in the day.

Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy is set to have appendix surgery on Wednesday, according to the team, but he still plans to be on the sideline Sunday night when the Cowboys host the division-leading Eagles.

McCarthy, who just turned 60 last month, reportedly experienced abdominal pains Wednesday morning “that warranted further evaluation and resulted in a diagnosis of acute appendicitis,” the Cowboys said via a statement.

The coach is expected to be released later in the day; coordinators Brian Schottenheimer, Dan Quinn, and John Fassel will run team practices until McCarthy returns. Additionally, Quinn will handle Wednesday’s regularly-scheduled press conference; Schottenheimer will do Thursday’s.

The typical recovery time from an appendix surgery is only a few days, provided the appendix has not burst. If the appendix has burst, recovery time can be longer.

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McCarthy reportedly intends to be back on the job in time for an NFC East showdown that could see the 9-3 Cowboys move into a first-place tie with a win over the 10-2 Eagles.

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KaVontae Turpin is low-key a high-impact weapon Cowboys must utilize

KaVontae Turpin quietly leads the Cowboys in EPA/target so isn’t it time he takes on a bigger role in the Dallas offense? | From @ReidDHanson

When opponents prepare for the Cowboys, which players does one imagine they focus on? CeeDee Lamb has 90 receptions for 1,182 yards and seven touchdowns. It’s a pretty safe bet teams are preparing for him. Over the last six weeks alone, Jake Ferguson has 25 receptions for 308 yards and four touchdowns. Teams have definitely seen the film on Ferguson. Over the last four weeks, Brandin Cooks has 20 receptions for 332 yards and three touchdowns. Cooks has the deep speed and route-running ability that puts every secondary on notice.

Add in Tony Pollard’s game-breaking ability and Rico Dowdle’s rise as the newest explosive runner in Dallas, and you have a lot of weapons for opponents to worry about on this Cowboys offense. But there’s one player who in some ways stands out above the others. A player who only has 16 targets to his name in 2023 but has made the absolute most of those opportunities. A player who by all accounts is due a bigger role down the stretch,  KaVontae Turpin.

Teams are well aware of Turpin’s impact on football field. The former TCU product earned Pro Bowl honors as a rookie based on his return ability, and here in 2023 he’s widely regarded one of the most feared returners in the game. But on offense he’s played only a bit part.

As WR5, Turpin hasn’t had many offensive opportunities in 2023. With just 19 total touches, he’s been more complementary and gadget than legit offensive staple. Perhaps that’s a mistake. Turpin leads the Cowboys with 0.84 EPA/target this season. He’s making the most of his opportunities and it’s not hard to see how.

Blessed with elite speed and stop-start cutting ability that would make a water bug jealous, Turpin has the level of game-breaking skill to be a threat every time he’s on the field. His impact goes beyond just being a pass-catcher as well. Turpin has frequently been used in motion and as a runner. With eight carries for 79 yards, he’s averaging 9.9 yards/carry and a success rate of 62.5 percent. These two numbers indicate he’s not just getting the chunk yardage, but he’s also winning more opportunities than both Pollard (48.3% success rate) and Dowdle (46.0% SR).

There’s obvious concern Turpin’s 5-foot-9, 153-pound frame isn’t up to the task of a regular role on offense. So even though his efficiency stats show he should be getting WR3 opportunities, the added opportunities could dramatically impact the very efficiency he’s praised for. But a larger role than what he’s had should certainly be a consideration.

Both Gallup and Jalen Tolbert have been somewhat disappointing this season. They’ve peppered in good plays here and there but for the most part have failed to live up to their preseason expectations. Adding Turpin to the mix and dividing the snaps equally amongst all three would get the Cowboys’ most efficient and deadly weapon on the field more without saddling him with a burdensome workload.

Low key, Turpin has been the Cowboys most efficient offensive weapon. He needs to be part of the weekly gameplan and has the ability to take the Dallas offense to the next level. Opponents have enough to worry about when facing this offense. The Cowboys should give them one more.

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Eagles TE Dallas Goedert ‘feeling really good,’ expects to play vs Cowboys

From @ToddBrock24f7: The Philly TE broke a forearm against the Cowboys in Week 9, but he’s made a quick recovery and expects to be heavily involved this Sunday.

The Philadelphia Eagles could be getting a major piece of their passing attack back just in time for Sunday night’s visit to AT&T Stadium.

Tight end Dallas Goedert, who has been out with a broken forearm suffered in the teams’ Week 9 meeting, tells a Philadelphia radio station that he is mostly recovered exactly one month later and eager to suit up in the monumental showdown that will help determine the NFC’s playoff picture.

“It’s been healing really well,” Goedert said Tuesday on 94 WIP SportsRadio. “I’d say it’s probably feeling like 85, 90 percent of the way there. Feeling really good, back to normal.”

Goedert suffered a fractured forearm on a sideline tackle made by Cowboys safety Markquese Bell in the third quarter of the teams’ previous meeting on Nov. 5. Irate Eagles fans were quick to accuse Bell of dirty play, even though Goedert initiated contact with an extended stiff-arm.

Goedert had amassed three catches for 50 yards on four targets prior to the injury.

The sixth-year veteran returned to practice late last week but was declared inactive for the Eagles’ Week 13 home date versus San Francisco. The 49ers won that game decisively, dropping Philly to 10-2 on the year. Now the 9-3 Cowboys could move into a tie with the Eagles atop the NFC East with a win on Sunday.

The Eagles have definitely noticed Goedert’s absence. During the three games he’s missed, backups Jack Stoll and Albert Okwuegbunam have combined for two receptions on five targets for 17 yards. Despite not playing since that Week 9 injury, Goedert remains the Eagles’ third-leading receiver in targets, catches, yards, and touchdowns.

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In the eight full games that Geodert played before the injury, Philadelphia averaged 286.5 passing yards per contest; in the three full games without him, that average has fallen to 201.3.

“I’m able to do everything I need to do in my position group,” Goedert continued, “so I’m planning on going down to Dallas and playing every snap that they allow me to.”

The Cowboys defense is allowing an average of 181.1 passing yards per game, the fifth-best mark in the league. But they’re also giving up 1.42 passing touchdowns per outing, eighth-worst among all teams.  And of the 27 total touchdowns the Cowboys have allowed in 2023, six have been scored by opposing tight ends.

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