It was a close game all night, with the reigning Super Bowl champion Eagles coming out on top 24-20.

It was scrappy until the very end, as numerous skirmishes took place after the whistle, but it shouldn't be a crazy surprise that two longtime rivals got in a heated duel.

Midway through the third quarter, the game was suspended due to lightning in the area. It ended up lasting about an hour until the players were allowed back on the field to stretch and prepare for the end of the game.

There were four observations from the first game of the season that primarily stood out.

This is no surprise. Jalen Hurts proved exactly why he was the Super Bowl MVP last season.

He was truly remarkable with 152 passing yards, 62 rushing yards and two rushing touchdowns. He also made it seemingly impossible for anyone on the Dallas Cowboys to tackle him.

Of course we knew that Hurts was mobile, but he looked extra elusive tonight – slipping through open pockets of defenders, and creating separation from the Dallas pass rush. 

Even in the first two plays after the rain delay, Dallas called two corner blitz’s, and had Hurts dead-to-rights. And yet Hurts managed to slip past both rushers and even managed to gain positive rushing yards.

Not only that, his arm was as accurate as ever, as shown from that 51-yard pass to Jahan Dotson in the second quarter that eventually ended in a Saquon Barkley touchdown.

Anything can happen in the season, but with the way Hurts played all game, he looks like he wants the regular season MVP.

The first 10 seconds of this game was truly insane.

Philadelphia kicks off and instantly, Eagles fullback Ben VanSumeren goes down with an apparent lower body injury that ruled him out for the rest of the game.

Shortly after, Pro Bowl defensive tackle Jalen Carter was ejected from the game after spitting on Cowboys’ quarterback Dak Prescott.

It was a horrible look, and a horrible way to start the season off for the defending champs. It also started to raise significant questions about Carter’s character, knowing how important he is to the defense and putting the team in jeopardy.

There’s no excuse for what he did, and Carter shouldn’t have done it. But later on in the game, we saw just exactly why he did it. It was in retaliation for Prescott, who spat in his direction first and smirked prior to the incident.

Carter needs to do a better job at controlling his emotions, because right then and there, it seemed like Prescott had the Eagles in the palm of his hand. 

And he did for a little, but then Dallas' juice died down rather quickly.

This game was won on the ground.

The star of the show was clearly Hurts and how he took control of this whole game.

But it shouldn’t denote how important Saquon Barkley and Will Shipley were.

Barkley finished the game with 60 rushing yards on 18 carries with a rushing touchdown, along with four receptions for 24 yards. His yards per carry isn’t exactly eye-popping, but the way he took command of the field using his physicality was immense when the Eagles needed it most.

Shipley had a minimal outing, only collecting three carries in the first half, but he averaged 8.7 yards during it. 

Primarily, Shipley played a massive part in getting the Eagles down the field for their first touchdown.

In his first carry of the game, he ran for five yards, but shortly after hauled in a 20 yard run to bring the Eagles to the five yard line.

There was all this talk about Hurts, but you hardly heard about the two wide receivers that command the most attention – A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith.

Brown was incredibly close to posting his first career game with zero receptions, until he got targeted late in the fourth quarter. And Smith, had a minimal impact, only bringing in three receptions for 16 yards.  

Even with the lack of production on the scoresheet, a critical part to this game was how Brown and Smith put their bodies on the line to block for runners.

NBC highlighted Smith, who weighs about 170 pounds soaking wet, and how impressive it was that he was laying out blocks.

It’s an underrated part of the game, but if you can get everyone to buy in like that, and have a locker room filled with massive egos put their stats aside to win, that’s how championship culture is built.