Four Turnovers Foil Eagles in Loss to Cowboys
The Eagles were in the spirit of giving on Christmas Eve.
They gifted four turnovers to the Cowboys, which Dallas cashed into 20 points on their way to a 40-34 win at AT&T Stadium on Saturday.
“We can’t give a good team like that the ball four times and expect to win the game,” head coach Nick Sirianni told reporters in Dallas. “It put the defense in a tough spot. So, disappointed in the turnovers, disappointed in some of the things we have to do better in coaching, disappointed in some of the third-down conversions by Dallas.
“Part of that, too, is they’re making plays, too and they’re forcing it, so that’s a good football, but we can’t help a good football team beat us by giving the ball away.”
Eagles backup quarterback Gardner Minshew had three of the turnovers – two interceptions and a botched exchange to Boston Scott that led to a fumble.
"That was my fault," said Minshew. "I didn’t get it to him the way I should have and that’s on me."
Miles Sanders’ fumble was the final turnover and came with 2:07 to play. It happened on the first play after Brett Maher made a 48-yard field goal to give the Cowboys a 37-34 lead, their first lead since 14-10 in the second quarter.
That field goal was set up when Quez Watkins had the ball ripped away from him by Daron Bland for an interception.
Sanders’ fumble allowed Dallas to tack on another field goal to go up six with 1:41 to play.
The Eagles made a strong bid to win the game at the end, reaching Dallas’ 19 with less than 30 seconds to go. Minshew threw four incomplete passes from there, though the first attempt was a stop-the-clock spike.
"It was just a matter of getting a couple chunks and giving ourselves a chance," said Minshew. "We did but didn’t capitalize when we got there."
Minshew battled through adversity all game long and led the Eagles on a nifty 75-yard drive, completing throws on two third downs – 19 to DeVonta Smith and 14 to A.J. Brown and one on fourth down, a 9-yard TD to Smith, to give the Eagles a 34-27 lead with 9:59 to play in the game.
The QB played gamely in his first start since last season, completing 24-of-40 passes for 355 yards.
“I thought Gardner played a good game,” said Sirianni. “On the first interception, I thought it was a really good play by (Jayron Kearse), hats off to him, he’s a really good player. The second one was, the ball was in both of their hands (Watkins and Bland), and (Bland) came away with it. Gardner played a really good game. We’ll go from here and see what happens.”
Minshew threw two touchdowns, both to Smith, who now has seven this season. He also ran for a 1-yard TD on fourth down.
Both Smith and Brown went over 100 yards receiving, with Smith catching eight passes for 113 yards and Brown six for 103.
Smith went over 1,000 yards on the season; Brown has had 100-yard receiving games in three of his last four games. It is the first time in team history that the Eagles have had two WRs top 1,000 yards.
The Eagles defense sacked Dak Prescott six times and is now one away from tying the franchise record of 62 set by the Reggie White-led defense in 1989.
Josh Sweat had 1.5 sacks and now has 11 this season. He is the third Eagles player with double-digit sacks. Brandon Graham had a half-sack and is one away from making it four Eagles players with double-digit sacks, which would mark the first time in NFL history that's happened.
Reddick had two and has a new career-high of 14.
The Cowboys did not sack Minshew.
The offense piled up 442 total yards, more than the Cowboys’ total of 419, and the defense held Pro Bowl RB Tony Pollard to 19 yards.
None of it mattered because a loss is a loss.
The difference was the turnovers.
They were the reason the Eagles couldn’t hold a 10-0 lead in the first quarter, provided by a pick-six interception from Sweat that covered 42 yards, and a 27-17 lead in the second half.
The Eagles have committed seven turnovers in the last two games.
“We stress turnovers all the time,” said Minshew. “That’s a big part of what we do and why we’ve been so successful. So it was uncharacteristic of us (Sunday) and that’s what really bit us.”
They survived in Chicago, with a courageous fourth quarter from Jalen Hurts, who battled through a shoulder injury against the Bears that forced him to miss this game.
The Eagles, now 13-2, whiffed on their first try to wrap up the NFC East title and clinch the No. 1 seed in the NFC playoffs. They will get another shot to do it next week at home against the New Orleans Saints.
The status of Hurts will be a big question as 2022 heads into its final week.
Dallas’ hopes to repeat as division champs are alive at 11-4. There hasn’t been a repeat winner of the division since the Eagles did it in 2003-04.
After Minshew engineered the drive that put Philly up the Eagles in the driver’s seat at 34-27, both the defense and offense crashed.
First, the defense allowed a 52-yard reception to T.Y. Hilton on third-and-30 after the offense had given them the lead. The Cowboys were put in that deep hole on back-to-back sacks from Haason Reddick and Josh Sweat.
“That play changed the game, changed the momentum, we have to execute that better on the back end,” Darius Slay told reporters in the locker room. “I was kind of hot. It was play that needed to be made. I was hot about and that was it.”
Reddick’s sack forced a fumble from Dak Prescott, and it appeared Linval Joseph recovered, but had the ball ripped from his hands in a wrestling match with Dallas center Tyler Biadasz.
Second, the offense committed its fourth turnover of the day on the play after a 48-yard field goal from Bret Maher with 2:19 gave Dallas a 37-34 lead.
“Give credit to the Cowboys, they did what they had to do, they defended their house,” said Eagles DE Brandon Graham. “We’ll see ’em again.”
Ed Kracz is the publisher of SI.com’s Fan Nation Eagles Today and co-host of the Eagles Unfiltered Podcast. Check out the latest Eagles news at www.SI.com/NFL/Eagles or www.eaglesmaven.com and please follow him on Twitter: @kracze.
