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A Tale of Two Halves

The Cowboys defense could not have had a worse start to the game against the Eagles. They gave up touchdowns on all three of Philadelphia's first three drives, and quickly found themselves in a 21-0 deficit with 11:32 left to play in the second quarter.

That would end up being the last time that Philadelphia would score the entire game.

After that, the Eagles were forced to punt five times, turned the ball over twice and missed a field goal. The Cowboys held them to 143 total yards of offense compared to their own 262. It was eerily similar to the Cowboys-Eagles Week 1 matchup, as Philadelphia scored touchdowns on all three of their first three drives as well, but added a field goal on the fourth drive that ended up being the difference maker, with help from a massive third-and-short sack from Osa Odighizuwa to force the Eagles into their fifth punt of the night. This time, it was the Cowboys that had the deciding field goal.

A Special Teams Bonanza

Sometimes, the third phase of the game in football is overlooked. On Sunday afternoon in Arlington, it was impossible to forget.

In the first half, the Cowboys were penalized for roughing the kicker after Ryan Flournoy and Marist Liufau ran into Braden Mann. In a pool report following the game, NFL Vice President of Instant Replay Mark Butterworth said that Dallas could have challenged the play and if the enhanced replay view came in early, there's a good chance it would've been overturned. Instead, the Eagles drive was kept alive and they scored later on to go up 14-0.

It was the second half where things got wild. Mann pinned the Cowboys inside the 15 yard line three times in the third quarter, and Brandon Aubrey had a rare miss from 51-yards which would have cut the Eagles' lead to 11.

Instead, Dallas' defense had to come up big, and they did. Then, the Cowboys' special teams did their part. Long snapper Trent Sieg recovered a fumble on a late punt return attempt from the Eagles, and Brandon Aubrey calmly drilled a 42-yarder to win it for Dallas as the clock hit zero.

The Turnover Story

While the Cowboys are certainly happy with their victory over the reigning Super Bowl champions, they likely won't be pleased with their turnovers and the amount of times the ball was on the ground.

Dallas fumbled twice, once by Jake Ferguson which rolled out of bounds and the other by KaVontae Turpin, which was recovered by the Eagles and was turned into a touchdown to make it 21-0 Philadelphia six plays later. Dak Prescott was intercepted in the end zone by Reed Blankenship on the next drive.

With that said, they kept things cleaner the rest of the way and were the ones to force and recover the next two fumbles, both of which were lost by the Eagles. Sam Williams forced the first on SaQuon Barkley, which was recovered by Kenneth Murray, and then Trent Sieg landed on a fumble forced by Alijah Clark and Markquese Bell on a punt return. It ended up being a 2-2 tie in the turnover battle, but the timeliness of Dallas' two turnovers in their favor helped them pull away with a victory.

Dak's Historic Day

On what initially looked like a day in the history books that would be muddied by a crushing home loss to the rival Philadelphia Eagles, Dak Prescott flipped the script in the second half to lead the Cowboys to victory.

To end the first half, Prescott finished a yard shy of becoming the Cowboys' all-time passing yards leader and was tied with Tony Romo. In the second half, he would come alive for 195 yards and two scores to set the new bar for the franchise.

With his strong second-half performance, Prescott led Dallas to their 25th game winning drive while he's been under center.

Decisions, Decisions

Following the Cowboys' thrilling comeback victory, head coach Brian Schottenheimer discussed a few of his decisions over the course of the night.

The first that he made was to not challenge a roughing the kicker call in the first half on the Eagles' second drive. Schottenheimer said that Ryan Flournoy was adamant he tipped the ball, but that he and game management coordinator Ryan Feder couldn't get a good enough look at it to warrant a challenge. In retrospect, Schottenheimer said "sounds like we should've challenged it" after a pool report came out saying the call likely would've been over turned.

The second decision was going for it on fourth-and-goal from the one-yard line with 3:46 to play in a tied ball game. The Cowboys did not convert, but Schottenheimer stood by the decision because of how well his defense was playing.

"I like the call on fourth down," Schottenheimer said. "I felt really good about the call. I wanted to score the touchdown. Felt really good about it. They made a play and got a good rush on Dak so we didn't get in. But our defense man, they stepped up."

Quick Turnaround

This is the game where Brian Schottenheimer's "midnight rule" will have to not only apply to himself, but the rest of the team as well.

It's the first of three games that the Cowboys will play in 12 days, with an extremely quick turnaround coming as the Kansas City Chiefs come to Arlington on Thursday for Dallas' annual Thanksgiving game.

Following that, the Cowboys will get a week before their next game, but in a Thursday-to-Thursday format with a road game against the Detroit Lions following that. Earlier in the week, Dak Prescott called it a stretch that would ultimatley define their season. So far, they got off to a good start.