Grayson's Grades: Eagles at Cowboys

The Philadelphia Eagles started to hit the gas pedal late in the first half and never let up blowing out the Cowboys 34-6. It was the first time the Eagles won in Dallas since 2017.

The defense set the tone really making life difficult for the Cowboys offense. They forced five turnovers, racked up three sacks and never let the Cowboys into the endzone.

The offense started to find a rhythm late in the first half and took advantage of all of those Cowboys turnovers to put more and more points on the scoreboard. Jalen Hurts accounted for four touchdowns.

It was a dominating win over a division rival and helped the Eagles take over first place in the NFC East. They are now 7-2 overall and riding a five game win streak with a short week staring them in the face. The Eagles host the Commanders with first place on the line Thursday night. First, enjoy this glowing report card. Here is the latest edition of Grayson's Grades.

AJ Brown - Brown is such a vital piece of this offense. The Eagles do seem to be missing a beat when he is out of the lineup. Brown made some big catches in this one and always seems to tack on some solid yardage after the catch. He caught five passes for 109 yards. His longest reception covered 44 yards.

Linebackers - Both Zack Baun and Nakobe Dean were flying all over the field and making tackles. They essentially helped to shut down the rushing attack the Cowboys tried to throw at them. They are growing together as a unit and the rest of the defense is feeding off of that energy. Baun has been a real find and played his best game of the season. He forced two fumbles and recovered one. He also led the team with eight tackles. Dean was third on the team with six tackles. But the eye test shows he has turned a corner as a young player in this league. He is taking better angles to the ball carrier and doing a good job of making tackles at the point of attack.

Jalen Carter - Carter has a hard time always breaking through into the box score. But he has a big impact on the success of this defense. He frequently gets double-teamed which does open up lanes for the linebackers to shoot through and make tackles. Carter did manage to get credit for half a sack along with four tackles, a tackle for loss, a pass successfully defended and two quarterback hits.

Milton Williams - Williams had a great game. He too was flying around the field and being around the ball helped him be in great position to recover a fumble. Williams has found a role on that defensive line. Williams had a fumble recovery, a sack, and racked up two tackles with one quarterback hit.

Cooper DeJean - DeJean is looking more and more like a huge steal for the Eagles in the second round. The rookie is locking down his spot as a slot corner. His speed in coverage is impressive and he is doing a great job of staying with receivers in coverage. DeJean is also a great threat returning punts. DeJean recovered a big Zeke Elliott fumble in the endzone and added three tackles on defense. DeJean also had three punt returns for 43 yards including a big 31 yard return at one point in the game.

Quinyon Mitchell - Mitchell is playing so well and looking every bit the player the Eagles expected to get when they drafted him in the first round. He is really good in coverage against some top receivers and never looks like he can't handle an assignment. Mitchell is fun to watch and should be a great one over time. He had two passes successfully defended and added two tackles.

Vic Fangio - Fangio made Cooper Rush look silly. His coverage schemes clearly made Rush uncertain of what he was seeing. It made him hesitate throwing the ball and check down a lot. Fangio's defense also set the tone by shutting down the running game early and never let that get going for the Cowboys. Fangio has this defense playing together extremely well. They seem to be on the same page with solid communication and understanding of where they will all be on the field. This defense has emerged as one of the top defensive units in the league. They will face a tough test Thursday night against a mobile quarterback in rookie Jayden Daniels. The Eagles allowed just 146 total yards. They forced five turnovers. They held the Cowboys to three of 14 third down conversions. Most importantly they kept the Cowboys out of the endzone despite getting into the red zone twice.

Nick Sirianni - Sirianni deserves credit for having his team ready to play. They have started scoring in the first quarter allowing that criticism to start fading away. He also had his team focused and never satisfied with just getting the lead. Having this team pull away and get a big lead also allowed Sirianni to get his starters out for the fourth quarter and give them some extra rest before Thursday night's game against the Commanders. This is a much different team than the one we saw lose to the Bucs in Tampa about six weeks ago. Sirianni faces a tough test having to get his team back up to play in a short period of time against another divisional opponent with first place on the line.

Jalen Hurts - Hurts overall played well. He did turn it over twice, which is the most concerning issue in this one. Both turnovers were preventable. He was a touch late throwing to Dallas Goedert in the endzone giving Treyvon Diggs just enough time to get back in the route and make a great play on the ball to pick it off. The other turnover was a fumble where Hurts held onto the ball too long allowing Micah Parsons enough time to get to him and knock the ball out. Other than that, Hurts looked great using his legs to help move the chains. He scored a pair of rushing touchdowns. One of them on the tush push, the other on a nice cut up the middle and into the endzone from seven yards out. Hurts also did a nice job distributing the ball when he dropped back to pass. He completed 14 of 20 passes for 202 yards with two touchdowns and an interception. Hurts also rushed seven times for 56 yards and two touchdowns. The only other area of concern going into Thursday night's game against the Commanders was how long Hurts held onto the ball. He was sacked five times and at least three of them was due to him holding the ball too long. The mental clock has to go off in his head and he has to understand that throwing it away can be a positive play.

Saquon Barkley - Barkley did not get the hefty workload he had been getting. It did appear that they were trying to limit his touches a bit with a short week facing this team. Due to the score, Barkley was able to take the entire fourth quarter off. Despite the limit in touches, he did still rack up an average of nearly five yards per carry. Barkley carried it 14 times for 66 yards. He also caught one pass for 12 yards.

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