DALLAS — The Dallas Cowboys found themselves in a rare dogfight at home but even that challenge ended in a 41-35 win over the Seattle Seahawks. After earning blowout victories in each of their first five games at AT&T Stadium this season, the Seahawks gave the Cowboys all they could handle on Thursday Night Football.
This was a game where the Cowboys finally won after going off script; they didn’t get out to a big lead and their defense couldn’t sit back and attack. Through three quarters, it was an ugly performance from Dallas’ defense.
However, when the Cowboys needed to score, they did. When the defense needed to get stops, they got them.
This type of outing was easy to see coming, the Cowboys had been rolling and playing their best ball. Dallas was coming off three straight dominating wins and the football world had been singing their praises, while the Seahawks had lost three of their last four and were struggling. In the NFL, things have a funny way of zigging when you think they’ll zag, so a tighter than expected contest felt like something to watch out for.
Early on, it looked like the typical Cowboys home game, they took a 17-7 lead, and the defense took the field with an opportunity to turn it into another blowout win. Instead, the Seahawks showed fight and hit Dan Quinn’s unit in the mouth.
From there, the Seahawks scored 21 of the next 24 points in the game, including doubling up with touchdowns at the end of the first half and to start the third quarter to take an eight-point lead. During that span, the Cowboys hurt themselves with poor play and penalties, and it didn’t help that one of their best defensive players was having his worst game of the season.
Potential Defensive Player of the Year cornerback DaRon Bland was beaten six times in the first half, surrendering two touchdowns and a perfect passer rating. It was a rough half for the second-year cornerback, who had come off two straight games with pick sixes to break the NFL record for most returned interceptions for touchdowns in a season. In the opening 30 minutes, it was the Seahawks and wide receiver DK Metcalf who did the scoring.
In the first half, the Cowboys were also just two of four on their red zone trips and had seven penalties. Included in the infractions were two offsides by pass rusher Dante Fowler, giving Seattle first downs.
That’s an embarrassing number of unforced errors and it led directly to the Seahawks’ scoring drive to take the lead at the end of the first half. Things didn’t start off any better in the third quarter either as the Seahawks went on a 10-play, 75-yard touchdown drive to improve their lead to 28-20.
The Cowboys then decided to show their mettle after it was clear that this game wouldn’t be the usual rout at AT&T Stadium. MVP candidate quarterback Dak Prescott strengthened his resume with a touchdown drive to settle things down for the Cowboys. The drive was capped off by a six-yard scoring run from running back Tony Pollard.
On the ensuing defensive series for Dallas, Bland intercepted Seattle quarterback Geno Smith, demonstrating that he too can respond after a difficult first half. The Cowboys couldn’t cash in, but it felt like the defense was finally ready to put up a fight.
The Seahawks took the momentum back after getting a fourth down stop where wide receiver CeeDee Lamb dropped an easy ball that would have kept the chains moving. It took Seattle five plays to make the Cowboys pay with a touchdown. It was the third touchdown pass from Smith to Metcalf. It was also the last time the Seahawks would score.
From that point on in the fourth quarter, now down 35-27, the Cowboys scored 14 unanswered points and got the big plays in the key moments to earn the win.
With the Cowboys trailing 35-30 in the middle of the fourth quarter following a field goal, Pete Carroll decided to go for it on fourth-and-one from the Dallas 46. Veteran defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence made one of those key plays, getting his way into the backfield and getting the stop.
Prescott and the offense did what good teams do, they took advantage. The Cowboys grabbed the lead with under five minutes to go on a Prescott touchdown throw in a tight window to tight end Jake Ferguson. Dallas converted the two-points to go up 38-35.
The defense came up large on the next possession when they turned the Seahawks over on downs, with the big play coming from veteran cornerback Jourdan Lewis who had a pass breakup on third down. The pass rush did their job on fourth down to force a heave from a discombobulated Smith that was going nowhere and fell incomplete.
Dallas drove the field trying to milk the remainder of the clock but were forced to settle for a field goal to go up six points and put their defense back on the field to seal the win. Again, Quinn’s group was up to the task. And again, it was a big Lewis pass breakup on third down and the pass rush forcing an incompletion on fourth down that ended the game.
The final snap showed why Micah Parsons is a difference maker. Parsons came through unblocked – incredibly, on a play designed to allow Parsons to run free – and his speed to get to Smith disrupted the screen on fourth down to force the incompletion.
It wasn’t a clean game from the Cowboys, they had bad penalties to give the Seahawks life and the defense in particular didn’t play well for most of the game. Yet, when the chips were down, Dallas came away with the win, proving that they can win even when they don’t play their best.
The grinding win is something that the Cowboys haven’t experienced much of this season – especially at home – but they turned it on when they had to against the Seahawks. After struggling to get stops on defense, the Cowboys turned Seattle over on downs in each of their last three possessions. Dallas doesn’t win this game if their defense doesn’t tighten up late.
On the other side of the ball, Prescott had another lights out performance and this time he had to help the Cowboys come from behind to get the win.
On a night where the Cowboys weren’t as sharp as they’ve been in recent weeks, they still got their first win over an opponent with an above .500 record. Another box checked off for Mike McCarthy’s team as they prepare for a brutal final stretch of the season.
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