Cowboys vs. Eagles: Full Report Card Grades for Dallas
For those who were watching today's game between the Cowboys and the Eagles, it was apparent one team was fighting as if this were its last game of the year and the other was playing hesitant, knowing they had another game going forward.
Playing in a game that didn't mean much, the Cowboys sat key players like Sean Lee, Dez Bryant and Ezekiel Elliott. Not to mention that guys like Dak Prescott and Jason Witten saw their days get cut short after just a few series.
Even from the start, the Cowboys played conservative, featuring running plays and short passing plays. Dallas gained just 141 yards of offense in the first half. A majority of that yardage came on Tony Romo's touchdown drive. In the Cowboys' third offensive drive of the game, Romo came on the field. He completed three of four passes for 29 yards and a touchdown.
Dallas failed to get anything going on the offensive side of the ball in the second half and the main reason because of that was the play of Mark Sanchez at the quarterback position. Philadelphia loaded the box and forced Sanchez into throwing the ball outside.
The game plan wasn't set up for the Cowboys to dominate in this game, but it also didn't help that the Cowboys were playing with second- and third-teamers. With the loss, the Cowboys moved to 3-3 on the season in the division. However, this game won't be remembered if the Cowboys do go on to win the Super Bowl. However, if Prescott were to get injured in this game, that is something that would be remembered forever.
Read on for full grades and analysis from the Cowboys' final game of the regular season.
Passing Offense
1 of 6
Going back to the previous slide, the Cowboys did not game-plan to be aggressive in this game. Because of that, there were a lot of plays that were designed to be short. In Prescott's two drives, the Cowboys got behind the sticks often, which led to more difficult attempts for conversions.
Romo's drive started out with his gun-slinging mentality when he looked for Terrance Williams deep down the sidelines. In the first part of Romo's drive, he was faced with a 3rd-and-12. Romo dropped back and delivered a perfect strike to Williams for a first down. Romo's drive was capped off with a nice touchdown fade route to Williams in the back of the end zone.
Sanchez's day did not start out well. At the half, Sanchez had thrown five passes, completing just one of them and throwing two interceptions. Sanchez did have some nice throws later in the drive, but he was inconsistent for the most part and failed to get the Cowboys in the end zone when they needed it.
Prescott Grade: B-
Romo Grade: A
Sanchez Grade: D
Rushing Offense
2 of 6
Because Prescott and Romo were given the days off early, the Eagles loaded the box on Sanchez, forcing him to beat them rather than the offensive line doing the damage. That led to the Cowboys having their worst rushing performance of the season, accumulating just 69 yards on 21 carries.
Darren McFadden and Alfred Morris did the bulk of the work, combining for 40 yards on 15 carries. McFadden has been given more reps in recent weeks, and it was good to see that he is ready for an extended role in the case of an injury to Ezekiel Elliott.
It's also worth noting the Cowboys were without Tyron Smith. While Zack Martin and Travis Frederick played, the Cowboys' offensive line has been banged up, and that was a part of the reason why they failed to get a consistent push off the ground.
Grade: B-
Passing Defense
3 of 6
Zach Ertz was all over the field today. When rookie quarterback Carson Wentz looked for his wide receivers, he was horrifically inefficient. But when Wentz targeted his tight ends and his receivers in the middle, he found a ton of success.
Brandon Carr and Anthony Brown were extremely quiet in this game, but that's not a bad thing. Neither Carr or Brown gave up many big plays. However, Byron Jones had a difficult day covering the athletic and speedy Ertz.
Being without a few contributors up front, the Cowboys failed to get pressure on Wentz and that helped him to stand in the pocket and go through his progressions. As the playoffs near, the Cowboys will get more reinforcements back up front. That should be huge for this defense as a whole.
Grade: C+
Rushing Defense
4 of 6
Again, because the Cowboys were without a few contributors up front, it led to some problems against the run. The Cowboys gave up multiple first downs by way of the Eagles rushing attack. As a team, the Eagles finished with 114 yards on 30 carries.
Wentz greatly benefitted from the lack of pressure the Cowboys were getting on him. However, the Cowboys lost at the line of scrimmage with consistency, and that led to open running lanes for the Eagles' cast of running backs.
Something worth noting is that Sean Lee had his helmet on the entire day, despite not playing a snap. The Cowboys didn't want to risk injury with Lee, but he was ready to go if Rod Marinelli wanted him to play. Because of the players Dallas was missing up front, this was the defense's worst performance against the run this year.
Grade: C-
Special Teams
5 of 6
When special teams gives up a punt block, it's not going to be a good day for the special teams coach. But it's what to be expected from a team that didn't have much to play for in this game. People shouldn't forget about the fact Dan Bailey was once again spectacular in this game, and Chris Jones had a 66-yard punt that was downed at the 1-yard line.
Lucky Whitehead wasn't awful in the return game either. He accumulated 63 yards in kick and punt returns, giving the Cowboys good field position to work with to score points. However, having Mark Sanchez on the field hurt that progression.
Grade: B
Coaching
6 of 6
This is a tough game for which to be a coach. On one side, you always want to win and you always want to get something out of a game. On the other side, you don't want to risk injury and derail what could be a special season. That is the predicament Jason Garrett had in this game.
But despite not playing multiple stars and having a stale playbook, I came away from the game thinking Garrett did a good job despite having his hands tied. Going back to what I said earlier, no one is going to remember the Cowboys losing this game if they go on to win the Super Bowl. However, if there were a major injury in this game, that's something that would be remembered forever.
Garrett made the correct decision in this game in resting his starters and playing conservatively. The Cowboys will be able to reap the rewards of this in two weeks when they have their home playoff game at AT&T Stadium.
Grade: A
Feel free to reach out to me on Twitter @RyanRattyNFL. I'm always willing to talk football.
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