3 Keys to a Philadelphia Eagles win versus Dallas Cowboys in Week 16

3. The Philadelphia Eagles must find an answer for CeeDee Lamb.

It still hurts that CeeDee Lamb is a Dallas Cowboy. We’ll always be wondering “what could’ve been”. That’s in the past now though and he’s a rival. Thankfully, Darius Slay is returning to the Eagles lineup this week. He’ll probably shadow Amari Cooper for the majority of the game. Michael Jacquet flashed potential last week. Facing the impossible task of making his first career start versus DeAndre Hopkins, he did what he could.

The Eagles went with a zone a decent amount of the time to help the young corners but Jacquet still deserves credit where credit is due. He’ll probably line up across from Michael Gallup at times. Jacquet made his NFL debut versus the Cowboys in Week 8. On one snap, he landed a nice jab on Gallup to knock him off his route and then helped make a tackle on Cooper. Hopefully, we see more of that. Don’t expect Jacquet to lockdown Gallup but he should be able to do enough to help the ‘Birds’ chances.

The real problem is CeeDee Lamb. Despite multiple quarterback changes and not being the first option in this offense, he has still played at a high level. Like the Arizona Cardinals, the Cowboys line up their receivers at the same spots most of the time. It will be Gallup at the X’, or primary spot, Cooper at the ‘Z’, or motion spot, and Lamb in the slot.

Nickell Robey-Coleman is the Eagles slot corner and he struggles regularly. Lamb is a matchup nightmare for the five-foot-eight, 180-pound slot corner. The ‘Birds’ could go with more big nickel with Marcus Epps and K’Von Wallace playing free and strong safety while Jalen Mills plays the slot. Either that or they could elevate Jameson Houston or Blake Countess from the practice squad. Kevon Seymour is out this week. Whatever they decide upon, they need to have a plan for Lamb or he’ll have a monster game. Robey-Coleman will not be the answer.