Grayson’s Grades: Eagles lose at Dallas Cowboys

The Philadelphia Eagles blew a 21-point lead and suffered a devastating 24-21 loss to the Cowboys in Dallas. A win would have all but locked up the NFC East Division Title for the Eagles. Instead, the loss gave a huge boost to the Cowboys keeping their postseason hopes alive.

It's HOW the Eagles lost that is most frustrating. They came out of the locker room fired up and played with energy on all sides of the ball. The defense got a fourth down stop to begin the game and the offense responded turning it into seven points. The Eagles proceeded to score touchdowns on their first three possessions building up a 21-0 lead just 19 minutes into the game. However, they failed to score another point throughout the remaining 41 minutes.

The Cowboys to their credit did not panic down 21-0. They managed to score a touchdown with 21 seconds left in the first half. The Eagles took a 21-14 lead into the fourth quarter. But that fourth quarter went horribly wrong. The Eagles turned it over twice with the game tied at 21. Saquon Barkley fumbled it away. After forcing the Cowboys to punt, Xavier Gipson made a huge mistake fielding the punt at his own two and proceeded to fumble it giving the Cowboys the ball inside the ten. The defense again made some plays stopping the Cowboys on fourth down again. Jalen Hurts took a costly sack on third down and the Eagles never got the ball back. The Cowboys got into field goal range and Brandon Aubrey booted a 42-yard field goal through the uprights to win the game. The Cowboys scored 24 unanswered points to hand the Eagles a crushing 24-21 defeat.

The loss dropped the Eagles to 8-3. It means they lost control of their own destiny regarding the top seed in the NFC and a first round bye in the playoffs with six games remaining. That now belongs to the Los Angeles Rams. The Eagles have a short week before a huge Black Friday game at the Linc against the Chicago Bears who are also 8-3.

A collapse like this earns a very poor report card. That is reflected below. Here is the latest edition of Grayson's Grades:

A

AJ Brown - Brown got out to a great start in this game. He had three catches on the opening drive including a 16-yard touchdown to give the Eagles a 7-0 lead. Brown had five catches in the first half and finished the game with eight receptions for 110 yards and a touchdown. It was vintage A.J. He was working himself open and tacking on solid yards after the catch.

DeVonta Smith - Smith made an amazing catch in this game that ultimately led to a touchdown. He was running a corner route and turned around laying out backwards and catching the ball while in the air horizontal to the ground and held onto it as he hit the surface. It was a 41-yard catch that gave the Eagles the ball deep in Cowboys' territory. Jalen Hurts scored on a tush push two plays later to give the Eagles a 21-0 lead. Smith made some other great catches in this one as well and once again proved to be a reliable and consistent target. Smith caught six passes for 89 yards.

Reed Blankenship - Blankenship left this game in the fourth quarter and his absence was definitely noticed. Before his injury, Blankenship was making some big tackles and came up with a huge interception in the endzone to force the Cowboys to come up empty inside the Red Zone. Despite missing nearly the entire fourth quarter, Blankenship finished second on the team with eight tackles. He also had one pass successfully defended and an interception.

Zack Baun - Baun did a good job flying around and recovered a big fumble early in the second quarter. It led to the Eagles third touchdown and a 21-0 lead. Baun had some big hits in this game as well. He has been such a solid part of this defense since he arrived in Philly last year. Baun led the team with nine tackles and one pass successfully defended.

Nakobe Dean - Dean flies around and makes plays a lot. He did the same in this game. His biggest play involved bull rushing a running back on a blitz and recording the Eagles only sack of the day. He diagnoses plays well pre-snap and trusts his gut to react quickly to wherever he believes the ball is going. Dean had five tackles including one tackle for a loss, one sack and one quarterback hit.

Braden Mann - Mann is often overlooked, but I wanted to give him credit. He had some big punts in this game and helped flip the field multiple times. Mann drew a roughing the kicker penalty that led to an Eagles touchdown. He also put three of his five punts inside the 20. Mann punted the ball five times for 250 yards, that's an average of 50 yards per punt.

B

Vic Fangio - Fangio's defense once again made some huge plays. They stopped the Cowboys twice on fourth down. The first stop led to the Eagles first touchdown. The second one kept the Cowboys off the board in a tie game. Fangio's defense forced two turnovers. They kept having to cleanup the mess left behind by the offense and ultimately failed to keep the Cowboys off the board at a key moment in the fourth quarter. Injuries certainly hurt this defense in the second half losing both starting safeties Reed Blankenship and Andrew Makuba along with starting corner Adoree Jackson to injuries. The Cowboys took advantage of those absences to get into field goal range late in the game and ultimately kick the game-winning field goal.

C

Jalen Hurts - Hurts came out of the gate firing the ball all over the yard. He completed all types of passes and was throwing strikes hitting AJ Brown in-stride and throwing it where only his receivers could catch it. The Cowboys made adjustments in the second quarter and continued making adjustments in the second half which created more pressure on Hurts and prevented him from continuing to pick apart their secondary. Hurts and the offense were killed by self-inflicted wounds like penalties and costly turnovers. Hurts once again protected the ball when he had it and even ran it a little more than he has recently. Hurts completed 27 of 39 passes for 289 yards and a touchdown. He was also the leading rusher carrying it seven times for 33 yards and two touchdowns.

Defensive Line - The Defensive Line had been doing a great job over the last two weeks creating pressure and ultimately making quarterbacks uncomfortable, even in the pocket. They failed to generate much pressure on Dak Prescott. He is susceptible to getting sacked and will occasionally hold onto the ball too long. However, the Eagles defensive line failed to generate much pressure on Prescott. In fact, the only sack the Eagles registered was by Linebacker Nakobe Dean. They also failed to stop the run. The Cowboys racked up 125 rushing yards which prevented the Eagles from making the Cowboys one-dimensional even after taking a 21-0 lead early in the second quarter.

D

Jake Elliott - Elliott is typically reliable, but was not in this game. He attempted a big 56 yard field-goal early in the fourth quarter that would have given the Eagles a ten-point lead. It sailed just wide-right and gave the Cowboys great field position following the miss. Three plays later they tied the game.

Saquon Barkley - Barkley is typically so reliable. Even when he is struggling he can find some room to break free for a good gain either on the ground or through the air. Hurts dumped a pass off to Barkley in the fourth quarter and did not see the defender who came from behind and punched the ball out of his hands leading to a costly turnover. That was his first fumble of the entire season. Barkley could not get going on the ground but did find some success as a receiver. Ultimately he carried it ten times for 22 yards while catching seven passes for 52 yards.

Offensive Line - The Offensive Line continues to struggle. They missed Lane Johnson who is out due to injury and will be for at least a few more weeks. Fred Johnson got the start in his place and committed some costly penalties. Center Cam Jurgens returned to the starting lineup. Ultimately, this line failed once again to open running lanes for Saquon Barkley. They also committed way too many penalities.

Nick Sirianni - When a team plays undisciplined and commits mistakes like his players did, the Head Coach and the coaching staff deserve criticism for the lack of discipline and focus. 14 penalties are way too many mistakes. Many of them forced the offense to have to play from behind the sticks and put them in way too many third-and-long situations. His team also turned it over twice in the pivotal fourth quarter. Sirianni preaches ball security yet those two turnovers really hurt this team. The punt return by Xavier Gipson was a huge mistake. Instead of fielding a punt at the two, Gipson needed to let that go into the endzone for a touchback. Instead, he not only cost his team field position, he fumbled it away setting the Cowboys up for points inside the Eagles' own ten-yard line.

Kevin Patullo - Patullo continues to frustrate me. He got his offense out to a great start slinging the ball around and scoring touchdowns on the Eagles first three possessions. The frustration comes with an apparent inability to adjust to what the opponent is doing. The Cowboys clearly made some adjustments to try and slow down where the Eagles were having success. Patullo had no answer for that. At various times this season the Eagles have had success putting Jalen Hurts under center and using a no-huddle offense preventing the opponent from substituting players. They have had success doing those two things, yet they failed to incorporate much of that in key moments when those advantages could have helped. There is a lack of creativity in the play-calling, play-design and an inability to recognize any resemblance of a rhythm as the game progresses. More and more former NFL players continue to call this offense predictable and it looks like it. I'm not advocating for Patullo to lose his Offensive Coordinator role; however, I believe it is time the Eagles seek out and hire an Offensive Consultant like a Doug Pederson or Frank Reich for example to help with play-design and to give input from their perspective and experience that would give Patullo some valuable guidance that could lead to future success. Bottom line, this offense has way too much talent to struggle as much as it is. Patullo holds the keys to the car and has his hand on the steering wheel. He needs to drive it much better than he has so far.

F

Xavier Gipson - Gipson absolutely had no business returning the punt in the fourth quarter that he caught at his own two-yard line. That one bad decision was already a mistake in that it cost the Eagles nearly 20 yards of field position had he let it go for a touchback. It got worse when he fumbled it away giving the Cowboys the ball inside the Eagles ten-yard line. I might buy him trying to make a play if it was earlier in the game, but in a tie game in the pivotal fourth quarter, that absolutely has to be let go for a touchback.