Dallas Cowboys deliver on coach Mike McCarthy’s win guarantee, but yikes!
A guarantee is a guarantee.
Dallas Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy promised his team would beat the Washington Football Team and his defense delivered at FedEx Field Sunday, albeit in less than emphatic fashion.
Up 24-0 at halftime, and leading 27-8 in the fourth quarter, the Cowboys ending up leaning on a yet another defensive turnover late in the game to secure a 27-20 victory.
The NFC East-leading Cowboys (9-4) now have a three-game edge on Washington (6-7) and the Philadelphia Eagles (6-7) with four games to go on the season.
“The focus from my perspective was to win the game,” said McCarthy, who returned to the sideline Sunday after missing the 27-17 victory against the New Orleans Saints on Dec. 2 with COVID-19. “Obviously we got some work to do. I was pleased to come in here and get this division win.”
The Cowboys play at the last-place New York Giants next Sunday before a return match up against Washington at AT&T Stadium on Dec. 26 when they could potentially clinch the division title and reset their sights on home-field advantage throughout the playoffs.
But it was the defense that played big Sunday, forcing four turnovers that led to 17 points. That effort bailed out a bad outing by the offense and quarterback Dak Prescott, who tossed two interceptions, including one that gave the Washington a glimpse of life in the fourth quarter.
In the first quarter, a field goal, an interception by defensive end Randy Gregory set up a 7-yard touchdown pass from Prescott to receiver Amari Cooper and defensive end Dorance Amstrong returned a fumble 37 yards to the end zone following a sack by rookie linebacker Micah Parsons to give the Cowboys an early 18-0 lead.
Parsons had two sacks in the first half to extend his team rookie record to 12 on the season and he is just two shy of the NFL rookie record of 14.5 set in 1999 by Tennessee Titans defensive end Jevon Kearse.
McCarthy knows the Cowboys must improve. But he makes no apologies for winning ugly.
“It was a good division win,” McCarthy said. “We play these guys in two weeks. I love the adversity that teams go through. To get where we want to go, we need to thrive in those situations. We created it. But there is a benefit in adversity football.”
Where the Cowboys want to go is the playoffs and push for the Super Bowl for the first time since the 1995 season.
But first things are first and the Cowboys, who had lost two of their last three games and three of their last five coming into this contest, have regained some momentum for a final stretch run now having won consecutive games for the first time since Oct. 17 and 31.
Still, the biggest issue for the Cowboys going forward is an offense that remains disjointed and out of sync. In the first half, the offense had to settle for field goals on three trips inside the red zone.
Prescott was off for much of the day, completing 22 of 39 passes for 211 yards with one touchdown, two interceptions and a quarterback rating of 58.8.
He had an awful interception in the first quarter on a high throw to CeeDee Lamb before Gregory saved him and turned the game with a tipped interception on a screen pass to set up the touchdown pass to Cooper.
It was Gregory’s first action after missing four games with a calf strain.
And when the offense couldn’t move the ball after Washington made it 24-8 in the third quarter on a 41-yard pass from Taylor Heinicke to Cam Simms and a run on the two-point conversion by Heinicke, the defense came to the rescue again with a forced fumble by cornerback Jourdan Lewis.
The Cowboys got the ball on the 25-yard line and got as close as the 10 before settling for Greg Zuerlein’s fourth field goal of the day.
Washington made it 27-14 on 1-yard run by Jonathan Williams with 5:09 left and 27-20 three plays later when Prescott’s second interception of game was returned 31 yards to the end zone by linebacker Chase Holcomb.
Prescott said he should have thrown the ball away or taken a sack on the play, but it was typical of the Cowboys offense for much of the day.
Another three and out by the Cowboys offense gave the ball back to Washington with a chance to tie the game but Gregory registered a sack and forced fumble. Safety Jayron Kearse recovered, giving the ball back to the Cowboys with 2:24 to go.
The Cowboys, who rank No. 1 in the NFL in total offense, had five punts, an interception and a field goal in the second half after taking a 24-0 lead.
The Cowboys offense has scored one touchdown in the past 19 possessions dating back to the Saints game.
“We got high standards and expectations for ourselves,” Prescott said. “We have to better than that. I have to be better than that. Just as much as the outside world isn’t pleased, we are not pleased. We can get better and learn from it. It’s much better to do that in a winning setting.”
This story was originally published December 12, 2021 at 3:32 PM.
