Dak Prescott threw three touchdown passes and Javonte Williams ran for a career-high 155 yards and a score as the Cowboys beat the Eagles 38-21, averting a three-game losing streak and keeping Dallas squarely in the NFC East race.

That's the box score. The more interesting story coming out of Philadelphia is attached to Saquon Barkley, who played through a back issue and still turned in a gutsy, efficient night in a losing effort. He says the hamstring that's dogged him lately "came out great" and that he doesn't expect the back to keep him off the field. For an Eagles team that has leaned on him as its engine, that's the sentence everyone in the building wanted to hear.

Cowboys vs Eagles final score and how it happened

Dallas controlled this one from the ground up. Williams' 155-yard night was a career high, and it gave Prescott the platform to work the play-action game that's been his bread and butter for years. Three touchdown throws later, the Cowboys had put together their most complete offensive performance of the stretch, and they needed it. This team had dropped two straight before Monday night, and a third loss, on the road, in a division game, would have put real distance between them and the top of the East.

Philadelphia didn't fold. Backup quarterback Tanner McKee kept the Eagles within striking range into the fourth quarter, and for a stretch it looked like a real finish was coming. Then McKee threw a pass into the hands of DeMarvion Overshown, and the game tilted for good. That's the kind of moment that gets replayed on Philadelphia radio for a week: a career backup with a shot to steal one on the road, undone by the one throw he needed back.

checked the almanac: this rivalry dates to the Cowboys' first season in the league back in 1960, and Monday night was just the latest entry in one of the oldest, nastiest division fights in football. Nothing about it has gotten friendlier in 66 years.

Saquon Barkley injury update

Barkley's answer on the back issue was about as direct as it gets: he doesn't believe it keeps him out going forward, and he's pointing to the hamstring as proof his body is responding. That's his read, not a doctor's report, and Eagles fans who watched him grind through a tough back last season will understand why the caution flag stays up even as he waves it down himself. A player saying he feels fine two days after a game is not the same as a training staff clearing him for a full week of practice. Philadelphia's coaching staff will make that call, and until they do, this stays a storyline worth tracking rather than a settled one.

What I'm watching next

For Dallas, it's whether this kind of balanced attack, Williams pounding the ball and Prescott hitting shots off it, is a formula or a one-night answer. For Philadelphia, it's Barkley's practice reps this week and whatever the Eagles' medical staff says publicly about his back. Both locker rooms walked out of this one with real questions still open, just different ones.