"I had no idea," Nate Sudfeld said after being asked about the game plan at quarterback against the Cowboys. "They just said, 'Nick, be ready to play the whole game and Nate be ready in case we want to put you in.'"

As it turns out, Sudfeld, the Eagles' backup quarterback, played the final three quarters Sunday afternoon. He showed flashes on his opening drive completing his first NFL pass to Nelson Agholor for 4 yards. He later completed a 17-yard pass on third down that was negated by an offensive holding penalty which would later force the Eagles to punt.

Overall, Sudfeld finished 19-of-23 overall for 134 yards and no turnovers in his NFL debut.

"Pretty solid for the most part in terms of efficiency and everything. But I felt like there were some plays that we weren't able to finish," Sudfeld said. "I felt like I took two sacks that I shouldn't have. Overall, you want to actually get points and finish drives, but we kind of shot ourselves in the foot a little bit. But I still feel like it was all there, we just kind of didn't play to our best."

Sudfeld surprised the fans at Lincoln Financial Field when he turned on the jets for a 22-yard run up the middle and along the sideline to give the offense a boost. Penalties and tough breaks on offense, however, kept the Eagles from reaching the red zone, let alone the end zone, all afternoon.

"I thought he played pretty good. He was able to move the team," head coach Doug Pederson said. "Without watching the tape tomorrow and getting in here and checking it out, there were probably a couple decisions that we would like to fix or he would have back.

"But I thought, overall, he did a pretty good job with really just coming to us new at the end of camp there. Again, did some nice things outside of maybe one, two, or three decisions during the game."