Roob's Instant Observations after Eagles win a weird one over Cowboys

The Eagles kicked off their 2025 campaign with a 24-20 win over the Cowboys.

By Reuben Frank • Published September 5, 2025

Weird game. Strange game. That happens a lot on opening day. Some very good early offense, some very good late defense, some clutch drops CeeDee and the Eagles found their way to 1-0 with a 24-20 win over the Cowboys at the Linc Thursday night.

Jalen Carter was ejected before the first offensive snap, there was an hour-long weather delay in the third quarter, the teams combined to score on their first eight drives, then combined to score on none of their next eight.

A win’s a win. The Eagles are 1-0, the Cowboys are 0-1, and those are two pretty good facts.

1. The Cowboys had scored on each of their first four drives. They had just gotten a 51-yard run from Miles Sanders of all people – his longest run since an 82-yarder for the Eagles against the Saints in 2020. A preposterous pass unnecessary roughness call in the end zone on Reed Blankenship gave them a 1st-and-10 on the Eagles’ 11-yard-line. The Eagles hadn’t stopped them yet, and the Cowboys were 11 yards from scoring on a fifth straight drive to open the game. And then finally – on the Cowboys’ 39th offensive snap – the Eagles’ defense made a play. A huge one. Byron Young and Jihaad Campbell stuffed Sanders and it looked like Campbell – in his first NFL game – popped the ball loose, Quinyon Mitchell recovered, and you don’t just define a great defense by how many points and yards it allows but by how many big plays it makes when it absolutely, positively, has to make a big play. That was the beauty of the 2024 defense. Everybody on the field made big plays. On Thursday night, nobody made a big play for 40 minutes. The Eagles’ defense got gashed throughout the first 2 ½ quarters, allowing three straight TDs and a field goal, and they looked lost without Jalen Carter. And who wouldn’t, losing one of your best players. Good for the offense for matching the Cowboys score for score and keeping the game close until someone on Vic Fangio’s defense came up huge. One of the hallmarks of Fangio’s defense last year was that it got better as the game went on. Look at the Cowboys’ drives Thursday night: TD, TD, FG, FG, fumble, punt, punt, downs. Sixteen first downs on their first four drives, five on their next four. They figure it out.

2A. You love the spirit Jalen Carter plays with, and you love the passion and the energy and the edge he plays with. All those things are part of what makes him one of the best interior defensive linemen in the NFL. But there’s being intense and there’s being incredibly stupid, and that’s what Carter was last night. What are you doing? What on Earth is going through your mind when you walk up to the opposing quarterback and spit on him on opening day before the first snap of the game? And then smirking your way off the field? Shades of Trott getting ejected before the first snap at the Georgia Dome in the 2005 opener - also in prime-time, also the first Eagles after a Super Bowl – after getting into a fight during warmups with Falcons cornerback Kevin Mathis. Twenty years later almost to the day, history repeats itself with another defensive Pro Bowler getting ejected for an idiotic, immature, needless, moronic gesture. Carter let down every one of his coaches and teammates. He let down the general manager that drafted him and the owner that pays his salary. He let down the fans who spent a fortune for tickets to the opener. This isn’t remotely close to the same defense without him. Without Carter on the field, the Cowboys ran it down the Eagles’ throats. In four games Carter played against the Cowboys in 2023 and 2024, Dallas had one rushing touchdown. They had two by early in the second quarter Thursday night. This is a guy the Eagles count on to play 90 percent of the defense snaps at an elite level, a 2nd-team all-pro in his second season, a guy who takes over games. You can’t take over games in the locker room. Carter is a relentless pass rusher and dynamic pass rusher. He can do everything. But right now, the only thing he needs to do is grow up.

2B. Nolan Smith’s taunting penalty in the second quarter that wiped out a really nice tackle for no gain wasn’t nearly as egregious but it’s still a 15-yard penalty and automatic first down when the Eagles really needed a stop. Instead of 2nd-and-10 at midfield, the Cowboys had 1st-and-10 on the 35. This was a smart, disciplined team last year. They sure weren’t last night.

2C. In all, the Eagles had seven penalties for 93 yards … just in the first half. And 9-for-110 overall. At least they cleaned it up  in the second half. But you’re not going to win a lot of games with that lack of discipline and intelligence.

3. I thought 1st-time offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo did OK in his first shot at calling plays in an NFL game. There was a nice mix of run and pass, a lot of different guys got involved, the Eagles scored touchdowns on all three of their 1st-half drives and got points out of their first four drives. But it was a weird game. A.J. Brown didn’t have a target until 1:42 left in the game, and DeVonta Smith had three catches for 16 yards. There wasn’t much down the field – Jahan Dotson’s 51-yard catch was the only reception by a WR longer than eight yards. Good start for Saquon Barkley (11-for-61 before the weather delay, 6-for-0 after the weather delay), not much room for him to work in the second half. Some good but an awful lot to build on.

4. I still think Jakorian Bennett is the best option at second outside corner. He came in for a big when Adoree’ Jackson was getting a concussion test, but Vic Fangio brought Jackson back in when he was cleared. Maybe Vic just doesn’t think Bennett is ready to play extended snaps after getting here from the Raiders a week and a half into training camp. Now CeeDee Lamb is one of the best in the business, and George Pickens is very good too, but I just didn’t like what I saw from Jackson when he was in there. Maybe Bennett wouldn’t be a significant upgrade, but he’s a smart, tough, physical guy who can run, and I’d like to see him get an opportunity.

5A. You don’t really see it in training camp, because even when he takes off running Jalen Hurts rarely goes into high gear at practice. And you certainly never saw it in the preseason games, because Hurts didn’t play. But, wow, he looked fast and elusive and powerful running the ball Thursday night, and you never know if or when a running quarterback is going to slow down as he gets older and the hits pile up and their bodies just aren’t the same anymore. But Hurts looked just as fast and elusive with the ball in his hands Thursday night as when he was a 22-year-old rookie five years ago. That touchdown – the second one – he just turned the corner on the entire Cowboys defense – and they all knew exactly what he was doing – but he made a beeline for the corner of the end zone and the Cowboys had no chance. And that cut he made on the 16-yarder in the middle of the field? Looked like Barry Sanders on that one. And the keeper to clinch the win? Everybody knew what was about to happen, and still Hurts was able to get beyond the sticks. On a night when a lot didn’t go real smoothly for the offense, Hurts finished with 62 rushing yards on 11 carries (plus three kneel downs) and two touchdowns.

5B. The two-touchdown game was the 18th of Hurts’ career, the most ever by a quarterback and one fewer than Hall of Famer Steve Van Buren, who holds the Eagles’ record with 19.

6. All the dopes who ranked Hurts ninth or 11th or something in their stupid quarterback lists will have a field day with this performance. Hurts only threw 23 passes, only passed for 154 yards, didn’t throw any touchdowns and finished with a pedestrian 94.2 passer rating. But he did exactly what he had to do and that meant running around making plays, hitting a perfect deep ball to Jahan Dotson, completing 83 percent of his passes and rushing for two touchdowns. And he was under too much pressure much of the night. Hurts doesn’t play the game the way a lot of people want. If you want gaudy stats and a million passing yards and touchdown passes, go be a fan of some other team. But if you want a quarterback who makes winning plays week after week, year after year, he’s your guy.

7. Nick Sirianni is now 5-0 in season openers, and that just doesn’t happen by accident. He’s got a terrific sense of how to balance getting in all the work the team needs during the preseason with figuring out how to get to the starting line healthy, sharp and prepared. This is the first time since a six-game stretch from 1942 through 1947 that the Eagles have won five straight openers. What’s interesting about those five straight wins is that the first one was 32-6 in Atlanta in Sirianni’s first game as a head coach, but the last four have come by three, five, five and four points, so these are close, tough games that all went down to the wire, and the Eagles have found ways to win each one. Sirianni spends a ton of time during the offseason hyper focusing on the opener because it’s just such a pivotal game. A bad loss can send things spiraling and a big win can really jump start a huge season. A pivotal day and nobody does it better than Nick.

8. Jihaad Campbell is going to be such a beast. Did you see him 30 yards down the field covering tight end Brevyn Spann-Ford and making a play on the ball? A linebacker 30 yards down the field? He also had that forced fumble and three tackles. He’s so versatile and so solid and can make plays in so many different ways. Those sacks, forced fumbles, interceptions and tackles for loss are really going to pile up this year and throughout his career. This kid is going to be so much fun to watch.

9. A.J. Brown is the last guy on the roster I’m worried about. One target, one catch, big eight yards just after the two-minute warning. I know he’s frustrated. I know he wants to do more. I know last night drove him crazy. But a combination of things meant that the ball just didn’t go Brown’s way: The Eagles just didn’t run that many plays, the Cowboys have very good corners, Kevin Patullo was maybe not quite aggressive enough dialing up plays down the field and it was the kind of game where there was no reason for Jalen Hurts to force anything. Brown is going to catch a ton of passes for a ton of yards and a ton of touchdowns this year, and I’ll tell you what, CeeDee Lamb caught seven passes for 110 yards and A.J. outplayed him because when the ball came his way he caught it and when the ball came Lamb’s way he dropped it. Three times. I’ll take A.J. over CeeDee any day of the week. He’s a winner. He’s a champion.

10. Nice to see Jake Elliott make a 58-yard field goal after going 1-for-7 from 50 and out last year and not making a kick of at least 58 yards since late in 2023. Overall, Elliott is now 5-for-6 in his career from 58 and out. Only three kickers have made more field goals of at least 58 yards (Matt Prater 10, Brandon Aubrey 7, Greg Zuerlein 6), and Elliott’s 83 percent accuracy from at least 58 yards is highest in NFL history (minimum three attempts). On the special teams theme, Braden Mann is a beast. Two punts in the final minutes when the Eagles were desperately trying to hang on for the win, the first one to the 11 and the second to the 18. Beast.

https://www.nbcsportsphiladelphia.com/nfl/philadelphia-eagles/cowboys-week-1-jalen-carter-jalen-hurts-saquon-barkley-ben-vansumeren/682530/