Cowboys vs. Eagles bold predictions for Week 7 Monday Night Football

October 24, 2026 · Yahoo Sports

Cowboys vs. Eagles bold predictions for Week 7 Monday Night Football appeared first on ClutchPoints. Add ClutchPoints as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

Sitting at 2-4, the Philadelphia Eagles and Dallas Cowboys are technically tied for second place in the NFC East, but it sure doesn’t feel like it.

Visit esporist.com for more information.

In one corner are the challengers, the Cowboys, who are in the middle of a very Dallas season through Week 6. Their passing game is good, as it often is under Brian Schottenheimer, but their run game is one of the worst in the NFL, recording just 456 yards through six games. On the opposite side of the ball, Christian Parker’s defense is also off to a brutal start, ranking 23rd against the pass, 32nd against the run, 30th overall in yards, and 25th in points allowed.

Things have gotten so bad that Parker was effectively undermined by Jerry Jones and company, with former Cleveland Browns head coach Mike Pettine hired as a senior defensive assistant in the hopes of getting things back on track.

Watch sports LIVE with fuboTV (free trial)

And as for the Eagles? Well, it’s hard not to know about the drama surrounding Philadelphia at this point, with Jalen Hurts’ blood clots among the biggest stories in the NFL so far in October. With injuries piling up, Lane Johnson retired, and Cam Jurgens traded to the Baltimore Ravens, some thought the Eagles might be able to rally around Tanner McKee in Week 6 against the Carolina Panthers, but Sean Mannion’s offense remained as frustrating as ever, and Philly fell to 2-4 without too much fight.

Now scheduled for their first of two matchups in 2026, a Monday Night Football showdown that likely looked much more appealing on paper when the schedule was initially announced, hopefully the NFC East will at least see a winner for the first time in three weeks, but who will it be? Will the Cowboys finally live up to fan expectations and get a victory, proving they were right to make a number of big trades for star players? Or will the Eagles figure something out now that it’s clear Hurts isn’t coming back to save the season?

Bill Streicher-Imagn Images

The Eagles’ run game finally gets going regardless of who plays

If there’s one thing Nick Sirianni teams have always been good at over his tenure, it’s running the ball.

In 2021, the Eagles had the NFL’s top rushing offense, and while Sirianni’s squad never reached that mark again, they were top-8 in every year until 2025, when they fell to “only” 18th thanks to a 1,140-yard campaign by Saquon Barkley.

In 2026, the Eagles’ rushing offense is almost as bad as the Cowboys’, but that’s almost by design, ranking 29th in rushing yards largely because they’ve attempted the 28th most rushes of any team in the NFL. For whatever reason, maybe a lack of quarterback runs over the past three weeks, the Eagles have suffered through drives, quarters, and even games where they largely abandon the run, attempting just 18 runs against the Jaguars in Week 5 and 13 in Week 6 against the Panthers.

Now granted, the Eagles spent plenty of time playing from behind against the Jaguars and the Panthers and were largely tasked with rolling with backups in both games, with Dameon Pierce the lone running back still on the 53-man roster who played in Week 5, but with McKee locked in Philly’s quarterback long-term, establishing the run is paramount to forging an identity down the stretch.

Fortunately, the Eagles have the perfect foe to get back on track in the Cowboys, who are as bad at running the ball as they are at defending it.

If Barkley can play in Week 6, the Eagles will likely pound the rock with at least a 50-50 run-to-pass ratio in order to make McKee’s life easier, but even if he can’t, Pierce should flirt with 20 rushes against a team allowing 4.7 yards per carry. If that happens, Parker will be forced to stack his box more and free up downfield shots for players like Makai Lemon, Darius Cooper, and Hollywood Brown.

Kevin Jairaj-Imagn Images.

The Cowboys will live or die by the pass

Because, again, the Cowboys’ rushing attack is as bad as their run defense – and the Eagles have been about average at defending the run in 2026 – if Dallas wants to beat the Birds in Week 7, they will have to do it through the air using their run game.

Through Week 6, only one team has attempted more passing attempts than the Cowboys, the Los Angeles Rams, with their 1,603 passing yards ranking sixth, and their 15 passing touchdowns sit at 15th. Because the Cowboys aren’t even really trying to establish things on the ground consistently, ranking dead last with 122 attempts on the year, Dallas has had to live or die by the passing game even when they aren’t playing from behind while fielding a comeback bid.

In Week 7, if the Cowboys wanted to, they could try to get things going on the ground. While the Eagles rank 19th in rushing yards allowed this season, that’s coming on the fifth-fewest rushing attempts against in the NFL, with all six of their opponents thus far recording at least 100 yards on the ground. The Eagles are allowing 4.0 rushing yards per attempt, .3 more than the Cowboys are averaging on the year, and if they can just hold those averages, Javonte Williams should be able to make Dak Prescott’s life easier.

Unfortunately for fans in Dallas, while a consistent offensive game plan could bend Vic Fangio’s defense to the point of breaking, when has Schottenheimer shown that conviction? If the Eagles force a few three-and-outs early, when their defense has been their best, the Cowboys might return to their usual ways of trying to beat the Birds with Prescott’s arm against a secondary that is very good when everything is firing on all cylinders.

Kevin Jairaj-Imagn Images

The Cowboys “win” on Monday Night Football, if that matters

At full strength, the Eagles are a better team than the Cowboys.

Yes, Sean Mannion’s offense is far from what fans expected, and they’ve lost a number of key pieces to trade and retirement, but in Weeks 1 and 2, Hurts showed that he’s a good enough player to lead even a flawed offense to victory. If Fangio’s defense didn’t have to play a little over five more minutes per game than the offense, they’d presumably be able to be fresher at the end of games, and that, when coupled with an even average points-per-game average, would be enough to win a woefully disappointing NFC East.

Unfortunately, the Eagles are not healthy, and McKee will be under center in Week 7 and beyond, barring another injury, a benching, or a trade for another arm. DeVonta Smith is already out for Monday Night Football, as are Nolan Smith, Dontayvion Wicks, and Michael Carter II, and as the season continues on, it’s safe to assume even more injuries will stack up in a seemingly doomed campaign.

As a result, the Eagles find themselves at a talent disadvantage, have morale that is shaky at best, and hold no real desire to go all-out to secure the win on Monday Night Football. The Cowboys, by contrast, clearly don’t want to be 2-4 and have made win-now trades for players like Joey Porter Jr. to try to fix that ASAP. As a result, if they don’t win this game, it will be a massive blemish on their record, which gives Jerry Jones incentive to put the pressure on Schottenheimer to win at all costs.

Read full story at source