5 reasons the Eagles are a cut above the Cowboys

In an attempt to not repeat last week's article about why you need to worry about the Cowboys defense (which I could easily do again and it would still be incredibly on point) I'm trying to shake things up a bit and roll with a different angle. It might feel like the Eagles and Cowboys are on a similar plane when it comes to caliber of team, and prior to the Thanksgiving Day game their records were even identical. There's much more that separates these teams than just one really good half of football on Turkey Day.

5. Excuses
After being in both the Cowboys and Eagles locker rooms during the aftermath of that Thanksgiving demolition, I have a new respect for Chip Kelly and his philosophies. I'm not necessarily referring to his offensive witchcraft that is fairly common practice amongst most of Division I college football currently. I'm more referring to his ability to get his team to buy into his college all-for-one mentality. The Cowboys room was full of excuses about the short week, the lack of practice time, and the difficulty of preparing for a team that plays with the Eagles tempo.

The Eagles had zero excuses or care for the short week. They just wanted an opportunity show the country how good of a football team they were, whether it was on Thanksgiving Day in Dallas or at 2am in Antarctica. They wouldn't even acknowledge the difficulty of playing a football game three days prior to their typical weekly schedule. It honestly didn't matter to them. On the other hand, it felt like a theme for the Cowboys. Even today, I heard Jason Witten talking about this stretch of games and how weird the adjustment is to this Sunday night-Thanksgiving Day-Thursday night run the Cowboys are going through.

Neither the Eagles nor the Cowboys are one of the top five teams in the league in terms of on-the-field talent. How do they jump into that group without actual personnel changes? Mentality. The Eagles all-go-all-the-time mentality is evident from their head coach's press conferences to their box scores. It's tangible. You feel it when you're around them. The Cowboys don't have that, and they're also not on Philadelphia's level. Remind me which team is playing with the backup quarterback again?

4. Balance
When the raw numbers are tallied, it'll look like the Eagles defense isn't much better (or possibly worse by some metrics) than the defensive group the Cowboys employ. Nothing could be further from the truth. While the Cowboys seem desperate to keep their defense off the field (and for good reason), the Eagles play with a confidence knowing that their D can cover for the taxing pace that their offense utilizes, particularly when given a lead.

It sounds simple to just not give the Eagles a lead, but it's obviously a really difficult thing to do. Let's examine the changes the Eagles defense undergoes when given at least a seven point lead.

Over half of the Eagles defensive snaps have been played with at least a seven point lead (427 snaps of their total 821). That's an astonishing number. For example, the Cowboys have played 244 of their 740 snaps with a seven point lead or more. Jump to your own conclusions about what you think of the Eagles defense, but they're a completely different defense once they've been spotted a touchdown lead.

The most obvious transformation that occurs is their ability to sack the quarterback. The man that really ramps his game up once he smells blood is Connor Barwin. 10 of his 12.5 sacks have come when the Eagles have been leading by seven or more points. In fact, as a group, the Eagles register sacks on 8% of their plays when ahead by seven or more. On all other plays, they're sacking the quarterback in 2.8% of their defensive snaps.

Sacks lead to a lot of things, but turnovers are typically hand-in-hand with pressuring the quarterback. When the Eagles lead by at least a score, they force a turnover on 4.9% of their plays. On all other plays they get a takeaway on 2.8% of their snaps.

What we're seeing the outlines of is a defensive unit that can be handed a lead and, in turn, crank the pressure up on the opposing offense despite the fact that their counterparts didn't hold the ball very long. The Saints did this for years. They were never going to have a top flight defensive unit so they decided to emphasize turnovers and turnover prone players. When you score as much as the Eagles or Saints do, zapping one entire possession away from the opposition leaves them chasing an unreachable mountain top. The Eagles offense speeds the other teams offense up as well. I assume it's because they're passing to catch up and are trying to score quickly. The Eagles average drive last 2:08 which is shortest in the league. Their opponent's average drive is 2:28 which is third shortest in the league. They also aren't going anywhere, as the Eagles have the sixth shortest average drive against (28.24 yards).

The Eagles have a defensive unit that can cover for the brand of football its offense likes to put forth. The Cowboys don't. Their defense can't cover for anything and has played a lot of its best football while standing on the sidelines. The moment the Eagles take a seven point lead, you can feel yourself being drug out to the deep end and about to be rolled by an alligator.

3. Red Zone Trips
Touchdowns are THE thing, but in most cases, the offense has to reach the red zone first. That being said, field goals count as points as well, and three points is the most common margin of victory in the league. The Eagles make a habit of reaching the other team's 20 yard line despite the fact that they're one of the league's worst in converting those drives into TDs (43.48% 29th). When you're getting there more frequently, it's OK to not be converting every drive into seven points. The Eagles reach the red zone 3.8 times per game as compared to the Cowboys 2.8 a game. Over the last three games, the Eagles are averaging 5.3 red zone trips to the Cowboys 1.7 per game. It's really difficult to score touchdowns when you're only reaching the red zone once per game. It's not impossible, but the ability to sustain a drive is in direct correlation with scoring points, and points win games. You're going to get far more hits with 5.8 plate appearances as compared to 1.7. The Cowboys have to get back to valuing every possession to the point where they expect points every time they touch the ball. The Eagles expect three at the very least from every possession.

2. Special Teams
The Cowboys special teams has been largely inconsequential this season outside of the blocked field goal and a Dwayne Harris fumble. The Eagles average 3.5 points per game from their special teams (the highest in the league by far. Again, 3 is the average margin of victory). The Cowboys average zero. None. It just hasn't happened. 19.7% of the Eagles points have been scored by somebody other than the offense. Just let that sink in. One out of every fifth point is contributed to somebody besides the offensive unit. The Cowboys offense is responsible for 95.4% of their scoring (the Tyler Patmon Pick 6 is the only other points). So, you see where the hidden points are coming from, because the Eagles offense, despite their reputation, hasn't been that exceptional. The special teams has been exceptional.

The Eagles routinely give themselves a shorter field to march down as well. Their average drive starting point is at the 30 yard line (4th best) and the Cowboys is at their own 25 (29th). It doesn't take an astronaut to realize that starting a drive five yards closer to the red zone or end zone as a routine will lead to more points.

In all truthfulness, the Eagles offense hasn't been much better than the Cowboys, and in some football measurements, they're actually far worse. For example, the Eagles average drive length is below the Cowboys and just in the middle of the pack (15th) at 31.65 yards per drive. But, when you're getting one or two more drives per game than your opponent with a shorter distance to go either from a good return or a forced turnover, then it doesn't necessarily mean fewer points. The Eagles do their offense so many favors. Special teams is just one.

1. Third Downs
You might say, "Isn't third down a strength for the Cowboys?". Well it was for about six weeks, but currently it's incredibly average, if not terrible in certain stretches. All those bloated third down statistics from earlier in the year mean nothing when the next game starts and there's a team playing for their playoff lives in front of you. Third downs have soured for the Cowboys and not just on the offensive side of the ball, while the Eagles are hitting a downright scary plateau of efficiency in their last few games.

In their last five games, the Cowboys are converting just 34.5% of their third downs on offense (that would be 28th in the league on the season). On the flipside, their defense is allowing 51.4% of third downs to be converted by opposing offenses (the highest team in the league is averaging 50% conversions on third downs).

When you look at the Eagles, they're converting 46.3% of their third downs on offense over their last five (would be fifth in the league on the season). The Eagles defense is only allowing 40.8% on third downs in their last five, which would be in the middle of the pack, but you have to keep in mind that there is a blowout against the Panthers in there and the Packers throttling, so the numbers get strongly skewed.

The Eagles have been good on third downs and good at sacking the quarterback. Let's look at the middle of that Venn diagram. The Eagles are averaging a sack on 12.4% of their defensive third downs. The league average on third downs is 8.4%.

The Eagles use every cheat code possible on the football field to get points, and those points lead to wins. The Cowboys are scuffling offensively in the last month-plus, and they make it so incredibly hard to generate points if it isn't done on the arm of Tony Romo or the legs of DeMarco Murray. The game is coming easier to the Eagles in all the areas that matter, and that's why the Cowboys aren't on their level right now. They better get close before they see each other again next week.