The Wide World of Dirt

Well that didn’t go the way I wanted it to go.

Yeah, Philadelphia lost their second game of the season to their hated rival the Dallas Cowboys 40-34 on Christmas Eve.

Just like their first loss of the year to the Washington Commanders, the Eagles had many opportunities to put the game away. It was a classic case of them beating themselves rather than the Cowboys beating them.

It certainly was frustrating, and while the discourse about the game afterwards bothered me, I have come to accept it after a week and am ready to move on. Onto my takeaways.

Hurts not seeing Hurts

Look, let me be clear, I like Gardner Minshew.

He played his role really well coming in on a short week and giving the Eagles a chance. Watching this game definitely showed that Minshew is a top-32 quarterback in the NFL, one of the best backups, and should get the chance to start again.

Minshew was 24/40 for 355 yards with 2 TDs and 2 INTs (although one of them wasn’t his fault.) That is a very good day for a quarterback; however, all that being said, the drop off from Hurts to Minshew was very noticeable.

That, of course, isn’t fair to Minshew since Hurts is an MVP candidate, but it still was something I couldn’t help but think about throughout the entirety of the game.

It changed the RPO reads. Minshew definitely is not a running QB. It makes me appreciate running QBs that much more.

Now while it has since been confirmed that Minshew will once again get the starting gig this weekend, I am still very confident in his abilities.

I definitely believe he will lead the Eagles to clinching the NFC East and the number 1 seed in the NFC playoff bracket.

BRUTAL Turnovers

Like I said, this game felt just like the first Commanders game in the sense that there were brutal turnovers for this Eagles offense.

Losing the turnover battle never helps your chances to win. Minshew accounted for 2 of those turnovers in the form of interceptions.

The first came in the first quarter where Minshew threw the ball behind Quez Watkins. It was definitely poor placement by Minshew.

His second came in the 4th quarter where he once again targeted Quez Watkins. This time, Watkins was simply out muscled for the football.

I like Quez Watkins, but it seems like the coaching staff has tried giving him opportunities and volume targets when that really isn’t his game. He’s a talented player, but realistically is only a WR 3.

You can’t blame both of the losses this season on him, but he has to be better. Absolutely needs to work on adding muscle this offseason, so he doesn’t get out-muscled again.

The Eagles also fumbled the ball twice.

Boston Scott fumbled in the 3rd quarter when he never clamped down on the handoff. In that situation, I don’t know why Boston was even in the game.

Sirianni should have kept Miles Sanders in the game.

Well, that is until the next drive after the second Minshew interception in the fourth quarter when, late in the game, Sanders fumbled on the first play of the drive.

That pretty much sealed the deal for the Cowboys to win. It was absolutely rotten luck, but sometimes that just happens.

The Eagles have had very good turnover luck this year, but on Christmas Eve it just wasn’t going their way.

One more thing, while this wasn’t a turnover the 3rd and 30 completion the Cowboys had was absolutely ridiculous. Can’t win games if you let completions like that happen, plain and simple.

The Disrespect

I knew it was going to happen, and I was still annoyed.

I knew that if the Eagles lost to the Cowboys the entire narrative about the two teams would flip. All this week I have seen that the Eagles are “frauds” and that they should be “worried” if they have to face Dallas again.

Dallas, on the other hand, is being paraded around like they won the Super Bowl.

They are now “Super Bowl favorites” and a “legitimate threat to the rest of the NFL.”

Am I missing something?

Should I be impressed that the Cowboys barely beat their heated rival at home, on a short week, against a backup quarterback, and forced four turnovers, and still only won by six points while the Eagles had a very real shot at the end?

No, I am not impressed by the Cowboys win.

In fact, I PRAY that we face them in the playoffs. They are a very beatable team. I like the way the Eagles matchup with them, and I pray that we get the chance to humiliate them and send them packing in January early again.

Oh when the Saints…

Going to be frank here, I am not worried about this Saints game.

This Eagles team is PISSED. They had a chance to one-up their rival on primetime, and they wasted it. They still control everything ahead of them, so they don’t want to mess around.

I expect them to come out guns blazing and take it out on a very subpar Saints team. Throw in the fact the Eagles own the Saints’ first-round pick in the upcoming draft, and that gives them even more incentive.

I am not worried about the Birds, and neither should you, and if the so-called “experts” are jumping off the train, then so be it.

We’ve been underdogs before. We all saw how that turned out. Hungry dogs run faster. Go Birds.