What we learned in the Dallas Cowboys’ 33-13 blowout win over the Philadelphia Eagles

Are there any questions now about the Dallas Cowboys and their ability to beat teams with a winning record?

That narrative should have been put to rest Sunday night before a packed house at AT&T Stadium when the Cowboys jumped out to a 24-6 halftime lead en route to a 33-13 blowout of the Philadelphia Eagles.

The Cowboys (10-3) moved into a first-place tie with the Eagles (10-3) atop the NFC East.

The victory extends their winning streak to five games since a 28-23 loss to the Eagles on Nov. 5.

But wins against the lowly New York Giants (4-8), Carolina Panthers (1-12) and Washington Commanders (4-9) were questioned, as well as a victory against the Seattle Seahawks (6-7) in their previous outing.

The Eagles were supposed to be a litmus test for a Cowboys team playing as well as any in the league since a 42-10 loss to the San Francisco 49ers.

It proved to be no contest, thanks to quarterback Dak Prescott’s two touchdown passes, Brandon Aubrey’s four field goals — including from 60 and 59 yards — and a defense that forced three fumbles.

The Cowboys have now won seven of their last eight games, 15 straight at home — including 7-0 at AT&T Stadium in 2023 — and six straight at home against the Eagles.

“Yeah, it was big. We needed it,” Prescott said. “Let’s not sugarcoat that. We needed that. Being able to do that against a team like that here at home, a place that we’ve had a lot of success at over the last two years, puts us tied for the front of the division.

“This was huge.”

And they did it for themselves and coach Mike McCarthy, who worked the sidelines four days after undergoing an emergency appendectomy.

McCarthy has now won at least 10 games in three consecutive seasons, joining Super Bowl champion coaches Tom Landry, Jimmy Johnson and Barry Switzer as the only coaches to accomplish that feat in franchise history.

Owner Jerry Jones said it was one of the biggest regular season wins in franchise history, the biggest of the McCarthy era and “bigger than life” because of what McCarthy went through.

“I would say, yeah. And it has to do with the fact that he came up off the operating table and did not even wince and stand there and fight it all night and coach it,” Jones said.

“I think the Eagles are formidable. They’re a good team. You don’t have that record without it,” Jones added. “We know they’re a good team. I’m so proud of this team for stepping up. Mike McCarthy’s effort, but I’ll tell you right now, Micah Parsons was a little weak from the flu, and he was outstanding. This is the kind of thing everybody on this team and we’ll always remember, but it should carry us as we look forward to the next four regular season games and the playoffs.”

What we learned in the Dallas Cowboys 33-13 blowout of the Philadelphia Eagles:

Dak Prescott not perfect but extends record streak for TDs

Dak Prescott wasn’t his usual hot self against Eagles last night, especially in the second half when the offense didn’t find the end zone.

But he was timely and efficient enough, especially on third down with money throws to tight end Jake Ferguson, who had five catches for 72 yards.

Prescott did the bulk of his damage in the first half when the Cowboys jumped out to a 24-6 halftime lead, powered by a 13-yard touchdown pass to CeeDee Lamb on the opening drive and a 1-yard toss Michael Gallup with :20 left in the second quarter.

Prescott, finished with 24 completions on 39 attempts for 271 yards in the game.

It marked his seventh straight game with at least two touchdown passes, setting a new career record.

Prescott also had a fumble that was returned for a Philadelphia, making it 24-13, but that was as close as the Eagles would get.

Prescott, who was the NFC Player of the Month for November, said the sack fumble should have been a touchdown the other way and admitted he didn’t play his best game.

“If I play my best game, we were putting a 50 up there,” Prescott said.

But Prescott did more than enough.

He is the new front runner for league MVP with a league-leading 28 touchdowns passes.

Prescott walked off the field to “MVP” chants from Cowboys fans.

“I thought this was a monumental game for him,” Jones said. “Everybody who follows the NFL and follows sports knew that he had a lot of the expectation as to how he was going to perform and how he was going to meet this challenge. He did tonight, and he did it in a very efficient way against a team as good as we’ll play.

“I’ve thought that we’ll go as far as Dak will take us. There’s a double handful of players and a lot of other players that will make the big difference but at the end of the day this was a team-builder tonight.”

The passing game was part of balanced attack on offense, as the running game tallied 138 yards.

Tony Pollard carried the ball 16 times for 59 yards and Rico Dowdle had 46 yards on 12 carries, including a touchdown.

Micah Parsons flu-game, Stephon Gilmore lead strong defense

The Cowboys defense not only copied the blue print put out by the San Francisco 49ers in their 42-19 victory against the Eagles last week, they improved on it.

The Cowboys got out to an early lead and then the defense smothered the Eagles offense, recording forcing three fumbles and giving up no touchdowns.

It was the first time in 95 games the Eagles did not score a touchdown in a game.

Edge rusher Micah Parsons, who was added to the injury report with an illness on Saturday, notched a sack, giving him a 12.5 for the season, one away from his single-season career high.

Safety Donovan Wilson forced a fumble on quarterback Jalen Hurts and cornerback Stephon Gilmore also forced a fumble following a reception by A.J. Brown.

Gilmore followed Brown all over the field and limited him to nine catches for 94 yards, but no touchdowns.

And it was Gilmore shut the Eagles stopped DeVonta Smith on fourth down short of the first down in the minute of the third quarter.

Down 27-13, the Eagles faced a fourth-and-9 at the Cowboys 31, defensive coordinator Dan Quinn called a blitz, forcing Hurts to get rid of the ball to Smith running underneath.

Gilmore stopped him dead in tracks.

Linebacker Markquese Bell forced the third fumble in the fourth quarter late in the fourth quarter when he ripped the ball away from Smith. Safety Malik Hooker recovered for the Cowboys.

While Hurts had some decent runs on quarterback keepers, the Eagles passing game was largely non-existent.

He completed 18 of 27 passes for 197 yards.

“It’s points you know; they do they do a nice job of playing to the sticks. Jalen Hurts is such a threat,” McCarthy said. And obviously with the offensive line and the way you have to defend them, to win the down and distance battle is a challenge. The takeaways are something we take a lot of pride in. The fourth down stop is probably the biggest one, especially momentum wise. You can feel on the field that there was a huge momentum swing in the game. So, I thought our defense was lights out.”

Kicker Brandon Aubrey makes NFL history

Forgive special teams coach John Fassel for allowing his unit to get snookered on a fake punt by the Eagles in the second quarter.

After being stopped on third down, an already-desperate Eagles team trotted to the punt unit on the field on fourth-and-2 at their own 33.

Punter Braden Mann rose up tossed a pass to Olamide Zaccheaus for a 28-yard gain as receiver/gunner Jalen Tolbert was fooled on the play.

The only got a field goal out of the drive.

Speaking of field goals, Cowboys kicker Aubrey, who Fassel discovered in the USFL was the star of show.

Aubrey a 60-yard field goal in the first quarter to give the Cowboys a 10-0 lead. It was his 27th straight field goal to opener his career without miss, extending his own NFL record.

The kick would have been good from 68 yards.

Aubrey did it again the third quarter.

After the Eagles narrowed the score to 24-13, he nailed a 59-yarder to extend his streak and record to 28.

He also became the first player in NFL history to make two kicks from 59 or more yards in the same game.

He added kicks of 45 and 50 yards in the fourth quarter to extend his streak record to 30.

“Well, I have to pinch myself to think that it’s been less than 12 months that I didn’t think we were going to make the extra point,” said Jones, who new little about Aubrey in training camp and was just hoping he would be better than Brett Maher, melted down last season with the yips.

“It just shows you that that thing can turn and it has,” Jones said. “So, I’m proud for him and proud for us. I don’t know that I’ve witnessed any more impressive kicking exhibition than we had out there because we needed those field goals.”

December challenge continues for Cowboys

The Cowboys game was the first of a five-game stretch to end the season the featured four teams with a winning record, fighting for playoff positioning.

After handling the Eagles, the Cowboys play at the Buffalo Bills (7-6) and the Miami Dolphins (9-3), home against the Detroit Lions (9-4) before ending the season against the Commanders.

And they can’t let up.

“We got we got three of the next four in a row. So that was part of the third trimester. And we look at this as a gauntlet,” McCarthy said. “I think it’s a great schedule because it gives us a chance to play playoff football. Every team we play is gonna be battling for the playoffs. Iron sharpens iron.

“I think this lays out really good for us because we got to go on the road and win.”

They are in a tie with the Eagles atop the NFC East, but they would lose a tiebreaker if both teams end the season with the same record.

Because of that earlier loss to the Arizona Cardinals (3-10), the Cowboys would lose the conference tie beaker to the Eagles, who have a much easier road the rest of the way with games against the Seahawks, the New York Giants (4-8) twice and the Cardinals.

“If you don’t take care of your division, you’re looking upstream,” McCarthy said. “So right now we’re tied with the Eagles. We both have four games left.”