With all the excitement that has surrounded Thursday night’s 2025 season-opening game with the Dallas Cowboys, the only goal that matters is to emerge with a victory. The Super Bowl LIX World Championship banner will be unveiled and the pre-game hype will subside and then it’s time for football!
How do the Eagles defeat the Cowboys? What are the storylines that matter for this opener? Let’s take a dive here …
1. Dallas has a new coaching staff. And what does that mean, exactly?
Brian Schottenheimer is in charge of the Cowboys in his first season with Matt Eberflus overseeing the defense. Given that this is the first game, there is a great sense of the unknown. So what do the Eagles study? They look at Eberflus from his 15-plus years coaching in the NFL, including stops as a defensive coordinator with the Colts (while Nick Sirianni coached there) and as head coach with the Chicago Bears. He has a track record of employing a scheme that uses a lot of pre-snap movement, a basis in the Tampa-2 scheme and zone coverage. He wants his front to play in an “attack” style. The Eagles will have built-in checks for all of this and will be tasked with making adjustments as the game goes along, not unlike every other game.
2. The Dallas offense: Big-play passing attack is the challenge
This is a huge matchup: The Eagles’ secondary against quarterback Dak Prescott – who missed both games against Philadelphia last season – and some outstanding pass catchers led by CeeDee Lamb and George Pickens (who had three targets and zero catches in the Eagles’ win over Pittsburgh last season). You would expect the Cowboys to stress the defense with those two, along with tight end Jake Ferguson. The key for the Eagles is to win on first and second down, put pressure on Prescott, have sticky coverage, and give Prescott multiple looks. Prescott is, by the way, 11-5 with six straight wins on Thursday nights in his career. There are going to be jump balls thrown to Pickens and the Eagles have to prepare for that. Big test early for a Philadelphia secondary that has some new faces.