Historic winless stretch forces Eagles and Cowboys into Monday night survival match

Dallas Cowboys and Philadelphia Eagles fans face a difficult choice on Monday night. The two teams meet in Philadelphia with identical 2-4 records. Each squad seeks a victory to re-enter the NFC East race. The division remains competitive despite recent poor results.

The New York Giants lead the NFC East with a 3-2-1 record. The Cowboys and Eagles trail the Giants by a small margin. For the past two weeks, every team in the division played twice. None of those four games produced a winner. This marks the first time since the 1970 AFL-NFL merger that a division went winless for six consecutive weeks.

Philadelphia enters the game on a four-game losing streak. This is the first losing streak of that length for the Eagles since 2020. The team has scored only 58 points during those four losses. Quarterback Jalen Hurts is on injured reserve and is expected to miss the rest of the season due to blood clots. Backup quarterback Tanner McKee will start for the first time in a meaningful game.

McKee had just two days of practice with the first team before last week's loss to Carolina. He now has a full week to prepare with first-year offensive coordinator Sean Mannion. McKee stated that he feels he has a good preparation process. He plans to meet with the coaching staff more often rather than preparing alone. The Eagles' running game also faces injury issues. Saquon Barkley is out with a hamstring injury, and backups Will Shipley and Tank Bigsby are also hurt. Carson Steele suffered a shoulder injury last week. Dameon Pierce was the only running back to carry the ball, gaining 35 yards.

The Cowboys have their own struggles. They rank 30th in the league in defense under first-year coordinator Christian Parker. The offense scored only 29 points combined in its last two losses. That includes a 23-13 defeat to Green Bay last week. The team has scored fewer than 20 points in consecutive starts for quarterback Dak Prescott for the first time since 2019.

Owner Jerry Jones spoke at the NFL's annual fall meeting on Wednesday. He said he does not expect to make more coaching changes this season. Jones described the recent hiring of defensive assistant Mike Pettine as strategic and unique. Several individual milestones are at stake for the players.

Javonte Williams has seven rushing touchdowns through the first six games. He is the second Cowboys player to reach that mark in a season, behind Emmitt Smith in 1994 and 1995. CeeDee Lamb has 48 receptions, which is third in the NFL and the most in franchise history through six games. He is close to reaching 8,000 career receiving yards. Eagles tight end Dallas Goedert needs one catch to move into third place on the franchise's career receptions list.

The Cowboys are favored by 4 points. Dallas is 3-3 against the spread, while Philadelphia is 1-5. The Cowboys lead the all-time series 72-58. They won the last meeting 24-21 on Nov. 23, 2025. Kickoff is set for 7:15 p.m. CST on ESPN. The Eagles play at Washington on Nov. 1, then host the Giants to finish their divisional schedule.