Morning Coffee: Can Cowboys slow Eagles attack in NFL season opener?

Jerry Jones demanded the spotlight this summer.

Tonight, football fans and analysts around the world will be watching and waiting for the opportunity to attack the unwavering confidence he’s demonstrated throughout the offseason in his masterplan for the Dallas Cowboys.

I’m not sure even Jerry believes Dallas will win tonight.

Regardless, this is the man who turned the Cowboys into a cultural phenomenon, and after 36 seasons as owner, president, and general manager of “America’s Team”, it seems nothing can shake his eternal optimism.

Not even 70,000 screaming fans as the rival Philadelphia Eagles raise another Super Bowl banner ahead of tonight’s NFL Kickoff game at Lincoln Financial Field.

The defending champions opened as a 6.5-point favourite at FanDuel and the spread for tonight’s NFC East clash has since shifted an additional two points to Eagles -8.5.

Per the FanDuel traders, 70 per cent of the stakes are on Philadelphia to cover as the favourite.

Last season, the Eagles were a favourite of seven points or more on five different occasions. Philadelphia went 2-3 against the spread in those games. 2-0 against the Cowboys. 0-3 against the other three opponents.

Tonight, Jerry will head to Lincoln Financial Field - defiant as ever despite just five playoff wins over 29 years – to sit through the banner ceremony of his biggest rival before getting a chance to show us all how his roster stacks up against the defending Super Bowl champions.

While he’s exuded confidence throughout the offseason, there’s nothing he can do now but watch and wait like the rest of us. Nobody does theatre like the NFL, and no owner has embraced the drama better than the 82-year-old Jones.

It’s the start of a new era for Dallas post-Micah Parsons, led by first-year head coach Brian Schottenheimer and the return of franchise quarterback Dak Prescott.

You can count me among the doubters who don’t believe the new era will be any better than anything Cowboys fans have had to deal with over the last three decades.

I can’t wait to watch what happens tonight.

The long wait is almost over.

The NFL regular season is finally here.

Let’s get the final countdown to NFL Kickoff 2025 started with a FanDuel Best Bet in this Morning Coffee for Thursday September 4th, 2025.

Can Cowboys Slow Eagles Attack In NFL Season Opener?

“Contribution over credit” That’s the message Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni has been preaching to his players since their Super Bowl win.

The hardcore football bettors and fantasy football league managers become obsessed with trying to figure out how teams are going to win or lose games.

As for the defending Super Bowl champs, there’s a lot of different ways that they can win games.

Superstar running back Saquon Barkley was the key piece that put Philadelphia’s offence over the top last year as the AP NFL Offensive Player of the Year after he became just the ninth player in NFL history to rush for over 2000 yards in a single season.

Barkley registered nearly 2,300 scrimmage yards and scored 19 touchdowns in 20 games – regular season and playoffs combined.

Barkley’s presence in the backfield also made it more difficult for opposing defences to account for the mobility of quarterback Jalen Hurts, who fell just shy of matching his own NFL single-season record with 14 rushing scores.

While the “Tush Push” will live on after a vote to ban it fell just short this offseason, that wasn’t the only method that led to Hurts eclipsing 600 rushing yards for a fourth straight season.

Hurts also threw for 2,903 yards and 18 touchdowns, spreading the targets across one of the league’s most talented groups of pass catchers in A.J. Brown, DeVonta Smith, and tight end Dallas Goedert.

The Eagles offence can beat opponents in a few different ways, and we saw that last season when they averaged 37.5 points per game in a pair of wins over the rival Cowboys.

In fact, it was Kenny Pickett and Tanner McKee who combined for 197 passing yards and three touchdowns in a 41-7 win over Dallas in Week 17 last season.

With the Philadelphia offence at full strength to start the season, it will be interesting to see how the touches are distributed in tonight’s opener.

While Jones has constantly referred to improving one of the worst run defences in the NFL this offseason, I’m not convinced new defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus has the pieces in place to slow the Eagles ground attack.

If Eberflus commits extra resources to stop the run, it will open even more space for Hurts to pick apart the holes in the Dallas secondary with Brown, Smith and Goedert.

Without the threat of Parsons chasing him in the pocket, Hurts would be even more comfortable spreading the ball around and allowing the Eagles to dictate the pace of the game and control the clock.

Perhaps fortunately for Dallas, the possibility of rain and storms in the Philadelphia area could limit the threat of Hurts picking them apart in the passing game.

I’ve already bet Barkley over 92.5 rushing yards.

I can already envision the cutaways to Jerry reacting on the broadcast as the Cowboys improved run defence is gashed repeatedly by Barkley on opening night.

As for a FanDuel Best Bet, I’ll lock in a YourWay Parlay with Hurts to rush for 33 or more yards and the Eagles to win at -130.

Hurts hit that floor in 14 of Philadelphia’s 19 games – regular season and playoffs - including 56 rushing yards on seven carries in his lone start against Dallas.

The combination of the Cowboys trying to slow Barkley, Hurts’ dual-threat potential, the “Tush Push”, and the terrible conditions expected at Lincoln Financial Field tonight all lead me to going with Hurts for the best bet.

Hopefully, the 2025 NFL regular season kicks off right where it left off in last year’s Super Bowl with another strong rushing performance by Hurts in a Philly win.

The Eagles offence can steal the show during the game, then hand the spotlight off to Jerry for the post-game.