The Philadelphia Eagles suffered a shocking loss to the Dallas Cowboys on Sunday. When I say suffered, I mean that literally. It was a painful defeat, watching a 21-0 lead dissolve in the space of 30 minutes and 21 seconds of game time. It left fans, players and coaches asking, How did that happen? The answer is, as always, complex and nuanced, but one undeniable factor comes back to an increasingly concerning rushing attack.
The Eagles averaged 3.5 yards per carry on the day. Saquon Barkley ran the ball just 10 times for 22 yards. While he still made his mark with seven catches for 52 yards, the Dallas defense found a way to neutralize Philadelphia's most dangerous weapon. After going up 21-0 in the second quarter, Philly punted on their next four drives, three of those were three-and-outs. The Cowboys stuffed Barkley for two yards or less on five of his six carries in that stretch.
It's helpful to hand off the ball when you're protecting a lead. Philadelphia couldn't do that. When they tried to run, they ran into a wall and inevitably had to punt. Turning one-dimensional, they made it even easier for the Cowboys defense to get stops by shooting themselves in the foot with penalties.
The Eagles rushing attack is a shell of its former self
Dallas' run defense has improved considerably since acquiring Quinnen Williams at the trade deadline. So credit to them for shutting down the Eagles rushing attack. At the same time, this 3.5-ypc performance wasn't an outlier for Philadelphia. In fact, they've been above 4.0 yards per carry just three times this season. Their season average of 3.9 ypc is positively bolstered by an actual outlier performance: 8.4 ypc against the Giants in Week 8.
Last season, the Eagles averaged 4.9 ypc in the regular season. They were even better in the postseason, posting 5.5 ypc across the playoffs. That dependable rushing attack was a major part of their success.
Right now, they can't lean on the run game anywhere close to the way they did in 2024.
Today was the Eagles' worst rushing success rate in a regular-season game under Nick Sirianni.
— Sheil Kapadia (@SheilKapadia) November 24, 2025
They ran 18 times for 63 yards and did not have a single run of 10+ yards.
They have not been a good running team all season -- all the way down to 22th in success rate.
It's not fair to blame Barkley for that, either. His second-half fumble was certainly costly, there's no getting around that. Still, run lanes simply aren't there for him right now. Last year, Barkley led all NFL running backs with an average of 3.8 yards before contact. This year, that number has plummeted to 2.3. The running back didn't just forget how to hit the hole. Something else is off.
Why are the Eagles struggling to run the ball?
If you ask Landon Dickerson, via Jeff McLane of the Philadelphia Enquirer, the problem is preparation and execution. He told reporters the Cowboys surprised the Eagles by favoring five-down fronts, a look they don't normally run. Philadelphia wasn't prepared to counter that scheme. He not-so-subtly turned a spotlight on offensive coordinator Kevin Patullo.
"Obviously, you can't run every play to every defense during the week, so I think we really just have to hone in on having a game plan for every defense that a team has run, and every possible defense that they could run, and make sure that we can execute against all of them," Dickerson said.
I'll go ahead and read between the lines there: Patullo got outsmarted by Cowboys DC Matt Eberflus. Nor could he figure out the right adjustments to get his run game going after the initial surprise.
Philadelphia lost Kellen Moore, Mekhi Becton...and discipline
Of course, Patullo isn't the only culprit, even if he is the main difference offensively between last year and this year. He replaced offensive coordinator Kellen Moore when he got the Saints head coaching job. But Howie Roseman also failed to re-sign right guard Mekhi Becton. His absence has been noticed. Injuries on the line also account for some disruption to the run game. Dickerson and center Cam Jurgens have missed time this year.
Moore might have been capable of scheming around these issues. Patullo hasn't shown he's capable of that. Not yet, at least. There are seven games left to get this figured out before it has the chance to impact the Eagles in the playoffs.
While every issue isn't a simple solve, there is one area Philadelphia can rapidly improve with a bit more discipline: Penalties. They were flagged 14 times for 96 yards against the Cowboys, bringing their season total to 84 for 721 yards in 11 games. In all 17 games last season, they had 100 penalties for 793 yards.