The Dallas Cowboys grabbed control of first place in the NFC East with a blowout 41-21 victory over the Philadelphia Eagles on Monday night.
Dak Prescott threw for 238 yards and three touchdowns and Ezekiel Elliott ran for 95 yards and two scores as the Cowboys completely dominated Philadelphia. It wasn’t just an offensive success for Dallas either. The Cowboys defense intercepted Jalen Hurts twice with Trevon Diggs returning one interception for a 59-yard touchdown on the opening drive of the third quarter.
It’s the third straight game that Diggs has hauled in an interception for Dallas. He’s the first Cowboy with an interception in each of the first three games of a season since Everson Walls did so in 1985. He’s also the first Cowboy to return an interception for a touchdown since Byron Jones had a pick-six against Washington in 2017.
For some reason, the Eagles decided they would not run the football at all against Dallas. They ran the ball just 12 times in the game with nine of those coming from Hurts, mostly on scrambles. Running backs for the Eagles carried just three times in total on the night with Miles Sanders getting two carries and Kenneth Gainwell getting one.. One of Sanders’ two carries went for 24 yards and they decided to give him the ball just one more time the rest of the night. Gainwell got a lone fourth quarter carry.
Elliott kicked off the scoring with a 1-yard touchdown run on Dallas’ opening drive of the night to give the Cowboys a 7-0 lead.
The Cowboys would make an offensive mistake that allowed the Eagles to tie the game up on their next drive. Backed up against their own goal line, Prescott was stripped by Fletcher Cox for an Eagles touchdown to make it a 7-7 game.
Prescott connected with tight end Dalton Schultz for a 19-yard touchdown to give Dallas a 14-7 lead. Elliott added a 3-yard touchdown as the Cowboys took a 20-7 lead into halftime after a missed extra point.
After Diggs’ interception gave Dallas a 27-7 lead, the Eagles finally found the end zone offensively with Hurts finding Zach Ertz for a 3-yard touchdown.
Prescott hit Cedrick Wilson for a 2-yard touchdown and connected with Schultz a second time on a 22-yard score as the Cowboys took a commanding 41-14 lead.
Hurts and Greg Ward would add a 15-yard touchdown with three minutes to go for Philadelphia.
Hurts was 23 of 36 for 321 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions.