In This Story
Dallas Cowboys
Philadelphia Eagles
Sep 5, 2025 10:19 AM EDT
The Dallas Cowboys played well enough to beat the defending Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles in the NFL’s 2025 season-opener on Thursday night.
Dak Prescott completed 21 of 34 passes for 180 yards, and were it not for several drops from receiver CeeDee Lamb, Prescott’s numbers would have looked a lot better. When new defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus blitzed Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts (which didn’t happen enough — just seven times in the entire game and all in the second half), Hurts was sacked once, scrambled for an eight-yard run, and completed four of five passes for just 25 yards. And new head coach Brian Schottenheimer’s offense was quite spicy at times with a lot of pre-snap motion and condensed formations.
But the play that will live in infamy for this Cowboys team took place with 1:45 left in the game. The Eagles were up, 24-20, and they had the ball with third-and-3, trying to run out the clock. The Eagles lined up in an empty formation out of 11 personnel (one running back, one tight end, and three receivers), with running back Saquon Barkley as the wide receiver to the right side.
The Cowboys responded with a four-man pass-rush, matching Philly’s receivers across in Cover-3 with seven dropping and matching defenders. Perhaps most oddly, there was nobody to spy Hurts as a runner — this appeared to be all about limiting the short pass as a conversion possibility. When Barkley motioned out of the backfield to wide right, linebacker Jack Sanborn, who was originally in place to spy Hurts, bumped over to cover tight end Dallas Goedert in the inside slot to that side.
Hurts responded as you might expect from a kid who just woke up on Christmas morning. He knew that he would likely have an open lane, he did, and he took the ball himself for the four-yard gain that gave the Eagles the game-clinching first down. Three kneeldowns later, the game was over, and the home team escaped Lincoln Financial Field with a close 24-20 win.
Oops! We’re unable to load this content right now.
View directly on 𝕏
Eberflus was not available post-game, but I would love to know what the thought process was here. Last season, Hurts ran the ball 17 times for 103 yards and a touchdown. Only Jayden Daniels of the Washington Commanders and Josh Allen of the Buffalo Bills (tied with 21) had more rushing attempts out of empty in the 2024 season. And Hurts had already beaten the Cowboys for two rushing touchdowns in the first half.
Yes, Hurts had also completed three short passes out of empty in the game, and generally speaking, when the Eagles want to use their quarterback as a runner in short-yardage situations, they’ll just go with the Tush Push. So, the Cowboys’ process was somewhat excusable in that context.
Oops! We’re unable to load this content right now.
View directly on 𝕏
I can only speculate without hearing the coaching reasoning, but in this case, Eberflus may have seen this movie before — or thought he had — and believed that betting on Hurts to throw in that situation was the smart play.
Little did he know that the movie was changing.
“When you look over the last five years of me playing the quarterback position here at Philly, what have they called in and said? ‘Beat him as a passer. Make him beat us as a passer,’” Hurts said. “It’s kind of been the same thing for our run game over the years. I think people look for the production of certain things and I’m just looking for the efficiency and there comes a moment where you have to meet the moment and take advantage of things when they come and I think as a team, we did that.”
Perhaps Hurts should take it as a compliment that the Cowboys thought they should beat him as a passer in that instance.
Earlier this week, I got to speak with Eagles legend Brian Westbrook, and one of the things we discussed was how Hurts is able to blur the line between the run game and the passing game, setting defenses on edge over and over. It seems especially relevant here.
Oops! We’re unable to load this content right now.
View directly on 𝕏
In the end, we may want to spend less time bashing Eberflus, who had other schematic issues, and more time praising new Eagles offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo, who dialed things up for success more often than not.
“Well, I think it was good,” Hurts said of his communication with Patullo. “There’s going to be things we want to do and want to talk over and kind of trust our instinct with certain things. So first games, like I said, there’s so much unknown, but you’ve got to be able to be not on the reactive side of things, more so proactive and being able to play smart ball and put yourself in advantageous positions. I’m happy for him to come out here and get his first win as an offensive coordinator. I know he’s waited a long time for this opportunity and we just want to keep building. I know we’re all hungry for that.”
The Eagles are hungry for that kind of success once again, and they have a crucial win chalked up as they continue the process. And now, Jalen Hurts has given defensive coordinators one more thing to worry about.
About the Author
Doug Farrar
NFL writer, analyst