Home Crowd May Give Eagles a Chance

On paper, Dallas looks better, but the game will be in South Philly at Lincoln Financial Field, and that could be an equalizer

PHILADELPHIA - On paper, the Dallas Cowboys should beat the Eagles on Sunday.

Their stats are better than Philly, with a number-one ranking in total offense and a defense ranked seventh in the league. The Eagles are tied for 15 in offense and 11 in defense.

The Cowboys’ roster is better, too. Their top two receivers are Amari Cooper (1,073 yards, eight touchdowns) and Michael Gallup (911 yards, three touchdowns). The Eagles have Greg Ward (140 yards, one touchdown) and J.J. Arcega-Whiteside (130 yards, one TD)

Dallas running back Ezekiel Elliott has 11 rushing touchdowns and 1,188 yards rushing. The Eagles’ top back, rookie Miles Sanders, has 687 yards on the ground and two rushing scores.

The Cowboys’ offensive line has allowed just 18 sacks; the Eagles offensive line has given up 35 sacks.

You get the idea.

The game won’t be played on paper, though, and maybe that will help equalize everything that Dallas has in its favor.

That would be home field. The Eagles are playing at Lincoln Financial Field in a late afternoon game, and the place should be electric – provided, of course, the Eagles don’t stick to their season script by falling behind early and by large deficits like they have done in seven games this years.

“Crowd noise always makes it difficult for opposing offenses to communicate,” said Eagles defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz on Tuesday. “They do a lot of checks at the line of scrimmage and things like that. But I think it's more than just that. It's more than the noise affecting the game.

“I do think that our players feed off of the energy of the crowd and in a big game like this, it will be a playoff atmosphere. Our guys know the stakes of this game and I'm sure our fans do, too. They'll know what time it is.”

The Eagles sure didn’t know what time it was on Oct. 20.

They went into Dallas and got destroyed 37-10.

Two fumbles – on by tight end Dallas Goedert, the other by quarterback Carson Wentz - in their own territory on the first two possessions led to 14 quick Cowboys points. The closest the Eagles would get from there was 14-7 on a 28-yard touchdown reception by Goedert with 4:58 to play in the opening quarter.

After that, the defense had trouble dealing with Elliott – as they always do – and Cooper.

Elliott is 5-0 against the Eagles in his career, with four games of more than 100 yards rushing.

The Eagles’ defense is ranked third against the run, but they have yet to figure out how to stop Elliott, and Schwartz didn’t divulge much.

“He's a good, strong running back,” said Schwartz. “They have a good offensive line, they have good blocking tight ends. They got a quarterback that's mobile, that will run the ball also. They run some option-type stuff.

“So it's not just him, but there's a lot of other stuff. They got some big-play receivers. But he's a strong contact runner and we're going to have to put a lot of hats on him. It's not going to be one-on-one tackles. It's going to have to be gang-tackling, team defense in order to limit his yards and limit his effectiveness.”

Cooper had 106 yards receiving on five catches that day.

“You have to make plays on the ball when it goes up in the air,” said Schwartz. “Good vision on the ball, and good high point when you have guys like Cooper that they'll just throw it up to, you have to be able to come down with that.

“I think there's a pass-rush element to it, too. Take the quarterback's timing away from him a little bit. And I think there's some scheme to it also and there's different ways you can roll coverage. Sometimes you're ‘robbing Peter to pay Paul’ when you do that, but sometimes it can have an effect.”

It seems like a tall order for this Eagles team to find a way to win and keep their season alive until the final game.

Maybe the crowd will help Dallas shrink to Philly’s size.