National Football League

Can Eagles or Cowboys still make a Super Bowl run? Here's what they need to show

Published Dec. 28, 2023 1:16 p.m. ET

Early this season, the Philadelphia Eagles looked like the best team in the NFL. For a brief period, the Dallas Cowboys had a plausible claim as well. At the very least, the NFC East foes once looked like they might be on a collision course for the conference championship game.

That feels like a long time ago.

Right now, there are serious questions about a Cowboys team that continues to struggle on the road and an Eagles team that ended a three-game losing streak with a win over the Giants on Monday, but looked pretty bad doing it. They can both still win the NFC East. They both even have a shot at the No. 1 seed in the NFC.

But it's hard to believe in either team right now.

Maybe their pictures will be better — or at least clearer — after this weekend, when the Cowboys (10-5, including 7-0 at home) host the Detroit Lions (11-5) on Saturday night and the Eagles (11-4) welcome back former defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon and his Arizona Cardinals (3-12) on Sunday. But it might be too late for either of these teams to answer all their questions before the postseason begins in a couple of weeks.

A lot of questions need to be answered about both of them:

1. Can either of these teams still make a Super Bowl run?

Yes, of course. And that's a lot easier to believe after the San Francisco 49ers (11-4) came crashing back to Earth with a 33-19 loss to the Baltimore Ravens on Christmas night. It's also much easier to believe the Eagles can make a run, even though they've been struggling for a month. At least they have some experience after reaching — and nearly winning — the most recent Super Bowl.

They're also able to win on the road — unlike the Cowboys.

That's a vexing problem for Dallas. They're 3-5 away from home, but they've also lost to every good team they've played on the road: San Francisco, Miami, Buffalo and Philadelphia. And they will surely have to win in either San Francisco, Philadelphia or both to reach the Super Bowl. They don't run well on the road. Their defense struggles. They make silly mistakes and commit lots of penalties.

Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy has promised "Road warriors we will be", but unless that Yoda-like sentence includes some Yoda-like powers, the world will only believe it if it ever actually sees it.

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2. Which quarterback would you trust more in the playoffs?

Ignoring the road problems for a moment, I'd trust Dak Prescott more than Jalen Hurts at the moment. Prescott has been one of the NFL's best quarterbacks all season long. And I think Jerry Jones was right when he said in his weekly radio spot on Monday that "Dak's the best he's been in his career."

"I think if you're going into this part of the season in the NFL and your quarterback is playing this well," Jones added, "you've got an outstanding chance to come home happy."

Most notably, Prescott has the NFL's best touchdown-to-interception ratio at 30:7. Hurts, meanwhile, has thrown a career-worst 13 interceptions and has lost five fumbles. That's an astounding 18 turnovers, which proves something is not right with the Eagles quarterback. He's also thrown three interceptions in the last two games, so it's not like the problem is going away.

3. What is the Eagles' biggest issue?

I'm tempted to go with Hurts, but it's the defense. They have become surprisingly weak on all three levels and often look like a very poor tackling team. That makes them very vulnerable, as the Chiefs, Bills, 49ers and Cowboys proved in a four-game stretch from Nov. 20 to Dec. 20 when the Eagles gave up an average of 156.3 yards per game on the ground.

But it's more than that. They are wildly inconsistent when it comes to rushing the passer, which is very unexpected for a team that returned almost everyone from a group that had 70 sacks last season. They have only 40 so far this season and somehow managed just one on Monday against a New York Giants team that has given up 77 this season — the second-worst total in the history of the NFL.

Add an injury-plagued secondary led by declining corner James Bradberry and you get the NFL's sixth-worst passing defense. They are likely to get lit up in the playoffs.

4. What is the Cowboys' biggest issue?

Their road woes are a big worry, but besides that, it's that their juggernaut offense is sometimes oddly one-dimensional. Or, to put it another way: They can't run very well.

Tony Pollard, who was supposed to be their lead back this season, is averaging 59 yards per game and they don't seem to trust him at all in short-yardage or goal-line situations. After seeing him fail to convert what seemed like an easy touchdown last week, it's easy to understand why. Pollard is averaging -.2 yards over expected per run, according to Next Gen Stats, and only averaging 4 yards per carry despite running into a loaded box (8 or men defenders) on only 11.9% of carries — the sixth-lowest percentage in the league. Essentially: He isn't creating yardage and defenses don't remotely fear him.

Likely as a result, they only run about 42 percent of the time and they tend to throw even in obvious rushing situations.

They have a defense capable of championship-level play. They have an MVP-caliber quarterback with good weapons around him. A strong running game — often a necessity in the postseason, especially on the road — might be all that's standing between the Cowboys and a deep postseason run.

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5. Other than the QBs, who's the player each team needs elite play from?

For Dallas, I will go with Parsons. He is one of the two or three most talented defensive players in the NFL, but one thing stands between him and true greatness: He needs to consistently dominate.

That's what the best defenders have always done, even if they're getting held — which he's been complaining about lately — and even if offenses triple-team him or avoid him altogether. He needs to find a way to affect the opposing quarterback and offense constantly. He needs to be a one-man wrecking ball. He can do it, but it's a bit alarming that he has just 1 ½ sacks in the last four games.

For the Eagles, it's A.J. Brown. He was a dominant receiver early in the season with a record six straight games of at least 125 receiving yards. But he has only broken 100 yards once since that streak ended on Oct. 29. He is clearly unhappy at the moment and bit out of sync with his best friend/quarterback, too.

In the last four games, Brown has only caught 59.6 percent of the passes thrown his way (28 of 47) and he hasn't reached the end zone. When he's on, he's uncoverable, a master at making big plays, and that opens up everything for the rest of the Eagles' offense. Philly needs the early-season version of Brown to resurface again.

6. Does either team have a championship-caliber defense?

The Eagles certainly don't. The plummet to 20th in the league in total defense after ranking second a year ago has been stunning. The dropoff in the pass rush and in the overall play from Bradberry and Josh Sweat (6.5 sacks, after having 11 last year) has been equally perplexing. It's all part of why defensive coordinator Sean Desai was stripped of his play-calling duties in favor of Matt Patricia, and will likely be fired after the season ends.

The Cowboys, though, certainly do. They are probably not "the best defense in the National Football League," as Micah Parson declared after they humiliated the New York Giants in Week 1. But they're still dangerous, especially against the pass. They have one of the NFL's best secondaries and two legitimate Defensive Player of the Year candidates in Parsons (13 sacks) and cornerback DaRon Bland (an NFL-record five pick sixes).

They'd be easier to believe in if they were better against the run, though. The Bills torched them for 266 yards on the ground two weeks ago. The 49ers did it for 170 earlier in the season. They give up an average of 115.7 rushing yards per game, ranking 19th in the NFL. They desperately need defensive tackle Johnathan Hankins (knee/ankle) to return to the lineup, which he might do this week.

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7. OK, but the Eagles will still win the division, right?

Yeah. They got lucky with a very soft landing, finishing the season at home against the Cardinals and then at the New York Giants (5-10). If they lose either of those games, sound the alarms. Assuming they don't, that'll be enough for them to win the NFC East and they'd even get the No. 1 seed if the 49ers (at Washington, vs. L.A. Rams) and Lions (at Dallas, vs. Minnesota) manage to each lose once, too.

In that case, the Eagles would get a home playoff game and maybe one or two more, depending on how much help they get. And the Cowboys, as the probable No. 5 seed, would go on the road for the playoffs. On the bright side, their first stop would be at the home of the default winner of the NFC South (probably Tampa Bay). Their road gets much more difficult after that.

Ralph Vacchiano is the NFC East reporter for FOX Sports, covering the Washington Commanders, Philadelphia Eagles and New York Giants. He spent the previous six years covering the Giants and Jets for SNY TV in New York, and before that, 16 years covering the Giants and the NFL for the New York Daily News. Follow him Twitter at @RalphVacchiano.