The Philadelphia Eagles’ matchup against the Dallas Cowboys is one of this NFL season’s premiere games, despite the teams sitting at 4-4 and 3-5, respectively. The Eagles and Cowboys both carry massive brands, and NFL fans love watching these two teams go at it.
With the Birds staying home after their successful trip overseas beating the Jaguars, it’ll be nice to have a home game at night after their bye week— especially now that they’ve acquired Golden Tate. This will give him a chance to learn some of the playbook and maybe see more action than a player usually would after joining a new team mid-season.
Carson Wentz is gonna have to work some magic against Dallas though, considering Lane Johnson is expected to miss some time with an MCL sprain. Wentz has played against Dallas a total of three times in his career, but one of those came in Week 17 of 2016 when the Cowboys had already locked up their spot in the NFC playoff picture. Most of their starting players were in street clothes, so we’ll omit those stats for his overall play evaluation.
Here’s his stat line from 2016:
74.4% Completion Percetage
202 Passing Yards
1 Touchdown
91.4 Passer Rating
And 2017:
51.9% Completion Percetage
168 Passing Yards
2 Touchdowns
95.9 Passer Rating
Now, obviously 2016 was his rookie season, and he didn’t have the weapons he had in 2017, which seems odd as to why he’d throw for less yards, and attain a severe drop off in completion percentage. There was barely an improvement in passer rating and touchdowns, but still improvement nonetheless.
Wentz didn’t look bad in either game, and he made some incredible throws in the 2017 game that don’t pop out in the stats, including a 4th down touchdown pass into the fingertips of a covered Alshon Jeffery. It’s also worth noting that the Eagles lost in overtime in 2016 and won convincingly in 2017.
It’s yet to be determined whether or not Wentz will be able to continuously handle the Cowboys throughout the years, but this upcoming game will create more tension. The climate should be extra suspenseful, and the home crowd is expected to be rowdy. I fully expect the Eagles and Wentz to feed off the energy and take care of business.
