PJ’s Reaction: Week 8 - Eagles 34, Cowboys 7 

What was THAT?! 

Before we get into it, I’d just like to say I’ve absolutely seen enough from these players: Keith Brooking, Martellus Bennett, Montrae Holland and Bradie James. Addition by subtraction has worked very well so far under Jason Garrett. 

(AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

I truly believe that Sean Lee being out of the game hurt us as far as what we expected to be able to do on defense. The secondary was preventing short routes, but the middle of the field was wide open because of Sean Lee’s absence. Bradie James and Keith Brooking looked lost out there. LeSean McCoy was breaking runs off the edge because Keith Brooking couldn’t get there and was so out of position on every play that he couldn’t even see where “in position” was. Brent Celek had a field day with James and Brooking manning the middle, as did Jeremy Maclin and McCoy. You just can’t expect to execute your gameplan when your leading tackler and only cover ILB gets knocked out of the game.

Offensively, we just fell into too big of a hole too quickly. Murray looked like he would’ve had a great game if we hadn’t had to abandon the running game with 74 yards on just 8 carries (9.3 average per carry). That Eagles secondary we tried to downplay after we didn’t sign Nnamdi Asomugha gave Romo nowhere to throw the ball except Laurent Robinson or 2-yard passes to Witten. Martellus Bennett gave up a turnover at probably the worst possible time and we never recovered.    

There’s not much else to say, really. For how bad a loss this was, we’re tied with the team that just destroyed us in the division. We’ll see you again on Christmas Eve, Philly. It’ll probably be a football game then.