The Philadelphia Eagles are 1-0 after opening their 2025 season in the NFL Kickoff Game with a Week 1 win over the Dallas Cowboys! Final score: 24 to 20.
Man, this was a weird game at times.
Jalen Carter ejected for spitting on Dak Prescott before even playing a snap. An hour-plus lightning delay. CeeDee Lamb dropping a bunch of passes. A.J. Brown not being targeted until late in the fourth quarter.
Just a reminder that football often doesn’t go as expected.
Regardless of how they got it done, the fact of the matter is that the Birds picked up a very important win over a division rival.
There are things to feel good about. Jalen Hurts was pretty awesome prior to the delay. Kevin Patullo showed promise early on in his first game as offensive coordinator. Saquon Barkley still looks pretty great.
There are things to worry about. Lots of dumb penalties. The Eagles got banged up. Why wasn’t Brown able to get involved?
Of course, the 2025 Eagles are hardly a finished product after just one game. And now they get a mini-bye to prepare for their Week 2 game against the Kansas City Chiefs … a Super Bowl LIX rematch at Arrowhead Stadium.
Read on for a recap and stay tuned for BGN’s postgame coverage.
FIRST QUARTER
- The Eagles won the coin toss and elected to defer to put the Cowboys on offense first. Ben VanSumeren got carted off after getting on the opening kickoff. Then Jalen Carter spit on Dak Prescott and got ejected before the first snap from scrimmage. Lol, WTF, why would he do that?! Insane. Aided by the 15-yard unsportsmanlike penalty, the Cowboys drove into goal-to-go territory with Prescott successfully going after Adoree’ Jackson on back-to-back plays (one where the CB got called for pass interference in the end zone). Dallas then punched it in with a Javonte Williams rushing touchdown. 53 yards in six plays for the score. Would’ve been pretty nice for Carter to … NOT … have gotten ejected before the game even started! EAGLES 0, COWBOYS 7.
- The Eagles’ offense responded well to an awful start by the defense by driving from their own 30-yard line to the plus 3-yard line. Facing 3rd-and-3, Jalen Hurts took off scrambling for the Eagles’ first touchdown of the season. Impressive opening script by Kevin Patullo. Good contributions from Hurts, Dallas Goedert, Saquon Barkley, and Will Shipley (!). 70 yards in 10 plays. EAGLES 7, COWBOYS 7.
- More extracurricular activity with the Cowboys flagged for two unnecessary roughness penalties on the Eagles’ second kickoff. One Cowboys player looked like he was trying to rip Cooper DeJean’s head off via his facemask. Dallas started at their own 12-yard line. Prescott went after Jackson again and then aired it out deep to George Pickens, who drew a pass interference flag on Quinyon Mitchell from the back judge (late call with the flag thrown after the result of the play). The Cowboys ran to 1st-and-goal at the 1-yard line to end the first quarter.
SECOND QUARTER
- The Cowboys punched it in the end zone with another short Williams run. Not enough resistance from Vic Fangio’s defense. 88 yards in nine plays. That’s 15 total plays for 117 yards and 14 points on two Cowboys drives.
- The Eagles took over at their own 35-yard line after another Cowboys touchback. The Eagles slowly but surely drove into goal-to-go territory with some impressive runs by Barkley and Hurts. Then a scrambling Hurts capped off another Eagles touchdown drive by running to the end zone himself. 65 yards in 12 plays for another score to match the Cowboys’ offense. EAGLES 14, COWBOYS 14.
- The Cowboys took over at their own 31-yard line and moved into plus territory with Prescott once again going after … you guessed it … Adoree’ Jackson. Nolan Smith had a pretty great open field tackle for a run stop … that was immediately negated by a taunting penalty on Nolan Smith. Dumb. Jordan Davis had Dak Prescott in his grasp for a sack … but let the QB escape for a running gain. Jackson tipped a Prescott pass (omg) that could’ve been picked by a diving Byron Young … but it was dropped. So many missed opportunities. Facing 3rd-and-10, Prescott’s throw to the end zone was a little high of Pickens with Quinyon Mitchell in tight coverage. In a true miracle, the Eagles’ defense got a stop and held the Cowboys to a 41-yard Brandon Aubrey field goal make. Progress! EAGLES 14, COWBOYS 17.
- The Eagles took over at their own 19-yard line with 2:29 on the clock and three timeouts to work with. A Barkley carry gained four yards and took the clock down to the two-minute warning. A Hurts scramble and throwaway brought up third down. Facing 3rd-and-6, Hurts unleashed a deep pass to Jahan Dotson (!) for a 51-yard gain. Wowza. Nice throw on the money. Facing 3rd-and-2, Hurts hit a wide open Barkley along the left sideline for another first down. Barkley capped off an 8-play, 81-yard touchdown drive by running through arm tackles for the score. Big-time drive by the offense. Three drives, three touchdowns. Really good debut by Kevin Patullo’s unit. EAGLES 21, COWBOYS 17.
- The Cowboys took over at their own 12-yard line with 0:52 on the clock and two timeouts to work with. Jakorian Bennett, who replaced Adoree’ Jackson, immediately got flagged for defensive pass interference to negate his pass breakup. Then Nolan Smith got flagged got roughing the passer for his hand hitting Dak Prescott’s helmet. Too many penalties! The Cowboys drove to the plus 35-yard line to set up a 53-yard field goal attempt. Aubrey drilled it, as expected. EAGLES 21, COWBOYS 20.
THIRD QUARTER
- The Eagles began the second half at their own 28-yard line. The Eagles slowly but surely moved past midfield. AJ Dillon got his first carry with Shipley injured, a nine-yard gain. Hurts got sacked to knock the offense back on third down. Facing 3rd-and-18, Hurts checked down to Dotson to set up a long field goal attempt. Jake Elliot absolutely drilled the 58-yard kick. Looked like it would’ve been good from even further out. EAGLES 24, COWBOYS 20.
- The Cowboys took over at their own 29-yard line. Jihaad Campbell broke up a Prescott pass down the field that looked like a play you would see from a defensive back and not an off-ball linebacker. Wow. Then the Eagles defense immediately gave up a 49-yard run to old friend Miles Sanders, who was tackled from behind by Zack Baun. The Cowboys’ offense got knocked back with a dumb unnecessary roughness penalty by George Pickens (and there’s the downside of Pickens). Baun, not to be outdone by the rookie Campbell, broke up a Prescott pass up the seam. Jordan Davis deflected a Prescott pass to help bring up third down. Facing 3rd-and-22, Prescott’s pass into the end zone was broken up by a bang-bang hit from Reed Blankenship. A late flag was thrown for unnecessary roughness. Total bullshit call. No helmet-to-helmet, just Blankenship’s chest hitting the helmet of a Cowboys player. Next play, old friend Miles Sanders got stripped by Byron Young (“BY”) for an Eagles recovery. Ball don’t lie.
- The Eagles were set to take over at their own 16-yard line … before the refs announced the game was delayed due to lightning in the area. Until 11:30 PM Eastern. After an hour delay, the Eagles had a Barkley run go for a loss and a Hurts dropback result in a throwaway against a blitz. Facing 3rd-and-11, Hurts ran and slid short of the marker for a punt. Three-and-out.
- The Cowboys over at their own 26-yard line. They reached midfield at the end of the third quarter.
FOURTH QUARTER
- The Cowboys had to PUNT for the first time with Prescott’s pass to Lamb bouncing up into the air and somehow harmlessly incomplete.
- The Eagles took over at their own 13-yard line. They ran their first Brotherly Shove of the season on 3rd-and-1 for a first down. And then again on the next 3rd-and-1. Barkley stiff-armed the crap out of a Cowboys defender after making a one-handed catch on a screen. Facing 3rd-and-15 after getting knocked off script, Hurts hit Goedert to gain 10 yards. Facing 4th-and-5, Nick Sirianni kept the offense on the field … to merely try to draw Dallas offside. No dice. Don’t love the punt there! Dallas could easily get that yardage back … while also chewing time off the clock.
- The Cowboys took over at their own 11-yard line with 7:20 left in the game. Facing 3rd-and-10, Prescott’s completion was short of the sticks to bring up 4th-and-6. Three-and-out. Big stop by the defense.
- Following Dotson bobbling but retaining the Cowboys’ punt, the Eagles took over at their own 24-yard line with 4:43 remaining. Facing 3rd-and-7 after Hurts ran out of bounds to stop the clock, Hurts’ completion short of the sticks to Dotson brought up a three-and-out.
- The Cowboys took over at their own 18-yard line with 3:02 remaining. Quinyon Mitchell had a likely game-sealing interception go through his hands. Prescott then had a deep pass to Lamb bounce off the receiver’s hands and then dropped by Blankenship for a would-be pick. Facing 3rd-and-10, Prescott’s checkdown brought up fourth down. Facing 4th-and-3 after the two-minute warning, Prescott’s downfield throw to Lamb was NOT caught. Turnover on downs!
- The Eagles took over at the plus 44-yard line with 1:54 left in the game. The Cowboys had all three timeouts left. A.J. Brown FINALLY saw his first target to give the Eagles third-and-short. Facing 3rd-and-3, Hurts ran up the middle for a first down! The Cowboys took their final timeout with 1:29 left. The Eagles ran victory formation to close it out!
FINAL SCORE: EAGLES WIN, 24 to 20
EAGLES LINEUP NOTES
- Sydney Brown was the safety in base with Andrew Mukuba playing at safety in nickel.
- Adoree’ Jackson played outside CB in nickel defense (with DeJean shifting to nickel), as expected.
- Jihaad Campbell started at off-ball linebacker, as expected.
- Kylen Granson seemingly filled in at fullback after Ben VanSumeren got hurt on the first play of the game.
- Jahan Dotson was the Eagles’ punt returner.
EAGLES INJURY REPORT
- Ben VanSumeren (knee) was carted off after getting hurt on the opening kickoff. Didn’t look good. He was quickly ruled out.
- Adoree’ Jackson (concussion) entered the medical tent late in the second quarter. He was later cleared to return.
- Will Shipley (ribs) left the field late in the second quarter. He was not on the field for the start of the third quarter.
- Landon Dickerson (back) was a little slow to get up after a running play early in the third quarter but he remained in the game until exiting midway through the fourth quarter. Brett Toth came in left guard and Dickerson did not come back after being ruled questionable to return.
- Sydney Brown got banged up in the middle of the third quarter. He later returned to the game.