At around 10:00 p.m. ET on Monday night, I tweeted the following:
"Miles Sanders has TWO CARRIES for TWENTY SEVEN YARDS... what are we doing."
Around 90 minutes later, when the Cowboys wrapped up their 41-21 win over the Eagles, that stat was still true. Sanders finished the entire game with just two carries for 27 yards, responsible for two-thirds of the team's handoffs on the night. Clearly, that approach didn't work too well, given the lopsided defeat and the lack of a consistent offensive attack throughout the night.
As it turns out, Sanders himself doesn't think that such a pass-heavy approach works too well, commenting as such after the loss.
"Not necessarily for myself — but I do believe to have a successful offense, you have to run the ball," Sanders told Josh Tolentino of The Philadelphia Inquirer, though he acknowledged the game plan quickly spiraled out of control. "It is what it is. I can only control what I can control. The game was pretty much out of hand early. So I can see how the game plan didn't go as planned. There was kind of a panic from the whole team based on how the game went."
Head coach Nick Sirianni and the game script are largely responsible for the lack of a rushing attack, though it's not as though he was dialing up rushing plays in the beginning before turning off that valve once the Cowboys took the lead. The first drive of the game saw Jalen Hurts throw the ball three times — two for first downs, and the third an interception. The next drive saw an incompletion, a short completion, and another incompletion for a three-and-out. The third and final drive of the first quarter saw a completed pass for nine yards, a loss of two yards on a keeper from Hurts and an incompletion for a three-and-out.
Three drives in the first quarter. Zero designed rushing plays to a running back. Meanwhile, Dallas ran the ball to either Ezekiel Elliott or Tony Pollard 12 times in the first quarter alone. And yes, they had the ball for much longer and for many more snaps... but there's a reason for that.
Related
There also seemed to be a fair number of plays where Hurts was presented with an RPO opportunity and decided to keep it for himself, meaning he too may have taken away from Sanders' rushing role in the game, which led to memes like this one.
And finally, sure, it's not ideal being down two scores in the latter half of the third quarter. But in a 27-14 ballgame and just under 20 minutes of game clock left to go, it doesn't feel like you have to panic and turn solely to a passing attack. Run the ball. Tire out the defense. Do what works. And on this specific drive, which started with 4:02 in the third quarter, there was a completed pass negated by a penalty, a four-yard completion, a short incompletion and a deep incompletion, followed by a punt. No rushing in sight.
If Week 4 goes as expected, the Chiefs may also be able to take a lead early. Will the Eagles completely abandon the run this time around after what we saw in Week 3? Only time will tell.
LISTEN on the Audacy App
Sign Up and Follow Audacy Sports
Facebook | Twitter | Instagram