The bonus benefit of blowing out the Cowboys with a looming game on Thursday originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
The first three quarters were a lot of fun for the Eagles’ starters. They shook off a shaky start and built a big lead over the Cowboys at AT&T Stadium.
The last quarter was even more fun. Because they had to leave the field, rest their bodies and watch the backups finish the game.
And with a short week ahead of us, that’s huge.
Nearly all of the offensive starters left the game after Jake Elliott’s field goal gave the Eagles a 31-6 lead six seconds into the fourth quarter. The first defense played the next series and then they took their place on the bench next to the attack.
“Yes, that’s always big,” Sirianni said. “Every time we’ve been able to do that, it’s been three times in the last four weeks. We were able to do that against the Giants too. We were able to do that against Cincinnati too. That’s right.
“I mean, that’s three quarters now and we were able to do that tonight. And that’s right, and that’s extremely important in this game. We know there is a difficult match coming up.”
The Eagles were able to rest their starters for most of the fourth quarter in their 28-3 win over the Giants three weeks ago, the 37-17 win over the Bengals two weeks ago and their 34-6 win over the Cowboys Sunday – all on the way.
This week was more important than ever as the Eagles return to action on Thursday night in a battle for first place in the NFC East with the Commanders.
Even though the Commanders were at home and didn’t have to deal with a three-hour flight, their game against the Steelers went down to the wire and wasn’t decided until Zach Ertz got a first down on a 4.e-and-9 with a minute left and the Steelers leading 28-27.
The loss dropped the Commanders to 7-3, while the Eagles’ fifth straight win moved them to 7-2.
So it may not sound like much, but it was important to get Saquon Barkley, Jalen Hurts, AJ Brown, Dallas Goedert and everyone else off the field early.
Playing two games in five days is physically brutal. Having to play a whole quarter less football in that five-day period is a major problem.
“Anyone in the NFL who has played a Thursday Night Football game knows how quickly things move after this Sunday,” Nakobe Dean said. “The recovery starts now.”
NFL teams instruct quality controllers to start breaking down an opponent’s tape a week early on Thursday nights so that once the coaches arrive at the NovaCare Complex they can get started on preparations.
And for the coaches who are in Dallas, the preparation process began as soon as their charter reached a comfortable cruising altitude and they could open their iPads.
“I watch the tape on the plane, meet with the coaches briefly on the plane and dive through it, process it and as soon as we set foot back in Philadelphia, it’s over,” Hurts said. “We move on. We usually apply a 24-hour rule. I do. But it’s clearly something that will be reduced. So we’re going to get started.”
The Eagles are 2-1 under Sirianni on Thursday, losing 28-22 to the Bucs early in his first year in 2021, then winning 29-17 in Houston in mid-2022 and beating the Vikings 34-28 early last year.
If we go back to 2016, they are 8-1 on Thursdays. They are always 19-7.
The last time the Eagles and Commanders met both teams playing .700 football was in 1996, when they were both 7-3 going into a Week 12 matchup at the Vet. Washington won 26-21, Gus Frotte vs. Ty Detmer.
“We had fun here for a while, but we know we are playing a short week against a very good opponent,” Sirianni said. “And we’ve got to get our minds right and we’ve got to get our bodies right.”
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