Cowboys visit injury-ravaged Eagles on MNF with both teams desperate at 2-4
Philadelphia's season is in freefall — Jalen Hurts is out for the year, Saquon Barkley is questionable, and backup Tanner McKee faces Dallas as a 4.5-point road underdog.
Monday Night Football's Week 7 matchup was supposed to be a marquee NFC East showdown. Instead, the Dallas Cowboys arrive at Lincoln Financial Field as 4.5-point road favorites against a Philadelphia Eagles team that has lost four straight games, is starting a backup quarterback, and may be without several of its top offensive weapons.
Kickoff is at 8:15 p.m. ET on ESPN and ABC. Both teams sit at 2-4, technically tied for second place in the NFC East — but the Eagles' situation is considerably more dire. Jalen Hurts, placed on injured reserve after blood clots in his lungs rapidly worsened, is likely out for the season. Starting for the second week running, Tanner McKee follows a 25-14 defeat to Carolina in which Philadelphia's offense produced only 222 total yards and failed to score in the third quarter for the fourth game in a row.
The Eagles' injury report compounds the problem. DeVonta Smith and Dontayvion Wicks both missed practice time this week and are expected to be out, while Saquon Barkley — who has just 182 rushing yards on 36 carries this season after missing time with a hamstring injury since Week 4 — is listed as questionable. Defensive standout Nolan Smith Jr., the team's sack leader, is also out, according to Fox News.
McKee's performance last week offered a sobering preview. He threw 45 passes but averaged just 3.1 completed air yards per attempt — ranking 40th in the NFL — and the Eagles generated only 2.9 yards after the catch per completion, a rate that would place him last among regular starters, according to The Guardian. With Smith and Wicks sidelined, tight end Dallas Goedert becomes McKee's primary target if the Eagles reach scoring position.
Dallas has its own dysfunction. The Cowboys have lost two straight primetime games — 24-16 to Tampa Bay and 23-13 to Green Bay — scoring just 29 combined points. Over his last four starts, Dak Prescott has thrown as many interceptions as touchdown passes. According to Sporting News, the defense sits 31st in EPA per play and last in EPA per pass — a unit that also surrendered successful conversions on nine of the Packers' first 10 third-down attempts last weekend.
Yet the Cowboys' offense remains a genuine weapon. Dallas ranks eighth in both EPA per play and success rate, converts third downs at a 47.2% clip — one of the best rates in the league — and calls a pass on 67.5% of plays, the highest rate in the NFL, according to Sporting News. An Eagles secondary ranked 25th in EPA per pass, and potentially missing slot corner Michael Carter II, may be poorly equipped to handle that kind of aerial volume. CeeDee Lamb and George Pickens are expected to find room.
Eagles defensive coordinator Vic Fangio, one of the least-blitz-heavy coordinators in the league this season, may have reason to change that approach. According to The Guardian, Prescott has gone without a touchdown pass and posted a passer rating of 67 in his last two games when facing the blitz. Whether Fangio deploys that strategy against a quarterback who has otherwise moved the ball efficiently will be one of the game's key tactical questions.
Philadelphia's best path to keeping it close runs through Barkley. Should he return near full health, Philadelphia could rely on the ground game to control the clock — yet a team whose explosive play rate stands at just 3.4%, per Sporting News, will find it difficult to string together enough scoring drives to match Dallas's passing output. The loser of Monday's game falls to 2-5 in a division that remains within reach of the first-place Giants.
The betting market tells the story of how quickly Philadelphia's situation deteriorated. According to Sporting News, Dallas came in as a 3-point look-ahead favorite, moved to -5.5 after the Hurts news emerged, and has since settled at -4.5, with the total set at 44.5.
Why it matters — A loss Monday drops either team to 2-5 and likely ends any realistic NFC East title hopes, making this a de facto elimination game for two franchises that entered 2026 expecting to contend.
⚠ Not yet confirmed
- Hurts's blood clots have 'probably' knocked him out for the season
- The Eagles knew about Hurts's blood clot and let him play, or encouraged him to do so
- Michael Carter II could miss the game
Reported by theguardian.com, sports.yahoo.com, foxnews.com, cbssports.com, sportingnews.com
