Cowboys at Eagles: 5 questions Dallas needs to answer Monday night

Things couldn't be set up much better for the Dallas Cowboys to get back on track. Their biggest rival, the Philadelphia Eagles, have a shell of their starting roster from the beginning of the season.

Meanwhile, the Cowboys are getting healthier entering their NFC East matchup Monday night at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia. The rosters are so lopsided that Dallas is a 4.5-point favorite despite ugly losses in back-to-back games.

Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott said the team's mindset is "determined." No one has pulled away in the division, and Dallas remains the favorite to win it for the first time in three years.

"I would say determined, and I hope urgent," Prescott said. "We can only say, 'We've got a lot of games in front of us' for so long. Might be already past us, right? We've gotta go win. You want to give yourself a chance to be a winning team, to be a playoff team, you got to win as many games as you can. And when you drop two games, and particularly games that we didn't expect to drop, it makes it that much harder. So, urgent. Urgent to get it done now."

Here are five major Cowboys questions entering Monday night's game.

1. How will they get the offense going?

There's been a surprising lack of pre-snap motion compared to last season. Despite returning all of the key pieces on one of the NFL's top offenses from a year ago, the Cowboys have looked stagnant. They've thrown the ball far too often, allowing opposing defenses to pin their ears back and get way too many shots on Prescott.

No one has taken more criticism for the offensive issues than head coach and play caller Brian Schottenheimer. A Dallas offense that averaged 28 points per game last season has scored 29 in its last two games combined.

Schottenheimer has gained attention with some of his recent comments about his ability. Despite their struggles, he called himself "an elite play caller" during an interview with 105.3 The Fan.

"I've got strong shoulders," he said during a recent news conference. "I know what a great coach I am. I know what this team is capable of. That's what I focus on."

The Cowboys are 9-13-1 since Schottenheimer was hired as head coach. They have won only three of their last 11 games. This will be their 10th primetime game under Schottenheimer. They've only won one of the previous nine.

2. Will there be a greater commitment to running the ball?

Javonte Williams was one of the league's top rushers a year ago, totaling 1,201 yards on 4.8 yards per carry in 16 games. This season he has only 317 yards in six games, averaging 3.7 yards per carry.

They've gone away from the run game too early. That could be a product of wanting to get star wide receivers CeeDee Lamb and George Pickens more opportunities. But they need to do a better job establishing the run with an offensive line that is built to excel in that area.

Perhaps that's where offensive coordinator Klayton Adams can help most with his in-game suggestions. Adams said his biggest goal this week is being "more helpful to the play caller."

"No. 1, I want to recommend stuff that works," he explained. "Sometimes the response is: 'Is it going to work?' 'Yes, it's gonna work.' And also, maybe giving reasons in between series. 'Hey, we're gonna do this because of this.'

"When you're struggling, which we have struggled the last couple of weeks, you're searching hard for answers, and I think it's easy to overthink things. And I want to give very clear, defined solutions. 'This is why we're doing this. This is why it's gonna work. The players like it, and they believe in it.'"

3. Can they figure out the blitz?

The biggest surprise over the last two games is how poorly the Cowboys have handled the blitz. In previous seasons, it's been one of Prescott's greatest strengths. His career passer rating against the blitz is 103.6.

This year: 89.0.

A lot of credit goes to the defensive play callers Dallas has faced the last two weeks, Todd Bowles and Jonathan Gannon. The Cowboys are facing another outstanding one Monday night in Vic Fangio. Although he isn't known to be a significant blitzer, the expectation is that he will bring more than usual because of how poorly Dallas has handled those situations.

"I just have to simplify the plan," Prescott said. "That starts with me, and really it ends with me. You give yourself a few options on a blitz and you get in the game and you want to do this one, want to do that one, and I just have to be more simple and more direct in exactly what I want to do. I don't want to get too into it and tell my answers, but it is definitely fixable."

4. Will George Pickens be more involved early?

Pickens received a good amount of criticism for his play in Green Bay. Schottenheimer was not pleased with how the star receiver handled himself on run plays.

"He needs to understand that he impacts us in the running game as well," the coach said. "He's got to do the same thing in the run game, picking up safeties and blocking corners, just like Javonte does, picking up blitzes so he can catch balls.

"That's part of the team-first mindset, and GP does understand that. When he's going, they're going to play soft to his side. When he's not going, then the safeties get pretty good runs at our backs. And that's got to improve."

Cowboys three-time Super Bowl champion quarterback and ESPN "Monday Night Football" analyst Troy Aikman didn't mention Pickens specifically, but during a recent interview he spoke about a certain Cowboys wide receiver that he thought underperformed against the Packers.

"I won't name names, but there's one particular player, I was embarrassed," Aikman told Mike Fisher of Cowboys Roundtable. "It's the worst performance I've ever seen from a wide receiver on a football field."

When asked about Schottenheimer's comments, Pickens responded: "I feel like as a team, I feel like run, pass, a lot of stuff. You know what I mean? One week it was, you (reporters) were saying defense, one week you were saying this. I feel like if you narrow the comments down, you're talking about the team. So, most definitely I feel like as a team, just keep improving."

Look for the Cowboys to find ways to get Pickens more involved early Monday night. He only had one target in the first half at Green Bay. What does he need to do to make a bigger impact early?

"I'm doing what they're telling me to do," Pickens said. "So, (keep) doing what they tell me to do."

5. Is the defense actually improving?

The offense has been so surprisingly poor the last two weeks that the defensive issues have almost taken a back seat. Dallas still has plenty of defensive issues. The biggest is probably how easily the Cowboys allow opponents to convert on third-and-long.

But it appeared some progress was made in the second half in Green Bay as the Packers were forced to punt three times and managed only two field goals.

Was that for real or more about the Packers shooting themselves in the foot? Monday night should be pretty telling. The Eagles will be without franchise quarterback Jalen Hurts and top wide receiver DeVonta Smith. Their offensive line is also working in several new pieces. Starting QB Tanner McKee, a 2023 sixth-round pick, has only made three career starts, with his lone win coming two seasons ago in a Week 18 game against a three-win New York Giants team.

"We responded in that second half," Cowboys defensive coordinator Christian Parker said of last week's game. "Early on, certainly the third-down conversions are unacceptable. We did a good job of getting them in third-and-longs, third-and-extra-longs. We were winning first down, getting them behind the chains, winning get-back-on-track situations. But then for different reasons, we weren't successful on third down early in that game.

"I think in the second half we responded to that. I think that we controlled the line of scrimmage for the most part in the run game and getting pressure on the quarterback. Now, it's kind of taking that next step in terms of finishing on those scramble situations. We finally got an interception, which was good to see. Different pieces are happening. Now we got to continue to fix some of the other leaky things that we have going on."

Parker's group should get notable help with the return of linebacker DeMarvion Overshown and cornerback Cobie Durant, who have both missed time with hamstring injuries.

This article originally appeared in The Athletic.