The regular-season finale was about milestones for the Cowboys(12-5) and Eagles(9-8). Both the Cowboys(NFC East champs) and Eagles(wild card) had already clinched playoff spots.
The Eagles would play many of its backups, while the Cowboys played many of their starters. The result did not mean much to both teams, but with a win, the Cowboys(12-5) could still move up in the standings.
Dak Prescott was 21/27 for 295 yards and threw a career-high five touchdowns passes as the Cowboys routed the Eagles 51-26 at Lincoln Financial Field Saturday night.
Dallas went 6-0 in the NFC East this season.
Prescott, who threw 37 touchdown passes in 2021, also set the Cowboys’ record for touchdown passes in a season. In addition, Dallas broke their team record for points in a season(530).
Dallas, who is currently the fourth seed in the NFC, could go as high as number two in the conference, but they would need the Cardinals, Rams, and Buccaneers to lose for that to happen. More than likely, Dallas will probably be the fourth-seeded team in the NFC.
Philadelphia rested their starting QB Jalen Hurts, and Gardner Minshew made his second start of the season. However, for Philly, it was about milestones. Rookie WR DeVonta Smith caught three passes for 41 yards against the Cowboys and finished the season with 916 receiving yards, the most receiving yards for a rookie in team history. The previous record was held by DeSean Jackson, who produced 912 receiving yards during the 2008 campaign.
Also, Jason Kelce made history as he started his 122nd consecutive regular-season game, which marks the longest active streak among NFL centers.
Furthermore, with 149 rushing yards, Philadelphia finished the season with a franchise record 2,714 rushing yards, breaking the previous all-time mark of 2,607 set in 1949.
Philadelphia had 11 players on the Reserve/COVID-19 list, including Fletcher Cox, Dallas Goedert, Jordan Howard, Boston Scott, and Rodney McLeod.
After the game, Sirianni explained his decision to rest many of his starters:
“Some of those decisions, with the COVID stuff, were kind of made for me on that,” Sirianni said. “As far as with [QB] Jalen [Hurts], we thought a lot about that. He has done a really good job these last three games playing within the pocket, and we have done a little bit less with running with him and everything like that. We just thought this was an opportunity to get him back to 100%. I know we have talked a lot about how we have to be our full arsenal of offense and not have any limitations to do what we want to do in the playoffs. So, that’s what went into that.”
This game is in the books, and now it’s time to focus on the playoffs!
