False start: Eagles go scoreless after TDs on their first 3 drives in their loss to Cowboys

ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — A.J. Brown was catching passes and the Philadelphia Eagles were moving the ball down the field.

An offense that has drawn criticism this season from its three-time Pro Bowl receiver had a three-touchdown lead after its first three possessions against division rival Dallas. Things seemed to be going in the right direction for the NFC East-leading Eagles on Sunday.

Then they weren’t again — like so often the case this year.

Philadelphia didn’t score another point and lost 24-21 on a game-ending field goal. That prevented the Eagles (8-3), with six games remaining, from pushing their lead to five games in the win column ahead of second-place Dallas (5-5-1).

“They definitely made adjustments,” Brown said. “I think in the second half, it was just a little lack of execution.”

Asked if he felt the offense was starting to turn the corner in that first half, Brown responded: “Yeah, you can say that. Just highs and the lows, we’re just trying to get rid of the lows.”

The Eagles now have a short week before hosting Chicago on Friday.

Brown had a 16-yard TD catch to end Philadelphia’s first possession, and missed another score by just a matter of inches on the second one. Replay overturned what officials had initially called a touchdown when he made an impressive catch and swiped the ball against the pylon at the same time his second foot touched out of bounds.

“That’s on me,” Brown said. “I didn’t get my feet down. … I did the hard part.”

After that was ruled incomplete, Jalen Hurts had the first of his two rushing downs, going 7 yards straight up the middle on a quarterback draw.

While Brown had a season-high eight catches for 110 yards, he had none in the second or third quarters after catching five passes for 67 yards on the first two possessions. He had three catches for 43 more yards in the fourth quarter, the first of those before a missed field goal that led the Cowboys’ game-tying touchdown, and then a 19-yarder only a few plays before the Eagles had two late fumbles, one on offense and one on a punt return.

“We just weren’t very efficient as an offense in that second half. … I didn’t really feel like that we took our foot off the gas,” coach Nick Sirianni said.

After building that 21-0 lead through three possessions, the Eagles had only one more first down until the fourth quarter.

“I think overarching, we’ve got to find a way to finish the game and find some consistency in what we do,” said Hurts, who passed for 289 yards with the TD to Brown. “Definitely a tale of two halves. But in the end, we didn’t play a complete game as a team, and today it got us.”

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