Cowboys roar, Lions don’t score (enough): The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
By Richard Ball
A few observations from the Dallas Cowboys win at the Detroit Lions. There was some good, some bad and some downright ugly play.
The Dallas Cowboys won their sixth game of the year on Sunday beating the Detroit Lions 35-27. Reaffirming their disturbing trend, the Cowboys started the game ugly yet again with a fumble deep in their own zone leading to a quick 7-0 Lions lead.
The Week Eleven contest against the Lions was like most football games with plays you loved and plays you would love to forget. Below we’ll breakdown the good, the bad, and the downright ugly of the Cowboys’ sixth win of the season.
The Good
Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott threw for more than four hundred yards a week after he nearly reached that milestone. His two-week total of 841 yards is the most by a Cowboys quarterback in any two consecutive games.
The Fox broadcast crew, Kevin Burkhardt and Charles Davis, repeatedly mentioned during the telecast that the Cowboys are transitioning from a rushing team to a passing team. That statement is still open for debate.
Through ten completed games, Prescott leads the NFL in passing yards with 3,221 yards – 143 more yards than Buccaneers quarterback Jameis Winston threw for in his first ten games. No Dallas quarterback has led the league in passing over a complete season.
The Cowboys coaches put the ball in Prescott’s hands as the Lions were determined to contain running back Ezekiel Elliott who had 240 scrimmage yards in the Week Four match against the Lions last season. Prescott threw for nearly 300 yards in the first half with only seven yards to his number one receiver, Amari Cooper.
The Cowboys threw the ball 24 times to 14 rushes in the first half. The aggressive nature continued in the second half with 22 passes to 10 runs.
One week after being roasted for the running the ball on second and third down with the game on the line, Cowboys offensive coordinator Kellen Moore made a brilliant play call on the last offensive series. With the Lions stacking the line to stop the run which they did successfully on first down, Moore called a play-action pass to a leaking tight end out the backside on second down.
Prescott sold the fake perfectly with all the offensive lineman moving towards the left. Tight end Blake Jarwin faked a block and then moved out to his right for an easy pitch and catch from Prescott that resulted in a first down and clinched the victory.
One week after missing his last pass of the game, Prescott made his last pass count. From there, the Cowboys had three kneel-downs for the victory.