PHILADELPHIA — Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts, as expected, will be out against the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday with a concussion. Less expected would be the loss of linebacker Nakobe Dean, who is dealing with an abdomen injury and is listed as doubtful.
Wide receiver/punt returner Britain Covey, who has missed numerous games this year, is out again with a nick injury. Running back Will Shipley (concussion) will also miss the game. Defensive end Bryce Huff, coming off of wrist surgery, is questionable.
The Cowboys, who are mathematically eliminated from the playoffs, lost five in a row in the middle of the season. But since then, with backup quarterback Cooper Rush, they’ve won four of their last five. The Eagles can secure the division with a victory (or a Washington loss), and they said they aren’t taking their rivals lightly.
“They’ve been doing great, man,” Eagles cornerback Darius Slay said. “The quarterback’s been playing great, or better. It’s the first time we’ve played him this season. He’s been doing a great job controlling the clock.
“And I’ve been playing against (Dallas head coach Mike) McCarthy for a long time. He’s been without a lot of his key guys before, when he was in Green Bay and I was in Detroit, so it doesn’t really change too much with how he operates.”
Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni echoed Slay’s comments about Dallas’ improvement. The Eagles won the first meeting of the year 34-6 on the road.
“(They’ve) got good coaching combined with good players,” Sirianni said. “Going into that first game, that’s what we thought. We didn’t really think about how they were playing or certain things as far as their record at that time. We just know how good the football team is, and it’s still the same thing going into this game.
“Going into the first game and going into this game, we see a dangerous team that’s well coached with really good players,” he said. “We have to be on our game to go out there and play well.”
Meanwhile, Cowboys linebacker and Penn State alum Micah Parsons would love nothing more than to take down the Birds.
“That probably makes the year you know what I’m saying?,” Parsons told the media in Dallas. “That sets everything off. Us getting that win, away game in Philly, knowing how they’re trying to get the No. 1 seed, can set them back a little bit. They’re fighting for everything. They’re fighting for where they want to be in the playoffs. We’re just fighting to whoop them. They got more to lose than we do, so that’ll be a great feeling right there.”
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Eagles running back Saquon Barkley, who has 1,838 rushing yards, needs 268 yards over the final two games to break Hall of Famer Eric Dickerson’s single season record of 2,105. But Dickerson, who set the mark in 1984, isn’t rooting for him.
“I don’t think he’ll break it, but if he breaks it, he breaks it,” Dickerson told the Los Angeles Times. “Do I want him to break it? Absolutely not. I don’t pull no punches on that. But I’m not whining about it. He had 17 games to do it? Hey, football is football. That’s the way I look at it. If he’s fortunate to get over 2,000 yards and get the record, it’s a great record to have.
“I’ve always said that the one that’s going to last the longest is me setting the rookie record with 1,808,” he said. “Because you only get one shot at that. You’re only a rookie once.”
Dickerson captured the record during a 16-game season. Still, he noticed how the New York Giants discarded Barkley as if he was nothing. The Eagles play the Giants in the final game of the regular season.
“How ironic would it be for him to break the record on them, the team that let him go,” Dickerson said “A true slap in the face.”
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The Eagles/Cowboys game was flexed from 4:25 to 1 p.m. on FOX. … The Birds will be wearing their Kelly green uniforms. The last time they wore them was against Jacksonville, when Barkley did his reverse hurdle. … Since 2022, the Eagles have the third-best home winning percentage (.808, 21-5) in the NFL, behind Buffalo and Kansas City (both .821, 23-5).
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Follow Christiaan DeFranco on X at @the_defranc.
Source: Berkshire mont
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