Nick Sirianni made his feelings about the Dallas Cowboys pretty clear before he had even coached his first game against them. In September 2021, just weeks into his first season as Eagles head coach, Sirianni showed up to a press conference wearing a “Beat Dallas” T-shirt. It was his way of trying to get his team fired up. And the fire did come, but from the other sideline. Dallas won 41-21, and the shirt became bulletin board material. Now, cut to five years later. 

Sirianni was back facing Dallas on Monday Night Football, with his team once again unable to find a way past its division rival. The Eagles briefly took the lead, but the Cowboys pulled away to hand them another defeat. This time, the stakes were much higher. Philadelphia was without Jalen Hurts, and the loss stretched its losing streak to five games. Still, the final score carried an uncomfortable echo of that first meeting: the Eagles had managed just 21 points again.

Philadelphia’s 38-21 defeat dropped it to 2-5 and extended its longest losing streak since Doug Pederson’s first season in 2016. The coach who once wore his rivalry with Dallas on his chest now has a much bigger problem to solve: stopping a collapse that could take his job down with it. And while some may look at the entire picture, nobody can deny the popular consensus that the Inquirer just laid out:

“The Eagles hadn’t lost five straight games since Doug Pederson’s first year at the helm in 2016. They matched that slide on Monday with a 38-21 disaster against a shoddy, flawed, previously two-win Cowboys club. It is a disaster that could spell the beginning of the end of the Nick Sirianni Experience.”

That description of Dallas is hard to argue with on paper.

The Cowboys arrived with a defense that Pro Football Focus ranks last this season, after two straight years in the bottom six. Philadelphia still could not solve it. Quarterback Dak Prescott threw for 212 yards and three TDs, while RB Javonte Williams rushed for a career-high 155 yards and a TD. Dallas finished with 416 total yards, against an Eagles defense that was expected to be one of the team’s strengths.

The Eagles did show flashes offensively despite playing without Jalen Hurts. Tanner McKee completed 23 of 35 passes for 211 yards, one TD, and one INT. Rookie Makai Lemon also caught his first NFL TD to put Philadelphia up 21-20 early in the third quarter. Dallas scored the last 18 points of the night. The offense could not drive that momentum, and McKee’s fourth-quarter interception to LB DeMarvion Overshown helped seal the defeat.

The Inquirer’s 2016 comparison does come with one reassurance. That slide did not cost Pederson his job. His first season ended with a 7-9 record, and although he led the team to a Super Bowl championship after the 2017 season, his tenure ended after the 2020 season. Sirianni has enjoyed more success, as he guided Philadelphia to two Super Bowls, winning the second less than two years ago.

The obvious defense of Sirianni is the injury list. DeVonta Smith, Dontayvion Wicks and edge rusher Nolan Smith all missed the game, and two backup running backs are on injured reserve. Saquon Barkley, back after missing 11 quarters with a hamstring injury, scored in the first quarter, then sat out most of the second half with a back injury. Sirianni refused to lean on it.

“That’s life in the NFL,” Sirianni agreed. “I’ll never use that as an excuse. At the end of the day, all that matters is if we won or lost, and if we continue to get better.”

The timeline shows why that stance makes sense. The slide began before most of those absences. After a 2-0 start, the Eagles were routed in Week 3 by a Bears team missing Caleb Williams, then lost to the Rams a week later, both before Hurts’ clot was discovered. Right tackle Lane Johnson then retired after three games, and center Cam Jurgens was traded to Baltimore, taking two-fifths of the starting offensive line with them. Then there is the Hurts situation, which has added the most pressure.

He is likely to miss the rest of the season. The Inquirer calls him the Eagles’ $52 million quarterback. The clot was first found in his calf in London before the Week 5 game against Jacksonville. He played anyway, throwing for 220 yards and a TD in a 19-17 loss, and further testing then found clots in his lungs. He faces about three months on blood thinners and is expected to recover fully. Asked about letting him fly back and forth from London while injured, Sirianni said, “Again, I’m not a medical expert.” The NFL will not punish the Eagles over how they handled it.

Backup Tanner McKee has taken over, with Sean Mannion, the Eagles’ fifth offensive coordinator in five seasons, still calling plays.

Not every problem traces back to the trainer’s room, though. Healthy players struggled too. Landon Dickerson faded late in his return from a five-game absence, Jalen Carter and Jordan Davis were dominated by Dallas, and Cooper DeJean had another rough night at both safety and corner.

That is why the Inquirer argues the trouble goes deeper than injuries. It points to offensive line coach Jeff Stoutland retiring after being stripped of run-game duties in 2025, to A.J. Brown’s forced trade, and to Johnson’s retirement, and says Sirianni has a culture problem as well as a coaching one. Left tackle Jordan Mailata, whom the paper describes as having inherited the locker room’s conscience from the retired Jason Kelce, boiled the offense’s trouble down to “want to.” Sirianni said he does not question his players’ toughness.

The tape gave that argument more weight. Analyst Brian Baldinger posted fourth-quarter film of Carter and other linemen standing upright as the ball was snapped, asking, “can we at least get into our stance?” A to Z Sports, which also noted that Philadelphia’s streak is the NFL’s second-longest behind only the Chargers, argued the clip showed the team had stopped playing for Sirianni, with the game still within reach.

That leaves Sirianni facing a question that a championship ring cannot answer on its own: can he still get this team to respond?