Dallas Cowboys Crush Eagles in 'Pre-Playoffs Practice Game'

Saturday night was an oddball outing. But it worked out in every way for the Dallas Cowboys.

Is there such a thing as a "Pre-Playoffs/Preseason'' game?

Saturday night's oddball outing - a Dallas Cowboys 51-26 win at Philadelphia - was billed by some (especially an ESPN network needing to sell the thing to its audience) as "The biggest rivalry in football,'' and all of that.

But the Cowboys, NFC East champions who finish the regular season with a 12-5 record and a rare sweep of the division, have something "bigger'' than "biggest'' - the actual NFL Playoffs, starting next week. Same with the Eagles, who drop to 9-8 but are still playoff-bound.

So how to approach this game that could have some playoff implications depending on how Sunday's games play out?

Borrow a concept from King Solomon.

The Cowboys started their regular Dak Prescott-led offensive group, and stuck with the unit for three-plus quarters. That followed the edict from Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, who right before kickoff season he expected Dak to still be playing into the fourth quarter. 

“We’re going in here to get better tonight,'' Jones told 105.3 The Fan. "The best we’ve got are gonna be on the field and they’re gonna be on the field a long time.”

Dak gets the Cowboys on the board with the 15-yard TD pass❗️

(via @NFL)pic.twitter.com/4MxHJv2R8P

— NFL on ESPN (@ESPNNFL) January 9, 2022

That worked out for a first-drive TD catch for Cedrick Wilson (a touchdown that set the franchise scoring record for a season at 486 points ... that Dallas would extend to 523 points). And it worked when Dak found Wilson (five catches, 119 yards) again midway through the second quarter for another score.

And it worked on two more Dak TD passes to tight end Dalton Schultz. And by the time Prescott tossed a fifth TD pass to reserve back Corey Clement? Prescott got five touchdown throws in a game for the first time in his career, and finished 21 of 27 for 297 yards with a passer rating of 151.8 ... and his 37 touchdown passes for the year is a franchise best-ever.

Record-setting moment for @dak 🙌

📺: #DALvsPHI on ESPN/ABC#WPMOYChallenge Prescott pic.twitter.com/k4pL4AQ46N

— Dallas Cowboys (@dallascowboys) January 9, 2022

In the end, fourth-string running back Ito Smith added a score on a drive engineered by backup QB Cooper Rush, rookie JaQuan Hardy darted 22 yards for his first career scores and Ezekiel Elliott (18 carries, 87 yards reached the 1,000-yard mark. 

Big numbers? The Cowboys are now the first team with 4,000-yard passer (Dak), a 1,000-yard rusher (Zeke), a 1,000-yard receiver (CeeDee Lamb), a 10-plus-sacks defender (Micah Parsons) and a 10-plus-interception defender (Trevon Diggs).

Oh, and Dallas' 22 players scoring a TD is also an NFL record. ... all of this leaving Greg Zuerlein's early missed PAT the rare blemish.

"We got some momentum and scored some touchdowns,'' Prescott said in an understatement. "Everything we did, for the most part, was a success.''

At the same time, the Cowboys split the baby by bowing to their COVID outbreak and other issues (which robbed the team of Tyron Smith, Diggs, Parsons and others) and leaving a host of players back home ... thereby leaving a bunch of snaps to backups, especially on defense.

The Eagles pushed that theme even more, leaving almost dozen guys on the COVID list and making starting QB Jalen Hurts a healthy scratch.

That meant Gardner Minshew at QB for Philly, but his folk-hero status meant little against the Dallas front-line defenders who played, and meant little against the night's subs. Coordinator Dan Quinn (an attractive head coaching prospect should there be vacancies in Denver or Seattle) got his crew to total four sacks plus a later interception by Leighton Vander Esch that gives Dallas an NFL-best 34 takeaways.

The win does give the Cowboys a chance to jump up from the No. 4 slot. Does all of this also mean Dallas has suddenly regained momentum heading into the postseason? 

''There are slight odds to potentially move up, so we want to make sure we take care of business on our end, and finish off and make sure we're playing with momentum,'' coach Mike McCarthy said of the night's goal, and if this is more about mentality than math, then Dallas accomplished all that it desired here.

The Cowboys are by far the class of the NFC East. The 6-0 record says that, and so does the fact that Prescott's in-division record is now 25-6. But next up? A step up. No more "practice.'' No more "pre.'' The real thing.