Dallas took Philadelphia's best punch, then scored the last 18 points: Cowboys 38, Eagles 21

For about three quarters at Lincoln Financial Field, this looked like the night Philadelphia's season refused to die. The Eagles, playing without Jalen Hurts and a list of starters, traded the lead with Dallas six times, and when Tanner McKee found Makai Lemon from four yards in the third quarter they were ahead 21-20, at home, with the crowd smelling an upset that would have changed the shape of the NFC East. Dallas answered in the only way that settles games like this: immediately, and then repeatedly, until the argument was over. The Cowboys scored the final 18 points and won 38-21.

Dak Prescott ran the answer. He finished 15 of 27 for 212 yards and three touchdowns without an interception, two of them to CeeDee Lamb, who caught five passes for 74 yards. The second Lamb score, a 16 yard floater late in the third, put Dallas back in front, and Prescott ran in the two point conversion himself for 28-21. George Pickens had taken the other touchdown, a 21 yard catch in the second quarter, and Brandon Aubrey did the quiet work around the edges, three field goals including the 55 yarder that opened the scoring and the 27 yarder that gave Dallas a 20-14 lead at the half.

Underneath the passing, the ground game was the difference, and it was not close. Javonte Williams carried 25 times for a career high 155 yards, Dallas ran for 204 of its 416 total yards, and by the fourth quarter the Eagles' defence, which recorded no tackle for loss all night, was being moved backwards on schedule. Aubrey's short field goal stretched the lead to ten, and then the defence finished what the running game had set up. DeMarvion Overshown, playing his first game back from injury, intercepted McKee in the fourth quarter, the Cowboys sacked the backup twice on the night, and Williams punched in a two yard touchdown with just over two minutes left to seal it.

Philadelphia's numbers tell a sadder story in the same game. McKee, starting a second straight week for Hurts, went 23 of 35 for 211 yards with a touchdown and that interception, a respectable stand in that reads worse with every week it has to continue. Saquon Barkley returned from a hamstring injury, scored from eight yards early and then left with a back injury. Dameon Pierce scored too and also left hurt in the fourth. The Eagles have now lost five straight and sit at 2-5, and a team that began the season with its quarterback healthy is down to hoping the injury list shortens faster than the schedule does.

The standings give the result its weight. Dallas climbs to 3-4, ends a two game losing streak and, as the only team in the division with two wins inside it, keeps a realistic hold on an NFC East that the Giants lead at 4-2-1. This was not a pretty win filed away in October. It was the win that keeps every November game meaningful, taken in the loudest building in the division, after the home team had taken the lead and the momentum in the second half.

Our call is that this game is remembered as the fork in both seasons. Dallas has a formula again, run first, defend the lead, let Prescott pick his moments, and a formula travels better than form does. Philadelphia has a timetable problem instead: everything now depends on how many more weeks McKee has to start, and a five game losing streak with a backup quarterback stops being a slump and becomes the season itself if the answer is more than two. The Cowboys did not just win a division game on Monday. They bought themselves a winter, and charged it to the team that used to own this division in the cold months.