The bonus benefit of blowing out the Cowboys with a Thursday game looming

The bonus benefit of blowing out the Cowboys with a Thursday game looming originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

The first three quarters were a heck of a lot of fun for the Eagles’ starters. They shook off a shaky start to build a big lead over the Cowboys at AT&T Stadium.

The last quarter was even more fun. Because they got to get off the field, rest their bodies and watch the backups finish the game.

And with a short week coming off, that’s huge.

Nearly all the offensive starters left the game after Jake Elliott’s field goal gave the Eagles a 31-6 lead six seconds into the fourth quarter. The first defense played the next series and then they took their place on the bench next to the offense.

“Yeah, that’s always big,” Sirianni said. “Anytime we can do that, it’s been three times in the past four weeks. We were able to do that against the Giants. We were able to do that against Cincinnati. That adds up.

“I mean, that’s three quarters now and we were able to do that tonight. And so that adds up and that’s huge going into this game. We know we’ve got a tough game coming up.”

The Eagles have been able to rest their starters for most of the fourth quarter in their 28-3 win over the Giants three weeks ago, the 37-17 win over the Bengals two weeks ago and their 34-6 win over the Cowboys Sunday – all on the road.

This week was more important than ever since the Eagles are back in action Thursday night in a battle for first place in the NFC East with the Commanders.

Although the Commanders were home and didn’t have to deal with a three-hour flight, their game against the Steelers went down to the wire and wasn’t decided until Zach Ertz was ruled short of a first down on a 4^th-and-9 with a minute left and the Steelers up 28-27.

The loss dropped the Commanders to 7-3 while the Eagles’ fifth straight win lifted them to 7-2.

So it might not sound like a lot, but getting Saquon Barkley, Jalen Hurts, A.J. Brown, Dallas Goedert and everybody else off the field early was important.

Playing two games in five days is physically brutal. Having to play one entire less quarter of football in that five-day period is a big deal.

“Everybody in the NFL who has played a Thursday Night Football game knows how fast it comes around after this Sunday,” Nakobe Dean said. “The recovery starts now.”

NFL teams assign quality control guys to start breaking down tape of a Thursday night opponent a week early so as soon as the coaches arrive at the NovaCare Complex they can get to work preparing.

And for the coaches who are in Dallas, the preparation process began as soon as their charter reached a comfortable cruising altitude and they were able to open their iPads.

“I’ll watch the tape on the plane, meet with the coaches briefly on the plane and dive through, process it and as soon as we lay foot back in Philadelphia, it’s over,” Hurts said. “We’re moving on. Usually, we put a 24-hour rule on it. I do. But it’s obviously something that will be lessened. So we’ll get going.”

The Eagles are 2-1 on Thursdays under Sirianni, losing to the Bucs 28-22 early in his first year in 2021 then winning at Houston 29-17 midway through 2022 and beating the Vikings 34-28 early last year.

Going back to 2016, they’re 8-1 on Thursdays. All-time they’re 19-7.

Last time the Eagles and Commanders met with both teams playing .700 football was in 1996, when they were both 7-3 going into a Week 12 game at the Vet. Washington won 26-21, Gus Frerotte over Ty Detmer.

“This one we had fun in there for a little bit, but we know that we play on a short week against a really good opponent,” Sirianni said. “And we got to get our minds right and we have to get our bodies right.”

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