Don’t Overthink It. A Consistent Eagles Offense Can Take Them Far.

• The Eagles did plenty of impressive things in their Sunday-night win over archrival Dallas. Maybe most impressive to me, though, is what I mentioned in the morning column: how they leaned on their run game to close the Cowboys out. Philly got the ball 21 seconds into the fourth quarter, up 20–17, at its own 25. And from there, the best thing head coach Nick Sirianni and offensive coordinator Shane Steichen did was not overthink it.

They hit Dallas for 13 yards on the first play of the possession, with Miles Sanders carrying off right guard, and then came back to the concept again on the next play, only flipping the formation, for five yards. Seven plays later, they circled back to it again, with Kenneth Gainwell going for another six yards. And they repeated a couple of other run concepts on the drive, too, sticking with what was working against a Dallas front they’d worn down.

The result: Sanders for 13, Sanders for five, Sanders for one, Jalen Hurts for five, Boston Scott for five. Then a Hurts dump-off to Sanders for a yard, then Gainwell for five and six yards, plus Hurts for another three and two. Once Sanders was eventually stoned for no gain, the Eagles opened it up to throwing for a 22-yard catch-and-run to AJ Brown before going tempo to catch the Dallas defense with a seven-yard touchdown to DeVonta Smith.

When the drive was over, the score was 26–17, and on Dallas’s next offensive snap there were less than seven minutes left in the game.

The tape of that drive probably won’t be studied by other staffs for its creativity. But the beauty in it, for the Eagles, was in its simplicity—and knowing what they can lean on when they’re in big spots. Usually, that stuff matters when you get to December and January.