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Dallas Cowboys add to Philadelphia Eagles' home woes

By Ed Kracz, The Sports Xchange
Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott (4) drops back to pass during an NFL football game against the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday night at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia. Photo by Derik Hamilton/UPI
1 of 10 | Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott (4) drops back to pass during an NFL football game against the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday night at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia. Photo by Derik Hamilton/UPI | License Photo

Once nearly unbeatable in front of the home crowd, the Philadelphia Eagles dropped their third game in a row at Lincoln Financial Field on Sunday night with a 27-20 setback to the Dallas Cowboys.

The Eagles were 15-3 at home under head coach Doug Pederson entering the season, but their inability to win in front of the home crowd has left them at 4-5 overall and in jeopardy of becoming one of a plethora of teams in this century that missed the playoffs a year after winning the Super Bowl. The other teams include the New England Patriots, Denver Broncos, New York Giants and Baltimore Ravens.

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"The last couple times the way we played at home, that's not what we pride ourselves on and this one hurt," said Eagles quarterback Carson Wentz, who completed 32-of-44 passes for 360 yards, two touchdowns and one interception.

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"We have a lot of veterans in there, a lot of leadership. We all have to look in the mirror. What can we do differently, where can we be better? We realize a lot of people are going to want to write us off at this point, but now it's just time to play some ball and go try to shock some people."

A win next week would qualify as a shock, since the Eagles travel to New Orleans to take on the red-hot Saints.

The Cowboys' win over the Eagles could also qualify as a shock, since they had to play on a short week and looked disappointing in losing at home to the Tennessee Titans on Monday night. But Sunday night's win pushed Dallas' record to 4-5, and now both the Cowboys and Eagles are two games behind the NFC East-leading Washington Redskins.

The Cowboys, though, have already lost once to the Redskins, while the Eagles still have two games to play against Washington.

Ezekiel Elliott paced the Cowboys with 151 rushing yards and a 1-yard touchdown run on 19 carries. He added 36 receiving yards and a 7-yard score on six catches.

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"I just think we didn't tackle well," said Eagles linebacker Jordan Hicks, who made seven of them. "If you look at a lot of those plays, we had people in position. We just didn't get the job done. I think it's more of us than anything [Elliott] did. We know he's a physical runner. He's a strong, good running back. We have to execute, and we failed to do that."

Amari Cooper had six catches for 75 yards to help quarterback Dak Prescott enjoy one of his finest games of the season. Prescott completed 26-of-36 passes for 270 yards and one touchdown.

"I expected to come in here and make plays and help this team win," Cooper said. "We have some things to work on, me and Dak, and we talked about that. But we're creating that chemistry and we're going to get better."

The Eagles had hoped they bolstered their offense with the trade deadline deal to bring in wide receiver Golden Tate, but it was more of the same for an offense that is averaging nearly a touchdown less than it did a season ago.

Tate, who had a limited role, was targeted just four times, catching two passes for 19 yards. He also had two punt returns for 11 yards. So he wasn't much of a factor.

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Slow starts have plagued the Eagles' offense and poor fourth quarters have victimized the defense.

The Eagles have scored in the first quarter in just two games this year. They had hoped to start quickly coming out of their bye, but they went three-and-out on their first series and had an interception that led to a Dallas field goal on their first play of their second series. On their third series, the Eagles gave up a nine-yard sack when Jason Peters was beaten inside by Randy Gregory before Alshon Jeffery dropped a pass on third-and-five.

The Eagles' offense heated up a bit as the game went along, and got a two-touchdown night from tight end Zach Ertz. He also had 14 catches on 16 targets for 145 yards, but a fourth-and-7 throw to Ertz came up a yard short at the Dallas 29-yard line with 1:17 left.

"We knew it was going to be close," Wentz said. "It was tight man coverage. We knew it was going to be right at the stick, but we came up short."

The play was reviewed, but the ruling on the field stood, and, while the Eagles would get the ball back one final time in the final 40 seconds, the throw to Ertz was their last best shot to try to tie the score and head to overtime.

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As for the Eagles' defense, they surrendered 14 points in the fourth quarter and both touchdowns came after the offense had battled back to tie the score on two occasions. The game-winner was scored with 3:22 to play on an Elliott 1-yard run on third down.

The defense allowed 21 points in the final quarter in a 21-17 loss to the Carolina Panthers three weeks ago, also at home.

The defense wasn't able to hold up on third down, either. The Cowboys converted 50 percent of their third-down opportunities into first downs (8-for-16) and even converted a fake punt into a first down that kept alive a drive that ended in a field goal.

"This loss [stunk] and we have [stunk] lately at home," Eagles defensive lineman Fletcher Cox said. "Normally, we're really good at home; lately we [stunk]. We have to do something about that, get this game behind us and get ready to go to New Orleans next week. It's a real test for us."

NOTES: The Eagles did not have a single penalty called on them. Dallas had five for 37 yards. ... Eagles DE Michael Bennett had two sacks and now leads the team with 5.5. It was his ninth career game with multiple sacks. ... Eagles K Jake Elliott kicked a 56-yard field goal and now has two of the four longest field goals in team history, including the longest of 61 yards he made last year against the New York Giants. Tony Franklin has the second longest at 59 yards in 1979 against the Cowboys and David Akers the third longest at 57 yards against the Patriots in 2003.

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