Dallas Cowboys: The unusual way of winning in Week 2

The Dallas Cowboys got their first win of the season on Sunday against the Los Angeles Chargers. After a hard-fought matchup, America’s Team came out victorious on a game-winning field goal by kicker Greg Zuerlein as time expired.

However, this wasn’t a normal win for the Cowboys. They did it in ways that fans probably couldn’t imagine. For starters, Dallas is just 5-10 in one-score games since the 2019 season, something that the team wants to change including quarterback Dak Prescott.

Last season, after the Cowboys lost a 20-17 game on opening night against the Los Angeles Rams, the 28-year-old quarterback was frustrated losing yet another close game. Prescott is known to love close, one-score matchups with everything on the line in those final moments.

In this matchup, Prescott got his wish and didn’t disappoint. With 3:42 left in the game, the former rookie of the year needed to just get his team in field goal range. After going 5/5 for 35 passing yards in the final drive, he did what was asked, get in field goal range to win.

This marked Prescott’s 16th game-winning drive in his short career. It was encouraging to see the Cowboys win without their star quarterback having to do much. He threw for only 237 passing yards and 0 touchdowns. The former Mississippi State quarterback hasn’t had a 0 pass touchdown game since Week 16 of the 2019 season.

Additionally, Dallas hasn’t won a game in which Prescott didn’t score (pass or rush touchdown) since Week 8 of the 2017 season. With his unusual stats in this game, it might appear that the Cowboys would have lost. However, this likely speaks to this team this year, a much-improved squad from a season ago.

How did the Dallas Cowboys win without Prescott going off?

A large reason for Prescott’s mediocre numbers was the run game. Dallas was able to have a solid day on the ground. As a team, they rushed 31 times for 198 yards and two touchdowns (6.39 yards per carry). Running back Tony Pollard led the way for the Dallas Cowboys with 109 yards on 13 carries while running back Ezekiel Elliott added 16 carries for 71 yards, both scored a touchdown.

Last season, the Cowboys failed to rush over 190 yards in any game. This season, it happened just in the second week. Not only should the running backs receive credit, but the offensive line does as well. With right guard Zack Martin back in action, this likely helped the team in many ways. According to PFF, they gave Martin a grade of 95.5 in week two.

Finally and most importantly, the Cowboys won this game by playing defense. Allowing 17 points to an offense led by quarterback Justin Herbert is likely a big accomplishment for this defense.

For starters, creating turnovers was another strong point of this unit in Week 2. Last week, they created four turnovers against Tom Brady and company. Now, they added another two interceptions in this matchup against Herbert.

In the first two weeks, this new defense has six turnovers and is showing their improvement from a season ago. Even with three defensive starters out (safety Donovan Wilson, defensive end Demarcus Lawrence and defensive end Randy Gregory), other players stepped up in their place.

Linebacker Micah Parsons played a new position (defensive end) and looked solid doing it.  In Week 2, the former Penn State product finished tied for the most pressures this week with eight. He also finished with a run block grade of 90.8 which was the second-best of all defensive ends.

Not only did Parsons have a better than expected outing at defensive end, but so did safety Jayron Kearse, who stepped in for the injured Donovan Wilson. Kearse got the start in this game and played 97 percent of the snaps. He had six tackles, one pass deflected and one quarterback hit.

This defense stepped up when it needed to once again.  Last week, it was safety Damontae Kazee’s forced fumble, and this week, it was holding Los Angeles to a field goal late in the fourth quarter.

The defense isn’t perfect, but it could be a stepping stone for the future. Dallas’ offense might not necessarily need to score 30 points every game to win, but the defense probably needs to keep doing their thing. Besides their win against the Chargers, the Cowboys haven’t scored less than 20 points in a game and won since Week 13 of the 2018 season when they beat the New Orleans Saints 13-10 on Thursday Night Football.