Rookies pace Dallas Cowboys to home win over Chicago Bears

The Dallas Cowboys can win at home.

The Cowboys can continue to win without injured quarterback Tony Romo.

And there is nothing wrong with rookie running back Ezekiel Elliott and the Cowboys’ ground attack.

All those questions and concerns were answered in supreme fashion in Sunday’s 31-17 victory against the Chicago Bears at AT&T Stadium.

The Cowboys snapped an eight-game home losing streak dating to the 2015 season opener while putting together their most complete and dominant performance in two seasons.

“We have the greatest fans in the world. Obviously, we want to play well here, but we want to play well everywhere,” coach Jason Garrett said.

It was the second consecutive victory for impressive rookie quarterback Dak Prescott in place of the injured Romo, who is out for at least the first six games of the season with a fractured bone in his back.

Prescott completed 19 of 24 passes for 248 yards and one touchdown. Through three games, Prescott is 66 of 99 (66.7 percent) for 767 yards with three touchdowns (one passing, two running) and no interceptions.

“Like I’ve said over and over, I expect to be here,” Prescott said. “I have high expectations for myself. I want to get better and better. I’m going to keep working hard every week. I’m getting more and more comfortable. It comes with experience. Seeing more defenses every week is allowing me to come into my game and be more comfortable. I’m going to keep my head down and keep working.”

The Cowboys have only won back-to-back games without Romo once since he took over as starter in 2006. That came in 2010.

A Cowboys team that had gone 10-23 without Romo since 2006, including a 1-11 mark during last year’s 4-12 campaign, is 2-1 under Prescott this season.

The seemingly unflappable fourth-round pick from Mississippi State was again accurate and seemingly error-free with no interceptions, while also tossing the first touchdown pass of his career, a 17-yarder to Dez Bryant in the fourth quarter to make the score 31-10.

It was the 60th career touchdown for Bryant.

“It felt great to get Dez in there,” Prescott said. “It took a lot of attempts but it happened.”

Prescott has thrown 99 consecutive passes to start his career without an interception.

Prescott opened the game with a 1-yard scoring run, marking his second rushing touchdown of the season, setting a team record for a rookie quarterback.

It was the running game that set the tone early for the Cowboys as they jumped out to a 24-3 halftime lead before cruising to victory.

Prescott chipped in 36 yards on the ground, but it was Elliott who earned his first 100-yard game of the season.

The rookie first-round pick from Ohio State rushed for 140 yards on 30 carries to lead a Cowboys attack to their most yards in game since they rushed for 233 against the Giants on Oct. 25, 2015.

“It feels good. It feels good to see all our hard work, see the results finally,” Elliott said. “Just going to work every week and not necessarily getting the results you want the first couple of weeks, but just having the great teammates who have continued to have confidence in me no matter what we went through.”

The Cowboys rushed for 199 yards against the Bears as they controlled the ball and the clock for much of the game.

The Cowboys had three rushing touchdowns in the game, a 1-yard run by Prescott, a 1-yard run from Lance Dunbar and a 3-yard run by Alfred Morris, giving them seven rushing touchdowns on the season. They scored eight on the ground in 16 games in 2015.

The Cowboys led 13-0 in first downs, 201-18 yards and 14:38-4:11 in time of possession as well as a 17-0 lead early in the second quarter before a 36-yard run by Jordan Howard set up a Bears field goal.

The Cowboys had a total of five scoring drives against the Bears of 10, 9, 9, 12 and 10 plays. They scored touchdowns on four of them.

“We always talk about starting fast, start fast in the first half, start fast in the second half,” Garrett said. “You want to set the tone with your execution. Our offense has done a really good job making first downs early in the ballgame, driving the football and cashing in.”

The Cowboys’ defense stayed fresh and feisty throughout, despite an occasional leakage in the running game and two second-half touchdown passes from backup quarterback Brian Hoyer, who was starting in place of the injured Jay Cutler.

Safety J.J. Wilcox forced a fumble in second half that allowed the Cowboys to record a takeaway for the third consecutive game, a feat they failed to accomplish last season.

The Cowboys will play at the San Francisco 49ers (1-2) next Sunday, looking for their first three-game winning streak since they went 12-4 in 2014.

This story was originally published September 25, 2016 at 11:07 PM with the headline "Rookies pace Dallas Cowboys to home win over Chicago Bears."