Cowboys dominant against Eagles as NFC playoff race heats up

ARLINGTON, Texas — The Dallas Cowboys turned up the heat in the NFC playoffs Sunday night with a 33-13 victory over their fiercest division rivals.

Led by quarterback Dak Prescott, the Cowboys never relinquished their lead and stifled the Philadelphia Eagles offense all night. Both teams improved to 10-3 on the season and are virtually tied with the Niners for first place in the NFC. But if the season ended this week, the Eagles would settle for a wild card spot in the latest playoff rankings as the No. 5 seed, while the Cowboys are now in second place. Here's a full look at each team's performance:

Dallas Cowboys

Is it time to consider the Cowboys among the best in the NFL? Sunday's win puts them at least temporarily in first place in the NFC East with four games remaining. However, if the Cowboys and Eagles both win their remaining four games, Philadelphia would win the division based on a tiebreaker. That story has yet to be written, but on Sunday the Cowboys' defense dominated the Eagles, limiting them to just two field goals while forcing three and outs and making a critical fourth-down stop.

Philadelphia's only touchdown came on a Prescott fumble. Dallas' offense may not have been as finely tuned as it has been over the past month, but Prescott threw two more touchdown passes and the running game managed to wear down the front of the Eagles.

Oh, and rookie kicker Brandon Aubrey continued to do what he's been doing all year: kicking field goals. He completed four more (60, 59, 45 and 50 yards) and tied the team record for most consecutive passes at 30.

The Cowboys have won five in a row and reached double-digit wins for the third straight year. This is their longest streak since they accomplished this feat in six consecutive seasons from 1991 to 1996. These Cowboys have won three Super Bowls during this streak. These Cowboys may have just gotten into this discussion.

QB breakdown: Prescott had two more touchdown passes for the seventh straight game, tying Tony Romo for the longest single-season streak in team history. Don Meredith had a 12-game streak with at least two touchdown passes during the 1965 and '66 seasons. But it wasn't as smooth a night as Prescott normally had, especially with his accuracy. Over the last seven games on Sunday, Prescott had completed at least 65.8% of his passes. Over three quarters, he completed 58.1% of his passes (18 out of 31). This is only the third time this season that Prescott has completed fewer than 62.5 percent of his passes in a game.

Promising trend: Bryan Anger was forced to punt for the first time since Thanksgiving, after a three-play, 18-possession stretch. Before Sunday, his last punt came in the third quarter of the Cowboys' win over the Washington Commanders. The Cowboys scored on their final three possessions in this game and were unable to punt on 11 drives against the Seattle Seahawks (eight scores). The Cowboys scored on their first four possessions against the Eagles before Anger blew away the cobwebs with a 48-yard field goal in the third quarter.

Silver lining: At 33, Stephon Gilmore doesn't show his age. After DK Metcalf lit up the Cowboys last week, Gilmore kept him in check in the second half. Against the Eagles, Gilmore forced an AJ Brown fumble on the Eagles' first possession of the second half. Late in the quarter, he put Brown and DeVonta Smith together on back-to-back third-and-fourth-down plays, which the offense then turned into a Brandon Aubrey field goal to extend the lead to 30-13. -Todd Archer

Next game: at Bills (4:25 p.m. ET, December 17)

Philadelphia Eagles

The Eagles suddenly find themselves on shaky ground after Sunday night's loss to the Cowboys. This is their second lopsided loss in as many weeks, as they were dismantled by the San Francisco 49ers at home, 42-19. They can take solace in knowing that those losses came against top-ranked teams in the NFC, but the defense is losing steam and the offense continues to be plagued by slow starts and untimely turnovers.

Philadelphia fell to 10-3 and is virtually tied with the Niners and Cowboys for first place in the conference. The Eagles need to bounce back in Week 15 to stabilize and keep pace with the No. 1 seed in the playoffs.

QB breakdown: Jalen Hurts was held to 92 yards on 7-of-13 passing before the break as the Eagles dug a halftime hole for the sixth straight game. He lost a fumble on Philadelphia's first possession to end a promising streak. Hurts had his ups and downs throughout the contest and certainly wasn't helped by some uncharacteristic errors from standout receivers DeVonta Smith and AJ Brown.

Crucial game: Trailing 27-13 late in the third quarter, coach Nick Sirianni elected to go for it on fourth-and-8 at the Dallas 30-yard line. The Cowboys blitzed and Hurts had to get rid of the ball quickly. Smith caught it but was short of sticks for a key turnover on downs.

Disturbing trend: The Eagles have now allowed 64 points in the final two minutes before halftime this season, the most in the NFL. It took just 1:28 for the Cowboys to drive 75 yards in eight plays for a Michael Gallup touchdown just before intermission to extend their lead to 24-6. -Tim McManus

Next game: at Seahawks (8:20 p.m. ET, December 18)