The name Ben VanSumeren probably means as much to you as it does to me, which is to say very little. But he's the Eagles' only fullback and they lost him for the night Thursday when he hurt his knee on the opening kickoff.
He's the one who was lying on the ground and being attended to when Dak Prescott and Jalen Carter had their unusual spit-off, which resulted in the Eagles losing their most disruptive defensive player for the night. Put on top of that that A.J. Brown, the Eagles' dominant receiver, must have still been suffering the lingering effects of an August hamstring injury because Jalen Hurts threw exactly one pass his direction the entire night and it came after the two-minute warning in the fourth quarter.
Take all those things into account -- the loss of Saquon Barkley's lead blocker in two-back sets, no Carter, effectively no Brown -- and toss in the fact the game was in CeeDee Lamb's hands all night because of the new Eagles' one large deficiency (starting Adoree' Jackson at cornerback).
It says the Cowboys should have won this game.
More opportunities for a Dallas upset presented themselves at Lincoln Financial Field than the Cowboys ever could have hoped for. That includes the confidence gained from scoring on their first four possessions to have 20 points at halftime. That includes Tyler Guyton returning at left tackle after a rocky rookie season and Tyler Booker playing inside on his first night as an NFL player (admittedly fortunate not to deal with Carter) and the Cowboys leaving the game with zero sacks. There should have been one but Dak Prescott showed that while he can't run anything like Jalen Hurts, he can occasionally do a remarkable job extracting himself from the clutches of Jordan Davis to run for three yards.
Naturally, the Cowboys will get another crack at the Eagles in November at the start of the most daunting six-game stretch (Eagles, Chiefs, at Lions, Vikings, Chargers, at Commanders) of a challenging schedule. But you like to capitalize when an opportunity comes, no matter how unlikely it seems.
Moving forward, however, the Cowboys come out of a difficult loss with a series of fresh hopes for a brighter future. We have already mentioned the offensive line holding up against a good Eagles' front, even without Carter. And we know Lamb isn't going to drop big passes all season. No one in the league has truly better numbers over the last two seasons and, with a healthy Prescott, the 100-yard days will keep coming. The surprise for me is the Cowboys' running game looking as efficient as it did.
Now I don't want to overinflate this, by any means. By the end, a desperate Cowboys' team was throwing the ball and not with great success, and that slowed what had been a most impressive running show to that point. In his Dallas debut, former Bronco Javonte Williams ran a steady 15 times for 54 yards (3.6 average) and two touchdowns. Miles Sanders had a killer fumble in the third quarter not far from the Eagles' goal line but it came after his 49-yard sprint down the left side made for Dallas' most explosive play of the night. The two retreads finished with 107 yards on 19 carries (5.6 average) against what last year was the No. 1 run defense in the league.
Dallas didn't use as much trickery to get the running game going as I had anticipated. KaVontae Turpin had two carries for nine yards. Lamb did not run the ball. It was a more straightforward attack, and a brand new offensive line rose to the occasion. That might by my Takeaway No. 1 from this entire game when searching for answers to where this team is headed.
I don't think Dallas is out of the woods yet, not by any means. Have I mentioned a brutal schedule throughout the season? Beyond playing a home game against the Giants next Sunday and gaining a little extra rest on the visitors, I don't think this schedule offers any places for Dallas to hide.
So they've got to show up. And when they do, I expect Lamb to make big grabs, tough catches as he has done his entire career. On a night where Dak's final numbers were good but nothing great (62% completions), his biggest problem was his money receiver. Yes, Lamb racked up 110 yards but he did it by catching seven of 13 targets sent his way. No one else among the other eight receivers missed more than a single target from Dak, and Lamb missed six.
We know what Lamb can do. And we have seen what Williams with a dose of Sanders can do. That's an upgrade from a year ago and no reason it can't be a meaningful one.
The Cowboys come away from a weird opener with an 0-1 record and a frustrating list of chances they failed to pounce upon. They also look like more of a complete team than most in the post-Micah era were expecting to see, which should mean something for the rest of this season and beyond.