PHILADELPHIA – Just one week ago, I used this same space after the game to applaud the Cowboys for their effort in battling with the Buccaneers and coming out with a hard-fought win despite being out of the playoff race.
The column was titled, "Could you tell this team was eliminated?"
Last week the answer was no. This week? Well, there were too many times when the Cowboys most certainly looked like a team with nothing tangible to play for.
Sure, they said all the right things this week, as they've said for the past few weeks. Phrases like "playing to win" and "in it to win it" were uttered throughout the week, before the game and so on.
But realistically, this game had disaster written all over it from the start, dating back to earlier in the week.
And let me preface this statement by also saying the Cowboys absolutely made the right decision here, but the minute they announced that CeeDee Lamb was done for the season – which allowed phrases such as "shutting him down" to be used – that automatically made this a steep hill to climb for the Cowboys.
Throw in a weird schedule this week because of Christmas, the fact that injuries continued to pile up and prevented key players from practicing and the fact that there's still nothing to really play for as a team, and this game reeked of a 41-7 type of outcome.
Now, Dallas actually started the game differently, driving the ball down the field only to throw a gut-punching pick-6. But even then, the Cowboys came right back, marched the field and tied the game.
And through the first quarter or so, Cooper Rush looked like the best quarterback on the field. The offense was at least moving the ball and the defense was flying around, showing us what we've been seeing the last few games.
But just like it did in the first meeting with the Eagles back in November at AT&T Stadium, the bottom dropped out right before halftime, turning a competitive game into a one-sided mismatch that only got uglier as the game went on.
And that's what happens when you're overmatched in the playmaker category.
Sure, you can call it a battle of backup quarterbacks, but Kenny Pickett still had a much better supporting cast around him, and it showed itself throughout the game.
DaVonta Smith might end up having a Brandin Cooks-type of career, but right now he's younger, faster and makes more plays.
A.J. Brown is in the CeeDee category, but only one of them played. Brown had some ridiculous catches that didn't even count.
And then there's the running back. Saquon Barkley surpasses 2,000 rushing yards and now has his sights set on breaking the NFL single-season record next week.
Meanwhile, the Cowboys were in a similar push, trying to get Rico Dowdle to the 1,000-yard mark. And he made it, becoming the first undrafted player in team history to surpass 1,000 rushing yards in a season.
That's a great accomplishment for Dowdle, but it doesn't hold any water when you see Barkley going for 2,000 yards. And to think they were both free agents in the offseason. The Cowboys were never truly interested in paying that kind of price for Barkley, instead counting on cheaper options at running back such as Dowdle.
And Sunday's game is a perfect example of how that decision can have lasting effects all season long. Nothing against Dowdle, but he's not Barkley. And the Cowboys simply don't have enough playmakers to match up against the likes of the Eagles, with or without Jalen Hurts at quarterback.
The Cowboys have to start making up the difference in the talent department. The Eagles are swinging for the fences with trades for Brown and adding Barkley, and they're hitting home runs.
The Cowboys are going for lower-value trades for guys like Trey Lance, who never really played this year. Or Andrew Booth, who was picked on all day long by the Eagles.
If the Cowboys aren't going to go that route, then they have to make sure they hit on these mid-round picks in a major way. Sure, DaRon Bland, Jake Ferguson and perhaps DeMarvion Overshown and Marist Liufau are good picks, but they need more of them.
Obviously, the Cowboys have been bitten by the injury bug in the worst way this year. It's really hard to truly evaluate this team, or the coaching staff, because the injuries to Pro Bowl players are somewhat laughable at this point.
Laughable until you get into a game like this when one team is trying to win the NFC East and the other is simply "playing to win."
And at that point, there wasn't a lot of laughing going on. At least not on the Cowboys sideline.
