DALLAS — Just like in their previous game that went to overtime in Week 6, the Dallas Cowboys were in a tight game on the road against a desperate team that would do anything for a win.
This was the situation that the Cowboys faced with 9:56 to go in the fourth quarter after Minnesota Vikings safety Xavier Woods forced a fumble of backup quarterback Cooper Rush. Linebacker Anthony Barr recovered, and Minnesota had a chance to take the lead and put Dallas in a bind.
However, it was just the kind of test that the Cowboys need early if they are to prepare themselves for the playoffs — at least, that is how defensive end Randy Gregory sees it.
"Two straight games where we had to tough it out," said Gregory. "It kind of gives you that playoff game atmosphere."
The Cowboys gave up a 24-yard field goal as the Vikings drove 69 yards in 10 plays, largely aided by two unnecessary roughness calls by Gregory.
"I thought it was kind of a [ticky tack] foul, both of them," Gregory said. "It shows how good we are as a team."
The first one was when Gregory attempted to pull a Vikings blocker away from the scrum to move forward running back Dalvin Cook at the Dallas 27-yard line. The second was when he hit Cook just as his foot touched the out of bounds line two plays later.
However, even as the penalties set the Vikings up with a 1st-and-goal situation, the defense hunkered down in the biggest moments and held Minnesota to the chip shot field goal to give the offense a chance to win the game.
Down by three, Rush led the Cowboys on a seven-play, 75-yard drive to give Dallas a 20-16 lead thanks to a 5-yard touchdown pass to receiver Amari Cooper. With 51 seconds left to play, the Dallas defense had another shot to keep the Vikings from scoring points; to protect the lead and get Dallas to 6-1 on the season.
According to Gregory, the pressure is just what the defense wanted.
Said Gregory: "We take pride in that. We wanted that kind of pressure on ourselves. We talked about that pregame and the pressure, and the effects of pressure and how it can be beneficial for us. We just accepted the challenge, went out there, closed the game out."
With no timeouts and needing to drive 75 yards of their own, the Vikings' last play was a desperation sideline throw from quarterback Kirk Cousins, who was being pursued by Gregory.
"It’s the kind of wins you need: tough it out throughout the end, play through some adversity, it seems like we’ve been doing it a lot lately, and came out with the “dub,'" Gregory said.
Dallas is one of four one-loss teams in the NFC with the others being the 7-1 Arizona Cardinals, 7-1 Los Angeles Rams, and 7-1 Green Bay Packers. With all four teams vying for the lone bye in the conference, the playoffs are virtually every week from here on out, and the Cowboys are getting good practice for when January arrives with close games in hostile environments.
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