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Stop the run, beat the Philadelphia Eagles
Jean-Jacques Taylor, ESPN Staff Writer
IRVING, Texas -- During Chip Kelly's tenure as the Philadelphia Eagles' coach, the formula to determine whether the Dallas Cowboys win or lose against Philly is pretty simple.
Hold the edges and stop the run, and the Cowboys win. Get whipped on the outside and let the Eagles run wild and Philadelphia rolls.
The Cowboys are 3-2 against Kelly’s Eagles. In the Cowboys wins, the Eagles average 58.6 yards rushing and 13.3 points per game.
In September, the Cowboys held Philadelphia to seven yards on 17 carries. DeMarco Murray? He had 13 carries for two yards.
But in the Eagles’ two wins under Kelly, they have averaged 196.5 yards rushing and 28.5 points per game. Former Eagles running back LeSean McCoy had games of 25 carries for 159 yards and 27 carries for 131 yards in the two wins.
“We have to hold the edge,” Jeremy Mincey said. “We do that, and we win the game. But you could say that almost any week. It’s always about holding the edge and stopping the run.”
But it tends to be harder to do against the Eagles because of their fast-paced, up-tempo offense. When defenses get fatigued, mentally and physically, they don’t align properly. Against the Eagles, that can lead to big plays when they attack the perimeter and their runners elude the first wave of defense.
McCoy created more problems in this offense than Murray because of his ability to make the first defender miss. Murray rarely does that. He’s a physical, one-cut runner, which means he probes the line for a hole and makes a decisive cut and accelerates through it as soon as he sees it.
“We know where DeMarco is going to be,” Mincey said. “He’s going downhill and he’s going to bring it. We just have to play disciplined and have a lot of guys around the ball."
Jean-Jacques Taylor, ESPN Staff Writer
IRVING, Texas -- During Chip Kelly's tenure as the Philadelphia Eagles' coach, the formula to determine whether the Dallas Cowboys win or lose against Philly is pretty simple.
Hold the edges and stop the run, and the Cowboys win. Get whipped on the outside and let the Eagles run wild and Philadelphia rolls.
The Cowboys are 3-2 against Kelly’s Eagles. In the Cowboys wins, the Eagles average 58.6 yards rushing and 13.3 points per game.
In September, the Cowboys held Philadelphia to seven yards on 17 carries. DeMarco Murray? He had 13 carries for two yards.
But in the Eagles’ two wins under Kelly, they have averaged 196.5 yards rushing and 28.5 points per game. Former Eagles running back LeSean McCoy had games of 25 carries for 159 yards and 27 carries for 131 yards in the two wins.
“We have to hold the edge,” Jeremy Mincey said. “We do that, and we win the game. But you could say that almost any week. It’s always about holding the edge and stopping the run.”
But it tends to be harder to do against the Eagles because of their fast-paced, up-tempo offense. When defenses get fatigued, mentally and physically, they don’t align properly. Against the Eagles, that can lead to big plays when they attack the perimeter and their runners elude the first wave of defense.
McCoy created more problems in this offense than Murray because of his ability to make the first defender miss. Murray rarely does that. He’s a physical, one-cut runner, which means he probes the line for a hole and makes a decisive cut and accelerates through it as soon as he sees it.
“We know where DeMarco is going to be,” Mincey said. “He’s going downhill and he’s going to bring it. We just have to play disciplined and have a lot of guys around the ball."