by Jesse Shuter
Staff Writer
What a showdown this was between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Dallas Cowboys. These two teams have been rivals since the beginning and now had to battle each other on Sunday 10/19 for sole possession of their division, the NFC East.
My expectation was that this was going to be a very high scoring game. The Eagles have given up the second most points to other teams and the Cowboys the thirteenth most points. Meanwhile, both offenses have been doing well.
Another factor is that the Cowboys’ defense has been plagued by injuries. This would be the first game back for many of the Cowboys’ defensive players. The one person who did not play is defensive super star Demarcus Ware who missed a game for the first time in his nine year career. The Cowboys also released one of their best defensive players, Jay Ratliff, after a disappointing and injury plagued season. Also hurt for the Cowboys was their starting running back DeMarco Murray, and hurt for the Eagles was quarterback Michael Vick.
The game quickly became strongly defensive, with neither team putting a point on the board in the first quarter. Starting Eagles quarterback Nick Foles looked bad from the start. Foles went down after a big hit and never looked the same for the rest of the game. None of his throws were on target.
The Eagles did not get a single touchdown for the first time all season. Many disappointed fantasy owners started Nick Foles because of his huge potential upside against the Cowboys’ defense. Last week he scored twenty nine points (in an ESPN Standard League), second to only Cam Newton with thirty, and that was against the much stronger Buccaneers defense. This week he scored five points in a standard league, ruining any fantasy week for an owner. Late in the game, Foles was finally taken out of the game due to his injury, and was replace by Matt Barkley. Barkley is a rookie drafted in the fourth round by the Eagles, after they traded up to the first pick of the round to get him.
Many fans were excited by Foles’s awaited exit, but were shocked by the even lower level of Barkley’s play. On three drives, one of which was in the red zone (within the opponents twenty yard line) Barkley ended with three interceptions.
So long story short, I miss Vick. You remember him, number seven, runs really fast, was hated by most of Philadelphia for killing dogs. Yes, that guy was missed.
Final Score: 17-3
The Take Away:
The most obvious and most important thing that came out of the game was control of the NFC East Division. We also learned that the Eagles’ offense is not as strong as most thought. Then again, neither was the Cowboys’ offense. Both offenses combined for a total of twenty points. This is shocking considering when the Cowboys played the Broncos, the teams totaled for over one hundred points. This means that the Cowboys can be stopped, and quite easily at that, considering the Eagles defense of all teams, was able to do it.
Something else to take away from the game was that Chip Kelly’s offense is not working out. Every one was enthralled and captivated by the explosive, fast paced offense from week one, but we have not seen that offense since then.
Fantasy Sleeper of the Week:
For all those fantasy league lovers out there, I decided that each week I will throw in a stud to look out for in the following week. Obviously I could say someone like Peyton Manning or Adrian Peterson, but where is the fun in that?
Eddie Lacy (RB) Green Bay Packers. Week 8 of the Fantasy football season the Packers are playing the weak Minnesota Vikings. After losing Randall Cobb, James Jones and Jermichael Finley, the Packers passing game looks like it will be very weak, so i would expect quite a few handoffs to the rookie runner.
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