Cowboys run it down Eagles’ throat
ARLINGTON, Texas — Ezekiel Elliott and the Dallas Cowboys are back in control of the NFC East after beating the Philadelphia Eagles with the division lead on the line.
Elliott ran over safety Malcolm Jenkins on his way to a touchdown, Dak Prescott threw an easy scoring pass on a great fake to his star running back before a touchdown run, and the Cowboys rolled to a 37-10 victory on Sunday night.
The Cowboys ended a losing streak at three games, which followed a 3-0 start and clouded high expectations for the defending division champions. Elliott finished with 111 yards rushing.
Carson Wentz threw an interception and had two of Philadelphia’s three lost fumbles. The Eagles dropped their second straight game after a two-game winning streak that looked like it might get their season going.
Brett Maher finished the highest-scoring half against Doug Pederson since he became the Eagles’ coach in 2016, kicking a 63-yard field goal on the the first half ’s final play to put Dallas ahead 27-7.
Maher, the only kicker in NFL history with more than one field goal of at least 62 yards, has three after kicking one from 62 yards the previous week against the New
York Jets. His other from 62 yards was against the Eagles last season, his first in the league.
Prescott’s eight-yard scoring run was the 21st of his career, breaking Roger Staubach’s record of 20 rushing touchdowns by a quarterback.
“We’ve just got to keep going,” Prescott said. “We’ve got to build off this.”
Pederson had to clarify during the week that he wasn’t guaranteeing a win after saying on his radio show that his team would go down to Dallas, win the game and f ly home in first place.
And the coach tried to reverse Philadelphia’s trend of slow starts by taking the ball after winning the coin flip, just the second time in 33 winning flips that Pederson hasn’t deferred in order to start the second half on offense.
It backfired when the Eagles fumbled on their first two possessions, leading to two touchdowns after the Cowboys got the ball on the opponent’s side of the 50 for the first two times this season.
“I feel like he got a statement today, and so we’re going to let him go sleep on it,” said defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence, whose sack of Wentz created the second turnover.