Rich: The Cowboys “Saved Their Season” with Their 38-21 MNF Win Over the Eagles

TJ showed up Tuesday in a victory robe, looking, as Rich put it, like he was walking out of the Ravenite Social Club in the afternoon. He'd earned it. The Dallas Cowboys went into Philadelphia on Monday Night Football, beat the Eagles 38-21, and saved their season.

Rich gave credit to Marcus Spears, who had been giving voice to what a lot of people were saying before the game. And Rich went a step further: the Cowboys also saved Brian Schottenheimer's job. A 2-5 start might not have brought the immediate axe, but it would have put something in the mind's eye of the Jones family for later on in January.

That didn't happen, because the offense finally looked the way it's supposed to. Ryan Flournoy caught balls. CeeDee Lamb caught touchdowns. George Pickens hauled in a beautiful catch at the back of the end zone. And Javonte Williams went rumbling for a career-high 155 yards on 25 carries.

The run-pass disparity disappeared. Dallas ran for 204 yards as a team, and Dak Prescott threw only 27 times with three touchdowns. The last time a Cowboy rushed for that many yards in a game was Zeke with 159 in 2016. It was also the most rushing yards allowed by the Eagles under Nick Sirianni with any of his defensive coordinators, including Vic Fangio.

Rich had an unofficial Did You Know for TJ. Williams now has eight rushing touchdowns this season, and only one other player in Dallas history has done that in his first seven games. "You know it. I know it. The American people know it. The Metroplex knows it. The Hall of Fame knows it." It was Emmitt, and he did it four times.

What made the win even more impressive to Rich is that the Eagles defense isn't banged up. Nolan Smith was out, but otherwise Dallas ran all over a fully intact defensive line, with Jalen Carter and Jordan Davis up front and Zack Baun behind them. It didn't look good early when Saquon Barkley ran one in, and there were six lead changes before the Cowboys scored the final 18 points to end it.

Then came the strangest part of the night. Schottenheimer, usually what Rich called an "avuncular" happy warrior, gave basically one-word answers after the biggest win of his season. "We played really good tonight, second half," he said. "Had nothing to do with desperation. Our guys just played good." Asked if he viewed it as a must-win, he said, "No. I thought it was the next championship opportunity." Asked if he was okay: "I'm great. Excited for our guys. Thanks."

His average postgame presser runs about 10 minutes. This one lasted four. Rich compared it to sensing something is off at home in the kitchen. Your spidey sense goes off, and you don't want to move on with the night until you get confirmation that you're cool.

So the media turned to Dak, who Rich said became Luther, Schottenheimer's anger translator. "Definitely hungry, pissed-off version of Shotty," Prescott said. "It's not like he's naive. It's not like he hadn't heard some noise about him." He added, "We've got his back. He knows that."

Prescott was also clear-eyed about the stakes. "The division's right in front of us. It is as long as we win," he said, noting that another loss means "you're probably checking to see what New York's doing."

Rich's read: the Cowboys are circling the wagons, and maybe that's the point. Three and four isn't good enough, and Schottenheimer seems happy to make the media the enemy.

Next up is Arizona at home. If Dallas wins, it's the first winning streak of the season and a return to .500. But the Cardinals have beaten the Cowboys four straight, three of them in Dallas, all this decade. After that comes a trip to Indianapolis, home games against the 49ers, Tennessee and Philadelphia on Thanksgiving, a Monday night trip to Seattle, a late bye, a visit to the Rams and a Week 17 home date with the Giants that might be for the division.

Check the box. They won the game they had to win, and the offense looked very potent when it was balanced.