Cowboys vs. Eagles Week 7: Javonte Williams and Dak Prescott Bury Philly 38-21 as the Skid Hits Five

For six weeks the Dallas Cowboys treated the handoff like an app update they kept postponing. They arrived in Philadelphia dead last in the NFL in carries per game (20.9) and 30th in rushing yards (76 per game), per DallasCowboys.com. Then, under the Monday night lights at Lincoln Financial Field, they ran it 38 times for 204 yards like it had been the plan all along.

The result: the Dallas Cowboys beat the Philadelphia Eagles 38-21 in Week 7, with Javonte Williams rumbling for a career-high 155 yards and Dak Prescott throwing three touchdown passes, two to CeeDee Lamb. Dallas improves to 3-4 and owns two division wins. Philadelphia, a franchise that has played in four Super Bowls since 2004, is 2-5 and has now lost five straight, its longest skid since 2016.

A Shootout That Became a Ground War

The first half had the pace of a video game on rookie difficulty. Brandon Aubrey opened with a 55-yard field goal. Saquon Barkley, back after missing the last two-plus games with a hamstring injury, answered with a 29-yard burst and an 8-yard touchdown on a four-play, 75-yard drive. Prescott responded with an 82-yard march that featured a 35-yard strike to Ryan Flournoy and ended with a 9-yard touchdown to Lamb. Dallas 10, Philadelphia 7.

Then the Cowboys started gifting yards. On a fourth-and-1 tush push, Quinnen Williams was flagged for offsides, wiping out a fumble he had come up with. Later on the same drive, LT Overton was flagged for roughing the passer after an incompletion on third-and-7, and Dameon Pierce punched in a 5-yard score to cap a 13-play, 76-yard drive. On the ensuing kickoff, Tyler Goodson weaved 91 yards to the end zone, only for a Justin Barron holding call to wipe it out.

Dallas shrugged and went 81 yards in 14 plays anyway. George Pickens fingertipped a 21-yard touchdown in the back corner and dragged his left foot while safety Andrew Mukuba draped all over him. With 1:14 left before the break, Prescott hit passes of 13, 21, 14 and 9 yards in a tidy two-minute drill, and Aubrey's 27-yarder at the gun made it 20-14.

Javonte Williams, Monday Night Menace

Williams was the whole show. Twenty-five carries, 155 yards, 6.2 a pop, a 34-yard gallop and the final touchdown. Per the AP, it was the first 150-yard rushing game by a Dallas player since Ezekiel Elliott in 2018. The team added that he is the first Cowboy since Julius Jones in 2004 to clear 150 on a Monday night, and that he is tied for the NFL lead with eight rushing touchdowns, with a score in five straight games.

"Javonte, man, the power, the acceleration, it was there tonight. He looked great," coach Brian Schottenheimer said.

Prescott was efficient rather than spectacular: 15 of 27, 212 yards, three touchdowns, no picks, a 118.1 rating. According to the Cowboys, he also passed Tony Romo for the most multi-touchdown games in franchise history (80) and Roger Staubach for the second-most regular-season wins (86). Lamb caught five balls for 74 yards, with both scores coming in the red zone, while Flournoy chipped in 70 yards on four grabs.

Defensively, DeMarvion Overshown made his first appearance since hurting his hamstring in Week 1 count: six tackles, a tackle for loss, two passes defensed and the interception that ended Philadelphia's night. Quinnen Williams added a sack among his three tackles for loss, and Aubrey went 3 for 3.

Nine Minutes to Build It, Four to Lose It

Philadelphia opened the third quarter with its best football in weeks: 17 plays, 84 yards and 9:16 of clock, finished by Tanner McKee's 4-yard touchdown to rookie Makai Lemon. That gave the Eagles a 21-20 lead and, per the AP, their first third-quarter touchdown drive of the season.

Dallas needed 4:14 to take it back, mixing in 24 rushing yards before Prescott found Flournoy for 16 and then dropped a 16-yard rainbow into Lamb's hands in the corner of the end zone. Prescott sneaked in the two-point conversion himself for 28-21, and Philadelphia never led again.

The Eagles punted on their next drive. Williams ripped off his 34-yarder on the drive that produced Aubrey's 24-yard field goal and a 31-21 cushion. On the next series, McKee threw directly into Overshown's hands. Philadelphia's final real shot died on fourth-and-9 from its own 17, and Dallas handed Williams the ball six straight times, the last one a 2-yard touchdown with 2:21 left. Pure bully ball.

The Numbers That Matter

• 204 rushing yards at 5.4 per carry, well above the team's 3.7 season mark, per DallasCowboys.com.
• 7 of 9 Dallas possessions ended in points, part of a season-best 416 total yards.
• 375: the Eagles have allowed at least that many yards in every game of the losing streak.
• 3-6: Philadelphia's record without Jalen Hurts since he became the starter in 2021.
• 0 turnovers for Dallas, against one for Philadelphia.

The NFC East Just Got Weird

Dallas lost its opener to the Giants, and New York leads the division at 4-2-1. But the Cowboys are the only team in it with two division victories, and they get to go home now. "Come out, get a division win on the road in a hostile environment right before we get to go home for a couple of weeks, I think it was massive," Prescott said. Arizona visits Sunday.

Philadelphia is in genuine trouble. Hurts is expected to miss the rest of the season, and McKee went 23 of 35 for 211 yards with a touchdown and an interception while getting sacked twice. Barkley entered with 36 rushing yards on the season, finished with 62 on seven carries, and spent long stretches getting treatment on the sideline. The defense allowed 6.4 yards per play. Owner Jeffrey Lurie was inducted into the team's Hall of Fame and gave a brief halftime speech, a strange vibe for a night that pushed the skid to five.

"Football is going to deal you some tough hands at times," Nick Sirianni said. "Can you get up and keep fighting?" The answer comes Sunday night in Washington.

Our Division, Their Problem

Prescott said it plainly after the game: "Stuck to the run. Had great balance." It sounds like a coaching clinic slogan, except Dallas had spent six weeks doing the opposite. Overshown had the line that will live in Cowboys group chats all week. "Our division, we're in it," he said. For a franchise that has been one of football's best this century, five straight losses plus that sentence from a rival land like a subtweet.

Stats from the official box score via ESPN. Postgame quotes as reported by the Associated Press; additional notes from DallasCowboys.com.