Five Big-Picture Takeaways From Eagles Week 9 Win Vs Cowboys

The Eagles notched their biggest win of the 2015 season to date Sunday night in dramatic fashion. Their 33-27 overtime victory over the Cowboys has far-reaching implications in that it drastically improves their postseason chances while dealing a potential death-blow to Dallas’s hopes of defending their NFC East title. The back-and-forth affair demonstrated that the Eagles were capable of winning a game where the margin for error was slim and the opponent was playing with the same high stakes they were. Dallas’s 2015 season is now on life support while the Eagles, even at 4-4, find themselves in a much more advantageous situation than they were right up until kickoff.

The manner in which the Eagles won the game, right up until the very last play, also indicated signs of progress for a team that has been unable to build upon positive performances in the past. By no means was the contest without its low points, and there were even some new issues that crept up that hopefully do not persist beyond week nine. That being said, this is a team that cannot worry about style points when it comes to notching one in the win column. The Eagles are a team that is still getting used to playing with one another and the unrelenting nature of the NFL schedule leaves very little time for building the type of chemistry and cohesion necessary for a postseason run.

The Eagles were embarrassed in their first showdown with Dallas. From one to 53 on the roster all the way up to Chip Kelly himself, the product on the field in week two at Lincoln Financial Field was as poor as one can remember over the last two-plus seasons. While Kelly and many of his players tried to downplay the pride factor when it came to the win, one has to think that their was an extra sense of satisfaction in potentially ending the Cowboys hopes at a division title. Dallas had very much gotten the better of the Eagles in their last two match-ups. Sunday night was a different story.

Because the game was coming out of a bye, one could make a case for Sunday’s win as a potential building block towards a second half run. The team had time to clear its head, expunge the Panthers loss from their system, and operate in a less urgent atmosphere. There will likely still be a few bumps along the way, but this win and the team being able to maintain its mindset going forward could go a long way towards establishing some level of consistency. With that, here are five things that stood out which could emerge as storylines over the rest of the season.