Cowboys back up DeMarcus Lawrence, ‘shock the world’ with profane victory over Saints
Defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence called it and the Dallas Cowboys backed him with a profanely shocking 13-10 victory over the New Orleans Saints on Thursday at AT&T Stadium.
The Cowboys ended the Saints’ 10-game winning streak while extending their own streak to four-straight games.
But more importantly they brought new life to the dream that they can not only make a push to the playoffs over the last month of the season but possibly win in the playoffs (and face New Orleans again?).
Running back Ezekiel Elliott said the Cowboys backed up Lawrence, who expletively promised to physically take the Saints out of their comfort zone, and shocked the world.
“I think we showed we can compete with the best teams in the league,” Elliott said. “No one believed in us. The whole nation thought we were going to lose. We came out and shocked the world. The crazy thing is we could have played so much better.We are going to enjoy this victory and celebrate it. But we got to get back to work. We got a lot more football left.”
And a lot of added possibilties for a team that was seemingly left for dead at 3-5 just four weeks ago and now riding it’s longest winning streak since the Cowboys won 11 straight in 2016.
That’s what happens when you beat the league’s best team and profanely choke out the league’s highest-scoring offense just as Lawrence predicted.
The Saints (10-2), who came in averaging 37 points per game, scored their fewest points since 2015 as Lawrence and the Cowboys defense held quarterback Drew Brees to a dismal and seemingly impossible 127 yards passing and that offense to just 176 yards.
Cornerback Jourdan Lewis sealed the game with an interception with 2 minutes, eight seconds left in the game.
The Cowboys controlled the clock and did just enough on offense, despite two turnovers and allowing whopping seven sacks, to nurse this one to victory after taking a 13-0 lead at halftime.
What can’t the Cowboys do now?
They remain in first place in the NFC East at 7-5 and now have 10 days off before facing the Philadelphia Eagles in a showdown for first place and control of the division.
Lawrence said the defense proved they are elite with their best performance of the season.
The Cowboys snapped the second-longest winning streak in Saints history with a deja vu effort. The Saints had a 13-game streak stopped by the Cowboys in 2009.
“If you capitalize on a team early on you’ve got to step on their throats like I said and don’t let them back up, which we did today and held them to 10 points,” Lawrence said. “I am excited for my guys. I am glad we had this battle to see what a real championship team looks like. We got to move on to the next one.”
Five thoughts from the game:
1. Dak Prescott out-dueled Saints quarterback Drew Brees in the first half, playing a near flawless game in completing 15 of 17 passes for 194 yards and a touchdown to stake the Cowboys to a 13-0 lead. He wasn’t perfect. He was sacked seven times overall, had a fumble that he recovered and couldn’t get the Cowboys on two drives in the red zone. But he was efficient and patient and didn’t do anything to lose the game.
And while the Cowboys had just one first down for 17 yards in the third quarter, the game came down to the fourth and Prescott did just enough when it mattered most. He took time off the clock on a crucial fourth-quarter drive that covered nearly seven minutes with three third-down conversions, though the Cowboys couldn’t cash in because of a sack and a forced fumble on third down inside the 10-yard line. The time elapsed was important, especially when the Saints threw an interception on the ensuing drive. There was no time left for a comeback. The Cowboys got the ball back and got a 1st-and-goal following an interference penalty on a pass to Amari Cooper. Prescott then kneeled the game out from the Saints’ 1-yard line. He finished 24 of 28 for 248 yards and a quarterback rating of 115. Cooper had eight catches for 75 yards.
“The way we’ve been winning some of these games lately, even close games, we come into a game like this against a team on a 10-game winning streak, you have to have that confidence,” Prescott said. “We came out early. You could just feel it in the locker room, you could feel it in pre game warm ups- the energy of this stadium and environment. We were able to feed off of that and our confidence grew as the game went. Even when we had adversity, we believed in each other. The offense believed in the defense making a play and getting us out of bad positions and vice versa. It was just great complimentary football tonight.”
2. Running back Ezekiel Elliott is going need the 10-day layoff after what his mother called a “blue collar game” against the Saints on Twitter. Elliott came into the game nursing a sore hip after recording three 100-yard games in 12 days. Elliott had 14 carries for a tough 39 yards in the first half and 17 for 43 through three quarters. He did have a 16-yard touchdown reception on a screen pass in the second quarter. Elliott was 19 of 50 before a 21-yard run late in the fourth quarter. The Cowboys controlled the ball and the game with Elliott battered and bloody at the end. He finished with 76 yards on 23 carries while seeing his 100-yard game streak come to an end. But he will take the win and the rest.
“We are definitely going to appreciate it,” Elliott said of the rest. “We have had a tough stretch. We handled it well. We have to take care of our bodies, get back to work and build on this foundation we laid.”
3. Defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence may have just etched himself in Cowboys lore forever. His pre-game quote about being physical against the Saints offense, getting them out of their comfort zone and then choking them out, went viral. Lawrence backed his tough talk up, though, especially in the first half with a sack and a forced fumble on Brees, and a tackle for no gain on fourth down from the 1. Lawrence was part of a defense that held the Saints scoreless in the first half for the first time since 2014, which also came against the Cowboys at AT&T Stadium; a span of 71 games. Brees was 7 for 13 for 39 yards in the first half, his lowest passing total in the first half since 2004.
And the Saints running backs combined for 28 yards on seven carries in the first half. Lawrence and the defense finished it off in the second half despite some harrowing moments. Brees passes for 127 yards and had a 71.6 quarterback rating. The Cowboys defense made plays all night with Lewis coming up the biggest with a game-sealing interception. But that was caused by a fierce pass rush by Maliek Collins, who forced a hurried throw. Linebackers Jaylon Smith and Leighton Vander Esch came up with big stops and cornerback Byron Jones lived up to his billing as the league’s top-rated cornerback by all but shutting down Saints elite receiver Michael Thomas. Jones was flagged twice for holding and pass interference but he had three pass deflections and held Thomas to five catches for 40 yards.
“The defense played beyond my expectations,” said owner Jerry Jones. “They played like a championship defense.”
Lawrence acknowleged this was the best game by the defense all season but he doesn’t believe they have peaked yet.
“I can’t predict the future. I don’t know what’s next to come,” Lawrence said. “So I’m not going to call it the best yet. I really don’t think that was our final form. We’ve still got to get better.”
Defense tackle Tyrone Crawford doesn’t want the validation yet.
“No. Please keep calling us the worst,” Crawford said. “I mean keep calling us nothing. Keep downplaying us. I like that. We’re better like that: back against the wall.”
4. The Cowboys survived themselves in the third and fourth quarters thanks to miscues that could have turned the game. The Saints got three first downs via penalty on the final drive of the third quarter. Two were on Jones for holding and pass interference. The killer was a roughing the punter on Randy Gregory after the Cowboys had stopped the Saints on third down when Vander Esch blasted Mark Ingram for a loss. The Saints finished the drive with a 30-yard touchdown pass from Brees to Keith Kirkwood to make the score 13-10 with 1:08 left in the third quarter in what proved to be the turning point of the game. It happened again on the Saints ensuing drive after a Cowboys punt. DeMarcus Lawrence got the Saints off the field and forced a turnover with a sack and a fumble that was recovered by Tyrone Crawford. But the play was nullified by an offside penalty on Gregory. The Cowboys, however, got off the field and survived thanks to huge third downs stop by Smith.
Defensive coordinator Rod Marinelli made a point to talk to Gregory after the game and keep his spirits up. It was two bad plays but the defense picked him up.
“Two bad plays,” coach Jason Garrett said. “Obviously running into the kicker was huge and gave them another bite of the apple, another possession, after we’d made a stop. And then, we make a huge play—a sack fumble—and I guess they said he lined up offsides. So obviously that took that huge play away. So, those are significant plays. Those are two turnovers if you think about it. But Randy is going about it the right way, he’s working hard, he’ll learn from those and he’ll get better going forward.”
5. The Cowboys have a 10-day layoff before they return to play the Eagles on Dec. 9 to begin what will be a four-game stretch to the playoffs. It’s a good time to rest, refuel and get some reinforcements back, including linebacker Sean Lee, receiver Tavon Austin and possibly defensive tackle David Irving. The Cowboys host the Eagles, then they play at the Indianapolis Colts, host the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and end the season at the New York Giants. No matter how the Cowboys fared against the Saints, the December stretch was going to decide their fate. But the confidence gained from Thursday’s shocking victory should prove invaluable.
“This game, when you win a game like this, now it took all we had, when you win a game like this it changes you,” owner Jerry Joens said. “You know you can do it. This is a young, impressionable bunch, so they know now that they can go out there and they can play our game and they can play it in a way to beat an offensive machine and you do it if you play your game and you keep the ball and play defense. I just am so proud for them because they’re not going to be the same cats that looked in the mirror this morning tonight.”
This story was originally published November 29, 2018 at 10:49 PM.