Looking like one of the NFL’s best teams, the Dallas Cowboys’ ground game is rolling
The Dallas Cowboys are good. The real question is, are they great?
That will be determined down the road.
For now, the 3-1 Cowboys are good, if not very good, and appear to still be ascending.
None of that can be argued after Sunday’s workman-like 36-28 victory against the Carolina Panthers.
It was the team’s third straight win, and it came on a short week after their most complete performance of the season against the Philadelphia Eagles on Monday night.
The Cowboys remain in sole possession of first place in the NFC East and look to be staking their claim as one of the best teams in the NFL. They have outscored their last three opponents 97-66.
The 93,262 fans at AT&T Stadium were certainly giddy, many of whom stayed long after the game chanting, “Go Cowboys” to the delight of quarterback Dak Prescott.
“That is the example of how great it is to have the fans back,” Prescott said. “After a year like last year with COVID and [them] not be able to be here and enjoy this game, it’s special. It’s special to have them back and have that energy. I am thankful for it. Everybody should be.
“But 3-1 is just 3-1,” Prescott said. “We have a long way to go. This is a long season. Expectations and standards are to be the best. 3-1 and whatever the record is, it’s about the next game.”
Since 1960, the Cowboys have started a season 3-1 23 times. They made the playoffs in all but seven of those times.
Even the normally hyperbolic team owner Jerry Jones showed some restraint after the game when asked if the Cowboys can now be considered a top team in the NFC. Jones, who admittedly lost his voice with all the excitement, said he was taking it one game at a time and was just going to enjoy the quality win.
“All in the respect in the world to them,” Jones said. “A solid team. Certainly very meaningful due to the stature of Carolina.”
The previously undefeated Panthers (3-1) hadn’t played in 10 days, since opening Week 3 with a Thursday night victory over the Houston Texans. The Cowboys were 0-4 all-time when playing on short rest against a team with a long layoff.
Sunday’s win came against a Panthers defense that was ranked No. 1 in the league against the pass and the run.
But that unit posed little problem for a Cowboys team that has pretty much done whatever it has wanted to do on offense, and that’s even including the team’s 31-29 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the season opener.
What’s exciting to the Cowboys is they know they can play better.
“We have a lot of repairs we can improve on,” coach Mike McCarthy said. “That’s the beauty of what’s going on. I mean, our team knows how to win, we’ve established that here the last three weeks and that’s the most important thing, but right now we’re not really into the style points.”
No one is playing better than Prescott, who was brilliantly efficient again, completing 18 of 22 passing attempts for 188 yards and four touchdowns. Prescott blew the game open in the third quarter with touchdown passes of 35, 6 and 23 yards to receiver Amari Cooper, tight end Dalton Schultz and Cedrick Wilson, turning a 14-13 halftime deficit into a 33-14 lead.
Prescott also had a 18-yard touchdown pass to tight end Blake Jarwin in the second quarter.
“Yeah, I didn’t realize I didn’t break 200 yards passing,” Prescott said. “But that’s kinda of the strength of this offense, getting the ball in these guys hands. You see what they can do after [getting] it ... All of these guys are greedy. They know the next guy is going to try to get the touchdown if they don’t get their opportunity.”
Prescott directed things like a magician and while he may have been the one to put the points on the scoreboard, the offense was fueled by running back Ezekiel Elliott and the ground game.
Elliott rushed 20 times for 143 yards and a touchdown, showing the world that reports of his demise were greatly exaggerated. It was his first 100-yard game of the season and it featured a 47-yard carry, his longest run in five years.
“The O-line, they dominated the line of scrimmage,” Elliott said. “I think we got a really nice system going right now, me and TP [Tony Pollard] keeping each other fresh, I think that’ll keep this thing going.”
Elliott’s play was complemented by backup Pollard, who rushed for 67 yards on 10 carries. As a team, the Cowboys racked up 245 yards on 34 carries for a stout 7.2 yards per carry against a Panthers team that had only allowed 45 rushing yards per game over the first three weeks.
“So many good things come off the running game,” said coach Mike McCarthy. “To have Zeke and Tony be able bang all day is a real strength for us.”
With the lead secured, the Cowboys defense feasted on the Panthers quarterback Sam Darnold with five sacks, 11 QB hits and two interceptions by cornerback Trevon Diggs.
Diggs became the first Dallas Cowboy to record an interception in each of the first four games since the NFL merger, and he’s only the second player in franchise history to record five interceptions in the first four games of a season, joining linebacker Chuck Howley in 1968.
It marked the 11th consecutive game that the Cowboys defense recorded a takeaway, which is the longest active streak among NFL teams.
The Dallas defense is currently riding an eight-game streak with multiple takeaways. The active streak is the longest in the NFL, and is Dallas’ longest string of games since an eight-game streak in the 1999 season.
The Cowboys have intercepted a pass in seven straight games, dating back to Week 15 of 2020.
On the line, defensive end Randy Gregory led the way with his first two sacks of the season.
“I think we really want to make our stamp on this league and let teams know that we’re not here to play,” Gregory said. “We’re here to ball. I think we’ve been doing that.”
The Cowboys, who at one point were up 36-14, gave up two fourth-quarter touchdowns to narrow the score to 36-28 but Elliott and Pollard kept picking up first downs and ran out the clock down the stretch.
While the Cowboys were disappointed they didn’t finish the game with a larger margin, it was important for them to continue to establish their identify and keep the Panthers at bay with the running game.
“There’s a point in every football game where you have to go run the football ... where everybody knows you’re going to run it,” McCarthy said. “And that’s what good teams, good run teams, do. We’ve been doing it and we’re going to have to do it again.”
The Cowboys host the New York Giants (1-3) next Sunday and it’s not lost on Prescott that the game will be 364 days from the game in which he sustained a fractured ankle, ending his season.
Having fully recovered from the physical wound — further evidence of that being his turning a low snap into a 20-yard scamper while evading Panthers defenders — Prescott will head into the week with gratitude and appreciation on his mind.
“How much a blessing the last 364 days have been of going through that, overcoming that and becoming a better person and a better player,” Prescott said. “I am excited for it. I’m excited to get back out there.”
He, like the fans, are thrilled that the Cowboys are on the rise.
This story was originally published October 3, 2021 at 3:17 PM.
