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Cowboys 'Deciding Factor' Revealed by Cooper Rush as Eagles Win: Top 10 Whitty Observations

Cooper Rush crashes back to Earth with three interceptions as the Eagles take control of the NFC East with a convincing 26-17 victory.

Richie Whitt

In this story:

The Dallas Cowboys made a blowout temporarily interesting, but in the end quarterback Cooper Rush played like a backup in a stinging 26-17 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles.

10. BAD NEWS ... GOOD NEWS? The Cowboys lost a game. They also lost any remote semblance of a quarterback "controversy." Cooper Rush was awful in the first half in digging a 20-0 hole. ... on the way to a three-interception outing.

“I think (they) were obviously the deciding factor,” Rush said. “You can’t have those.”

In pre-game warm-ups, Dak Prescott was close to full speed. Barring a setback next week, Prescott starts next Sunday at home against the Detroit Lions.

"That's my plan,'' said Prescott after the game.

9. FOWL ODOR - It all started with a flinch. At the end of the first quarter the Cowboys made a third-down stop at their 10-yard line to apparently force a short Philadelphia field goal. The Eagles lined up in one of those lame attempts to draw the defense offside and ... it worked. 

On 4th-and-4 Cowboys' edge-rusher Dante Fowler jumped into the neutral zone for an automatic first down. The Eagles scored on the first play of the second quarter and the rout was on. By the time the Cowboys picked up their next first down they trailed, 17-0.

There were other similar issues, and by the end of the night, the Cowboys flashed back to 2021, when they were the NFL’s most penalized club. 

Here, Dallas committed 10 penalties for 72 yards. Philadelphia had two for 10 yards.

“The biggest thing we have to be much better at is we have to eliminate the discipline penalties,” Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy said. “We had way too many discipline penalties throughout the whole game, especially in the fourth quarter. So that’s where my focus is.”

8. ONE FOR THE ... AGES - Cowboys owner Jerry Jones celebrated a birthday last Thursday, but his 80s are off to a rough start. 

Jones is now 0-1 in his fifth decade with the team. Jerry, who bought the team in 1989 when he was just 46, obviously enjoyed his 50s the most with three Super Bowls. 40s: 24-31. 50s: 114-77. 60s: 87-77. 70s: 94-74. 80s: 0-1.

7. RUN. OVER. - Cowboys' linebacker Micah Parsons tweeted: If we stop the run we win this game! 

But they didn't. 

So they didn't. 

Philly ran for 134 yards and put the game away on the ground during its touchdown drive midway through the fourth quarter. 

6. TV TRAITOR? - As opposed to analysts Troy Aikman and Tony Romo, it doesn't feel like Cowboys fans care much at all about what Jason Garrett says. The NBC studio voice went out of his way during his time coaching the Cowboys to give fans and media nothing in the way of color or insight, but merely monotone, vanilla sound bytes about "football" and "process" and "all three phases." 

But before the game Garrett had the audacity to pick an undefeated team to win at home. 

While Cowboys fans surely shrugged in indifference, Garrett's NBC sidekicks Maria Taylor and Rodney Harrison over-acted as though he shocked the world. Garrett, for what it's worth, went 11-9 against the Eagles during his 9.5-year stint in Dallas.

5. ALMOST AMAZING - Cowboys' receiver Noah Brown produced the most athletic incompletion of the season just before halftime. He leaped and tipped the ball with his right hand and then - while falling on his back- secured it to his chest into the back of the end zone. 

Only problem? 

Brown didn't get both feet down, instead landing with what looked like his left butt cheek just out of bounds. Dallas was forced to settle for a field goal and a 20-3 halftime deficit.

4. SORRY SPOT - Nothing went right for Dallas for most of the second quarter, including a horrendous spot that turned a CeeDee Lamb first down into a Rush incompletion on fourth down. 

Lamb caught a third-down pass and stretched out for an eight-yard gain that replays showed him clearly getting the ball over the line to gain. But when referees inexplicably marked him short, Dallas went for it on 4th-and-inches and came up empty when Rush threw behind tight end Peyton Hendershot.

3. DEFENSIVE DIP - After not allowing 20 points in any of their first five games, the Cowboys coughed up 20 in the first half. But after an injury to Eagles' star offensive lineman Lane Johnson allowed Dallas to crank up its pass rush, the game got interesting in the second half. 

Down 20-0 the Cowboys got life with a 63-yard kickoff return by KaVontae Turpin. A field goal before halftime, then an Ezekiel Elliott scamper followed by a nifty move and touchdown by rookie tight end Jake Ferguson and suddenly it was 20-17. The Cowboys had the momentum. But, surprisingly, their defense couldn't get off the field on the ensuing possession. Philly responded with a 13-play, 75-yard drive by essentially running the ball down Dallas' defensive throat.

Said DeMarcus Lawrence, who before the game questioned Hurts' competency: "We beat ourselves.''

2. SOLVING MICAH? - Give the Eagles credit for making Parsons a thinker instead of an instinctive hunter. In shades of how Robert Griffin III befuddled Cowboys' defensive end DeMarcus Ware with the Washington Redskins' read-option plays in 2013, the Eagles were successful in putting Parsons in what essentially became a basketball defender against a two-on-one fast break. 

Time and again Philadelphia sent receiver A.J. Brown in motion toward Parsons and then had quarterback Jalen Hurts slow-roll to the same direction. Parsons was forced to decide: tackle Hurts and let Brown free or cover Brown and allow Hurts to run. 

The play worked three times for completions to Brown in the first half, including a 15-yard touchdown that pushed Philly's lead to 14-0. 

“We’re going to get better from this,” Parsons said. “Our mistakes, we’re going to learn from them. We got a long way to go. You don’t win championships in six games. We got a long road.”

Maybe so. But for now? The Cowboys were outplayed, but also out-coached.

1. CINDERELLA COOPER - The clock struck midnight for Rush. After an impressive first four starts, against the Eagles he looked like the journeyman quarterback who just last Summer we weren't sure could beat out Will Grier or even Ben DiNucci. Two of his first nine passes were intercepted and it seemed like almost all of his throws were deflected by the hands of Eagles' defenders during the 20-0 second-quarter avalanche. 

Rush's passer rating in the first half: 1.0. He finished with more incompletions (20) than completions (18) and three picks. The glass slipper fit. Until it didn't. 

So much for that Cinderella Cowboys-Patriots Super Bowl featuring Cooper Rush vs. Bailey Zappe.

Said Dak in an overall evaluation: “It’s good being 4-2. Obviously, I’m not too excited about the fact that we just lost, but excited there’s a long season ahead, we’re in a good position.”

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Richie Whitt
RICHIE WHITT

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