NFC East Week 1 Recap: Winners, Losers, and Big Questions Ahead

The NFC East is shaping up like a dysfunctional family reunion. The Eagles show up as the golden child with trophies on the shelf, the Commanders are the scrappy younger cousin who suddenly discovered protein shakes, and the Cowboys and Giants? Let’s just say they’re the relatives everyone politely pretends are still doing fine. Realistically, this is a two-team race between Philly and Washington. Whoever survives their late-season slugfests will probably walk away with the NFC’s top playoff seed. Unfortunately, we’ve got to wade through months of chaos before then.

An opening week wrapped in a rain delay

Week 1 delivered exactly the kind of weirdness we’ve come to expect: the Eagles spotted the Cowboys a handicap and still beat them like a drum, Washington just ran the ball until New York cried uncle, and then Mother Nature gave us an hour-long intermission nobody asked for. Still, rules are rules: all four teams technically exist, so we’re forced to check in on their offenses and defenses to see who looks like a winner, who’s already embarrassing themselves, and who’s still stuck in identity limbo.

Winners: Eagles’ offense, Cowboys’ offense, Commanders’ defense

Eagles’ offense:

The Eagles didn’t even bother using their best toy and still rolled. Jalen Hurts was in complete control—passing when he wanted, running when he felt like it, and otherwise making the Cowboys’ defense look like it was waiting for the rain delay to start early. They had only seven real drives and still put up 24 points. Oh, and A.J. Brown? He saw one target, with less than two minutes left. When your All-Pro receiver is basically a cardboard cutout on the sideline and you still shred a rival, life is good.

Cowboys’ offense:

Yes, we’re putting Dallas’ offense in the “winner” column, which feels gross, but here we are. They actually moved the ball decently against a defensive line that didn’t feature Jalen Carter, and Dak Prescott looked like the quarterback he occasionally remembers how to be. He even pulled off the sneakiest of veteran moves: provoking Carter into spitting on him and getting tossed. Ten years in, Dak has finally mastered the art of weaponizing his punchable face. It’s his biggest intangible. Mike McCarthy, for once, may have figured out how to turn his quarterback’s innate scumbaggery into a strategic advantage. Consider the #DakSpitFirst campaign officially underway.

Commanders’ defense:

Washington’s defense, meanwhile, didn’t just play well—they stomped the Giants into submission. They stared Russell Wilson down, karate-chopped him straight in the ego, and held New York to two measly field goals. For a unit that’s spent years underperforming relative to its talent, this was the football equivalent of finally getting up from the couch and cleaning the house: overdue, but deeply satisfying.

Losers: Giants’ offense, Giants’ defense

Giants’ offense:

Russell Wilson as the answer? Yeah, no. He looked washed, broken, and every bit the liability everyone outside of East Rutherford already knew he was. The Giants’ grand plan for rebooting their offense amounts to “copy last year’s disaster, but make it sadder.” Brian Daboll, bless his stubborn heart, is insisting Wilson will start again in Week 2, which is like doubling down on spoiled milk because you already poured it into the cereal. They could throw rookie Jaxson Dart into the fire, but apparently Daboll prefers slow death. Even Jameis Winston would bring more entertainment value and at least when he throws to the wrong team, it’s with enthusiasm. At this rate, Daboll’s biggest rival for “coach fired first” might be Mike McDaniel, who looks ready to sprint across the field in a flesh-colored bodysuit just to speed things up.

Giants’ defense:

And speaking of disappointments: the defense. With Dexter Lawrence, Brian Burns, Kayvon Thibodeaux, and rookie Abdul Carter, this line was supposed to eat quarterbacks for breakfast. Instead, they generated the third-worst pressure rate in Week 1 and let Washington rack up 432 yards. Sure, they got three sacks congratulations on the participation trophy but it wasn’t enough to mask how underwhelming they looked. When your supposedly elite defense keeps the game “close” only by default, you’re not fooling anyone.

Undecided: Eagles’ defense, Cowboys’ defense, Commanders’ offense

Eagles’ defense:

How do you judge a defense when its best player got himself ejected after approximately six seconds of football? Jalen Carter’s retaliatory spit on Dak Prescott sent him to the showers before he broke a sweat, and without him, Philly’s defense looked like a wet paper bag. They gave up 119 rushing yards, two rushing touchdowns, and failed to register a single sack. Basically, they joined Detroit and Carolina in the “we forgot pass rush was a thing” club. Until Carter’s back in the mix, this unit’s a giant asterisk.

Cowboys’ defense:

The Cowboys’ defense is just confusing. The Eagles scored on their first four possessions like they were running 7-on-7, and then suddenly the game got weird. After an hour-long rain delay, no one scored again. Did Dallas find some brilliant in-game adjustment? Did the weather just kill everyone’s momentum? Hard to say. They blitzed Hurts effectively down the stretch and kept Philly from salting away the clock, but the split personality performance makes it impossible to know what’s real.

Commanders’ offense:

Finally, the Commanders’ offense. They won the game, sure, but they made moving the chains look like brain surgery. Take out their clock-killing final drive, and they had 25 second downs. More than half were second-and-7 or worse. Nearly half were second-and-10 or longer. Six times, they faced second-and-15 or more. Somehow, they converted six of those, but relying on long-shot dice rolls isn’t a long-term plan. Of all the “I don’t knows,” Washington’s offense is the closest to getting promoted to “winner.” But right now, they’re still flirting with mediocrity.