Eagles-Cowboys Week 8 Report Card: Defense Bails the Birds Out

Grading the Eagles' Sunday Night Football win over the Cowboys originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

It wasn’t pretty but the Eagles took care of business, beating the Cowboys 23-9 at the Linc on Sunday Night Football.

Now they’re 3-4-1 at the bye week and are in sole possession of first place in the NFC East.

Quarterback

Carson Wentz: 15/27, 123 yards, 2 TDs, 2 INTs, 2 lost fumbles

I know Wentz threw two touchdown passes and that’s all that saved him from an F. The touchdown pass to Travis Fulgham was a beauty. But turning the football over four times is simply unacceptable. The fumbles were inexcusable and the ball he tried to force to Jalen Reagor was terrible. The Eagles were lucky to overcome his mistakes against the Cowboys.

Grade: D-

Running backs

Boston Scott: 15 carries, 70 yards

In the first half, Scott had 63 yards on nine carries but he was really bottled up in the second half. He had just 7 more yards the rest of the way. Corey Clement had 24 yards on five carries, finally showing some life. This wasn’t a great rushing performance against an awful Cowboys run defense though. They probably should have had a better day.

Grade: B-

Wide receivers

Travis Fulgham: 6 catches, 78 yards, 1 TD

For the fifth straight week, Fulgham had another big performance. Reagor also found ways to contribute in his first week back. Greg Ward Jr. had just three catches for 10 yards and had a rare drop on a third down. John Hightower didn’t have a catch.

Grade: C+

Tight ends

Dallas Goedert: 1 catch, 15 yards

The three tight ends combined for just one catch on the night but that 15-yarder to Goedert was a big one on the touchdown drive when the Eagles took back the lead in the third quarter. Goedert didn’t seem like a huge part of the game plan in his first game back from IR.

Grade: D

Offensive line

After a really shaky start, it looked like the OL settled in a little bit. Wentz was sacked four times but some of that was on him. Getting Lane Johnson back after the bye will be huge.

Grade: C

Defensive line

Brandon Graham: 4 tackles, 1 sacks, 1 FF

That strip sack from Graham was enormous. It came right after one of Wentz’s fumbles and basically took points away from the Cowboys. I also thought Javon Hargrave had his best game in an Eagles uniform. He had a big TFL on the play before that Graham strip sack.

Grade: B+

Linebackers

T.J. Edwards: 12 tackles, 1 sack, 1 TFL, 1 FF

After spending a month on IR, Edwards came back and had a really nice performance. He capped it with his first career sack. He stripped the ball from Ben DiNucci and Rodney McLeod was eventually able to scoop and score. No, this linebacker group isn’t the most talented, especially in coverage, but Edwards deserves playing time.

Grade: B

Secondary

Rodney McLeod: 2 PBUs, 1 FR, 1 TD

I can’t believe they didn’t pick of DiNucci, but the Eagles still held the Cowboys to under 200 passing yards and kept them out of the end zone. Amari Cooper, who has killed them in the past, had one catch for five yards. And what was even more impressive is that the Eagles lost two cornerbacks — Darius Slay and Michael Jacquet — during the course of the game and still had a nice performance. Even Will Parks found his way on the field and made a few plays. The Cowboys were just 4 of 16 on third downs.

Grade: A

Special teams

Cameron Johnston: 2 punts, 83 yards, 1 TB

Not a ton here. That moment on the kickoff/punt after the safety was scary but the Eagles were able to retain possession. Johnston should have had a punt downed at the 2-yard line but his team couldn’t down it. And Ward did have 22-yard punt return.

Grade: B

Coaching

Record: 3-4-1

This one was tough this week because I thought Doug Pederson had a really bad day but Jim Schwartz ended up having a good one. So they kind of balanced each other out. Pederson’s game plan and play calling did too much on Sunday. The Eagles were facing a historically bad defense; they shouldn’t have needed to run trick plays.

On the other side, I didn’t like that Schwartz basically conceded points on an early drive but after that I thought he kept the rookie quarterback off-balance all night with a nice blend of four-man pass rush and blitzes at the right time.

Grade: C-