Javonte Williams carried 25 times for 155 yards Monday night, a workload that made Dallas’ earlier neglect of the running game difficult to ignore. The Cowboys had entered Philadelphia averaging 20.9 rushing attempts and 76 yards per game. Williams exceeded that previous team yardage average by himself, then kept receiving the ball when the game required more than an attractive halftime split.
Dallas beat the Eagles 38-21 with 38 rushing attempts for 204 yards, a 5.4-yard average. Prescott added 212 passing yards and three touchdown passes without taking a sack or throwing an interception. The result was not balance for balance’s sake. Williams supplied production that made the offense less dependent on Prescott solving every meaningful situation through the air.
The first hint came on Dallas’ second possession, which ended in its first touchdown. Tyler Goodson opened that possession with gains of 11 and 2 yards. After Ryan Flournoy’s 35-yard catch, Williams contributed runs of 5 and 12 yards.
The second of those moved the ball from the Philadelphia 29 to the 17 on second-and-5. CeeDee Lamb caught the 9-yard touchdown pass three plays later, but the drive had already included enough rushing efficiency to keep Dallas moving toward the goal line.
Williams was useful again on the 14-play possession that produced George Pickens’ touchdown. He began that possession with a 7-yard gain, taking Dallas from its own 19 to the 26. Later, on second-and-5 from the Dallas 36, he ran 11 yards to the Dallas 47.
When Dallas faced fourth-and-1 at the Philadelphia 44, Williams gained 4 yards and kept the drive alive. Those plays did not merely add to his average. They improved the situation for the next snap and reduced the number of difficult downs Prescott had to rescue.
Philadelphia’s best response arrived after halftime. The Eagles used 17 plays and 9:16 to travel 84 yards, ending the possession with Makai Lemon’s 4-yard touchdown catch and a 21-20 lead. It was the kind of long drive that can make a team abandon anything that is not immediately explosive, particularly against a defense that had just taken control of the scoreboard.
Dallas instead answered by moving 61 yards in nine snaps for a touchdown. Williams carried four times for 21 yards, gaining 1, 4, 7 and 9 yards. Flournoy caught a 16-yard pass, and Lamb finished the drive with a 16-yard touchdown.
Prescott then ran successfully for two points, pushing the Cowboys in front 28-21. The possession did not prove that running alone had solved anything; it showed how the rushing gains and Prescott’s accurate finishing throw could coexist without turning the offense into a weekly quarterback endurance test.
The opponent deserves a fair mention. Philadelphia allowed 25 first downs and 416 yards, averaging 6.4 per play, and the loss became the Eagles’ fifth in a row. Dallas also scored touchdowns on only three of five red-zone trips.
