Eagles steamrolled by Dallas Cowboys, 37-10

It was the second blowout loss during this third game road trip, which ends next week at 5-1 Buffalo

This week will be spent doing another Eagles autopsy.

They have been left by the side of the road, more road kill at this point after the second game of a three-game road trip ended in another embarrassing loss, this one a 37-10 hammering by the Dallas Cowboys at AT&T Stadium on Sunday night.

At least the Eagles rallied a bit after falling behind 24-3 in Minnesota last week, pulling within 24-20 before getting blitzed in a 38-20 loss.

In Dallas, however, the Eagles fell behind 14-0 after fumbles from Dallas Goedert and Carson Wentz on back-to-back possessions on the Eagles’ side of the field and by halftime it was 27-7, which was the largest halftime deficit in Doug Pederson’s four-year tenure as the team’s head coach. It was the sixth time in seven games the Eagles faced at least a 10-point deficit.

The third and final city the Eagles will visit on this three-game trip will be next Sunday in Buffalo against a 5-1 Bills team.

The loss was the Eagles’ fourth in a row to the Cowboys. This one leaves Dallas in first place in the NFC East at 4-3, while the Eagles slipped to 3-4.

It was a strange outcome when you consider that the Cowboys, who had lost three in a row, suffered defeats at the hands of the Green Bay Packers and New York Jets. The Eagles beat both the Packers and Jets.

Go figure.

The Eagles cut linebacker Zach Brown the day after losing to the Vikings in order to send some kind of message.

So which Eagles players – or assistant coach - will be sent to sleep with the fishes Godfather-style this week?

There are plenty of candidates, so it probably wouldn’t be fair to pick only one.

Without Brown and Nigel Bradham, the Eagles linebackers had a long and ineffective night.

The Eagles missed 11 tackles in the first half.

Rasul Douglas gave up a 46-yard completion to Amari Cooper near the end of the first half, which was the eighth time this season the Eagles’ defense has allowed a completion of 40-plus yard, which is the most in the NFL.

And there was the easiest 1-yard touchdown catch you will ever see by backup tight end Blake Jarwin. There was no Eagles defender anywhere near Jarwin and the catch gave the Cowboys a 21-7 lead with 6:40 to go in the first half.

Running back Ezekiel Elliott continued to be a thorn in the Eagles’ sides. He went over 100 yards (111 on 22 carries) for the fourth time in five career games against them. The Cowboys are 5-0 in games Elliott plays against them.

The offense certainly isn’t excused from any blame.

They lost three fumbles, two from Wentz, the other from Goedert. Wentz also threw an interception. The turnovers, which now total seven in the last two games, led to 21 Dallas points.

Tight end Zach Ertz didn’t have his first target until the fourth quarter, but head coach Doug Pederson’s game plan was suspect.

Pederson began the week by telling a sports talk radio show that his team was going to go to Dallas, win the game and be in first place in the NFC East. He couldn’t have been more wrong about his team.

His team looked ill-prepared to play, lifeless and uninspired.

The Eagles failed to score on their first possession for fifth time in seven games, and their opponent scored on their first possession for the sixth time in seven games. Pederson tried something different, taking the ball after winning the coin toss rather than deferring and sending his defense onto the field to start the game.

It didn’t matter. Goedert coughed up a fumble near midfield and things snowballed from there.

Pederson seemed content to just want to run the ball. Even after getting the ball in the second half down 27-7 his first two play calls were runs. But is that Pederson’s fault or an offense that really doesn’t have any playmakers?

DeSean Jackson hasn’t played since the season opener, except for a few plays in Week 2 before he suffered an abdomen injury. Still, there has to be more to the lack of explosive plays than Jackson’s absence.

Nelson Agholor had a deep ball thrown his way in the second half, but looked like he gave up on it. It was just out of reach, but he didn’t even make a diving effort.

And is there any point to playing receiver Mack Hollins anymore? He offers nothing. This was his third straight game without a catch and he is hardly ever even targeted.

It doesn’t bode well for rookie second-round draft pick J.J Arcega-Whiteside who can’t get on the field to at least try to help. How much more ineffective do the Eagles believe Arcega-Whiteside would be compared to Hollins?

Speaking of draft picks, left tackle Andre Dillard made his first career start and was brutalized a couple times by Robert Quinn, before Quinn had to leave the game in the first half due to injury. And second-round running back Miles Sanders was barely used until the game was way out of reach.

Finally, Wentz played perhaps his worst game of the season. He was 16-for-26 for 191 yards and a passer rating of 80.8 with one TD and one interception.

There really wasn’t anything at all to build on Sunday night; nothing at all.