Cowboys vs Eagles always means something, and this year it means two 2-3 teams trying to stop the bleeding in front of a national audience. The first 2026 meeting is Week 7 Monday Night Football at Lincoln Financial Field on October 26, kickoff 8:15 p.m. ET (12:15 a.m. Tuesday in the UK). Both NFC East sides have looked capable of beating anyone and losing to anyone, and a division title in this conference is rarely decided by more than a game. They play twice in five weeks, too. The rematch is Thanksgiving in Arlington.
Lincoln Financial Field, Philadelphia. Photo: JJonahJackalope, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Sixty-six years of bad blood
It started on September 30, 1960, when Philadelphia beat an expansion Dallas team 27-25. The Eagles won the NFL title that same season, and the roles were cast early: Philly as the gritty, working-class club, Dallas as the glamour franchise that would go on to call itself America's Team. Dallas leads the all-time series 75-59, including 3-1 in the postseason, and has five Super Bowl titles to Philadelphia's two (LII and LIX).
A lot of this rivalry has turned on one afternoon at a time. The Eagles' 20-7 win in the NFC Championship Game in January 1981 sent them to their first Super Bowl, and Eagles fans still bring up Wilbert Montgomery's 42-yard touchdown run in the cold. Eight years later came the "Bounty Bowl" games of 1989. The first, on Thanksgiving in Irving, went 27-0 to Philadelphia; Jimmy Johnson accused Buddy Ryan of putting a price on his players, and the rematch in Philadelphia ended with fans pelting the field with snowballs. Of course it did.
The modern highlights cut both ways. Philadelphia hammered Dallas 44-6 in December 2008 in a winner-take-all Week 17 game for a playoff spot, and the Cowboys answered with a 34-14 Wild Card win in Arlington in January 2010. The Christmas Eve game in 2022 was a shootout that Dallas won 40-34.
Then there's last year, which tells you plenty about where things sit now. The Eagles won the 2025 opener 24-20 in Philadelphia on a night remembered for Jalen Carter's early ejection and a 65-minute thunderstorm delay. In November, Philadelphia raced to a big lead in Arlington, and Dallas reeled off 24 unanswered points to win 24-21. In 2024 the Eagles had swept the series 34-6 and 41-7 on the way to Super Bowl LIX, so Dallas comes in having won the latest meeting and not a whole lot else lately.
Philadelphia Eagles
Dallas CowboysThe Eagles' three-game slide
Nick Sirianni's team opened with two narrow wins, 24-22 over Washington and 24-20 at Tennessee. Then it lost three straight: 27-7 at Chicago, 24-20 at home to the Rams and 19-17 to Jacksonville in London.
That last one stung. Jake Elliott put the Eagles ahead with eight seconds left, Ameer Abdullah returned the deep kickoff 53 yards, and Cam Little hit a 57-yarder at the gun. Sirianni took the blame afterward and said he made the wrong call on the kick.
There's more change in Philadelphia than a 2-3 record shows. A.J. Brown was traded to New England in June. Sean Mannion is the fifth offensive coordinator in five years, and first-round pick Makai Lemon has joined DeVonta Smith in the receiver room. Jalen Hurts and Saquon Barkley still drive the offense. On the other side of the ball, Vic Fangio has a young core in Carter, Cooper DeJean and Quinyon Mitchell, now joined by former Seattle corner Riq Woolen.
Dallas, still hard to figure out
Brian Schottenheimer's second season has swung week to week. The Cowboys lost 28-20 at the Giants, beat Washington 37-20, lost 34-31 to Baltimore in Rio de Janeiro, won 34-30 at Houston, and then dropped a 24-16 Thursday-night game to Tampa Bay in which Dak Prescott's receivers let him down with drops.
When they hold on to the ball, though, CeeDee Lamb and George Pickens give Dallas a passing game the Eagles' own matchup preview calls possibly the most explosive in the league. That's the opponent saying it, for what it's worth.
The defense looks different under coordinator Christian Parker. Quinnen Williams and Rashan Gary anchor the front, Von Miller brings pass-rush experience, and No. 11 overall pick Caleb Downs has started his career at safety.
Both teams have one more game first. Dallas visits Green Bay on Sunday Night Football on October 18, and Philadelphia hosts Carolina that afternoon.
What decides Cowboys vs Eagles
Start with Lamb and Pickens against Mitchell, DeJean and Woolen. It's the best individual matchup on the field, and if Prescott gets clean throws, Dallas can score with anybody.
The Eagles at their best still lean on Hurts and Barkley on early downs, with play-action off the run. Williams and Gary are in Dallas precisely to make that hard, and I'm curious whether Mannion sticks with it if the first few runs go nowhere.
And then the boring stuff. Philadelphia lost in London on a special-teams decision; Dallas lost to Tampa Bay on drops. In a game this close, I'd bet on whoever makes fewer of those mistakes, which isn't much of a hot take, but it's how these two have played all year.
Philadelphia EaglesDallas CowboysOur pick for Monday night
Prime time, a home crowd that badly wants the slide to end, and a defense with more top-end talent on paper should be enough for Philadelphia. I don't feel great about it. Dallas has the receivers to turn it into a shootout, and that November comeback will be fresh in their heads. We'll say Eagles 24, Cowboys 21, with the outcome in doubt into the final two minutes.
Watching it
ESPN and ABC both carry the game in the US, with streaming on the ESPN app and Disney+. DAMITV will also have Cowboys vs Eagles free in HD with no signup on our NFL streams page. The Dallas Cowboys and Philadelphia Eagles team pages collect every game, and Spanish-language viewers can follow along at NFL en vivo. If you want Sunday night first, our Chiefs at Seahawks preview covers it. Injury reports and the live box score will be on ESPN's game page.
