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By Calvin Watkins Dec 9, 2018
Jason Garrett talks about living day by day. Looking at the big picture in the NFL world isn’t something the Cowboys coach does because it’s not worth it.
Garrett says a lot of things to the media, but behind closed doors, he knew the importance of Sunday’s game against the Eagles. He entered AT&T Stadium with an edge. He saw the standings and understood what a victory would mean in the big picture of this season.
Earlier in the year, Garrett coached soft, especially in an overtime loss at Houston. Everything changed Sunday against the Eagles with so much riding on this. Garrett went for it on fourth-and-1 in overtime. He told offensive coordinator Scott Linehan to push the offense with deep passes. Even quarterback Dak Prescott took a chance, changing a play call in the fourth quarter for wide receiver Amari Cooper that eventually led to a touchdown.
This game was everything for the Cowboys and Eagles. A slow-moving first half turned into a high-scoring, eye-popping fourth quarter.
The Cowboys edged the Eagles, 29-23, in overtime, pushing themselves to a two-game lead in the NFC East with three games remaining in the regular season.
Garrett’s defense struggled in the second half, when it allowed 23 points and 186 total yards. In a surprise, it was up to Prescott and Cooper to turn the game around. It was a dramatic overtime touchdown pass, caught by Cooper off a deflection, that won it for the Cowboys with 1:55 left.
But it was Garrett going for it from the Eagles’ 19 that let the Cowboys know what this game was about.
“He brought it from down here,” defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence said of his coach’s decision.
Ezekiel Elliott gained the necessary one yard on that play, despite almost tripping over a teammate, to keep that overtime drive alive.
And three plays later, Prescott found Cooper for the winning score. The Cowboys were dead and buried nearly two months ago. Discussions about firing Garrett and not giving Prescott a new contract were a constant theme for Cowboys nation. Changes were coming. Scouts and agents were pounding on the Cowboys quickly.
Now?
“We control it, man,” defensive tackle Tyrone Crawford said. “We just got to play it the way we play for the next three games and lock that up.”
With its five-game winning streak, Dallas is in control of so much. The Cowboys have a chance to pass the Bears as the No. 3 seed in the NFC playoffs.
Garrett is not going there with you, he just can’t. He won’t.
“It was a challenging game,” he said. “A hard-fought game on both sides. Something we try to emphasize to our team is the importance of mental toughness and bring your best regardless of the circumstances and playing through success and playing through adversity. I think if you look at the game, we controlled the game. We had the ball, I think for 45 minutes (precisely 45:33). I don’t know that I’ve ever been in a game where that happened. We had a lot of success doing things in all three phases of our team, but it wasn’t being reflected on the scoreboard. Give them credit for fighting and scratching and clawing and doing the things necessary to stay in the ball game.”
Typical Garrett.
“Coach Garrett always has an edge to him,” Crawford said. “He gets criticized in the media for a lot of different things, but the guy is a great head coach. A lot of people were talking bad about him early and are probably talking great about him now and that’s why I said it when I walked in (the locker) don’t start loving on us now, the haters.”
The haters were all over the place, but now you can barely find them as the Cowboys enter the final three weeks in first place in the NFC East. They’re not playoff contenders anymore, they’re a team headed to the tournament that is trying to make a mark.
Here are our observations from the Cowboys-Eagles game.
The fourth-and-1
In Week 5, Garrett elected to punt when faced with a fourth-and-1 from the Texans’ 42 in overtime. His reasoning was that the defense was slowing down DeShaun Watson. The Cowboys lost 19-16. This was different. So much different. The overtime was being dominated by the Cowboys offense. Let’s say that again; the overtime was being dominated by the Cowboys offense.
This is the same offense that was shut out in the second half in last week’s upset win over the Saints. The only negative for his team has been its offense. But Garrett didn’t believe so now, especially in overtime. So faced with this fourth-and-1 call from the Eagles’ 19, he went for it and Elliott gained one yard, just enough to keep the drive going. Elliott almost tripped over rookie tight end Dalton Schultz’s foot and Eagles safety Malcolm Jenkins arrived late to the point of contact.
“Anytime there’s a situation like that, I’m always talking to the DBs next to me, ‘Hey what do you think is going to happen?'” cornerback Byron Jones said. “We were all like, ‘We’re going to go for it.’ You have to at that point. Just the offense had the possession of the ball for so long and doing so well driving the ball down the field. You got to let that keep going, and great call by Coach Garrett and great execution by the offense really.”
It was a gutsy call by Garrett and he elected to run toward All-Pro left tackle Tyron Smith’s side to get the first down.
“He has a feel for this team,” Jerry Jones said. “He felt that it was the best place to take the risk as opposed to giving them the ball. I don’t think anyone on the Cowboys would have second-guessed that call right there. I think our best chance to win that game was to make that first down.”
When Garrett punted in Houston, Jones questioned that call, but later backtracked. The Cowboys’ season wasn’t on the line Sunday afternoon, but a chance to put the Eagles down for good in the NFC East race was here. Garrett decided to put them away.
“I never doubted Coach Garrett would go for it on fourth-and-1,” Prescott said. “Our backs have been against the wall for a few weeks now. He preaches that it’s about going forward, going around, going over our obstacle, whatever we have to do. I think that exemplified it right there in overtime on fourth-and-1, believing in his guys and us going out there and believing in each other and being able to execute.”
Amari Cooper and Dak Prescott
From the moment Cooper arrived after a trade with the Raiders, he’s impressed Prescott. The former fourth-overall pick is so fast off the line of scrimmage it almost startles the quarterback, who is just not used to that kind of burst. Cooper is a different type of cat. The Cowboys made their decision when it came to letting Dez Bryant go and it was still a good call, but somebody else was needed to lead the offense. They failed to sign Sammy Watkins in free agency, settling for Allen Hurns, Deonte Thompson and a revolving door. Thompson is gone and Hurns is an afterthought in this offense. Everything productive in the passing game goes through Cooper and rookie Michael Gallup. Cooper caught 10 passes Sunday for a career-high 217 yards with three touchdowns. When Bryant was the main receiver, coverages would take him out of the passing game. These same coverages are near and around Cooper, but somehow he makes plays like a No. 1 receiver is supposed to do.
“I feel like that’s who I am, I feel like I can make those plays to help my team win,” Cooper said. “You know I did it in college, a lot; in Oakland, I did it sometimes. But my whole goal is just to be more consistent and to be able to provide that type of play for my team every week.”
Prescott was responsible for two interceptions; overthrows to Cooper and Gallup, and he turned the ball over on a strip sack. Prescott did throw for a career-high 455 yards on 54 attempts. Forget about the 104.9 quarterback rating, it’s the little things Prescott did that make this win special. Let’s look at the 75-yard TD catch-and-run and the game-winner.
The 75-yard catch: In a wild fourth quarter, the Eagles tied the game at 16 with 3:12 left. On the ensuing possession, Prescott got a play call that didn’t make his No. 1 wideout happy. Cooper was supposed to run a stop route, but the Eagles corners were sitting on it most of the game. He begged Prescott to change the play in the huddle. He didn’t. But when they got to the line of scrimmage everything changed. Prescott changed the play call, telling Cooper to run a go route, and when he got past Eagles corner De’Vante Bausby, Prescott let it fly.
“It’s interesting because I actually had another stop route on that play and they were, if you were watching, really sitting on those stop routes,” Cooper said. “I was like, ‘this is ridiculous.’ So when I broke the huddle, I was kind of mad and I was like, ‘Dak come on.’ And he was just like, just run it, bro. And I guess he thought about it again and he kind of signaled a go route and I was elated when he did that. I took off, caught the ball, and scored.”
The game-winner:
So it’s third-and-8 from the Eagles 15 in overtime and Prescott makes a strong throw to the left side of the field toward Cooper. The ball is tipped by corner Rasul Douglas. It seems as if the ball hung in the air for about a minute. But Cooper caught it at the 7 and darted into the end zone for the 15-yard game-winning touchdown.
“I played it perfectly,” Douglas said. “I got my hand in there. I couldn’t get my other hand in there to get the pick. I tried to bat it down. The ball went in the air and Amari Cooper made a play.”
The key to that play was Prescott made a blitz-protection call as the Eagles went after him. It meant the wide receivers would get single coverage on the outside.
“I just knew I had to get the ball out,” Prescott said. “The defender actually played it pretty well, being inside right there. Amari running his route, and being strong was still able to make an attempt at that. The ball popped right back up in his hands. It was great.”
The red zone woes continue
The Cowboys entered the game ranked 26th in the NFL in red zone offense, converting just 48.6 percent of their opportunities for touchdowns. Sunday they went 0-3 until finally scoring a touchdown within the 20-yard line; Cooper’s 15-yard game-winner in overtime. For all the production of the offense — 576 yards, fourth-most in franchise history; a 53 percent third-down conversion rate; and Elliott’s 113 rushing yards — this contest should not have been close. It was just 6-0 at halftime, 9-6 after three quarters until the caffeine pumped everybody up. Dallas has to find more ways to close the deal in the red zone. Prescott almost threw another TD pass, but Cole Beasley couldn’t make the one-handed grab. This is a problem for the Cowboys offense, something that must be addressed now with three games left in the season.
The defense kept them in the game, but …
For 30 minutes, the Cowboys defense was outstanding. It held the Eagles to 70 offensive yards and no scores. Carson Wentz completed just six passes for 48 yards and was sacked twice. Tight end Zach Ertz, who dominated the Cowboys in the teams’ first meeting, had just three catches as a variety of defenders held him down. But as Cowboys defensive tackle Antwaun Woods said after the game, “the other team gets paid, too.” Yeah, and it shouldn’t concern you that Wentz did throw for three touchdowns, including leading the Eagles to 17 fourth-quarter points, because the Cowboys continued to play strong defense, getting pressure on the quarterback and making plays on the ball in the secondary.
It wasn’t the best defensive game of the season, yet the defense did enough, forcing the Eagles to go 1-for-9 on third down, which got them off the field, and limiting them to 22:32 in time of possession.
“The fight, the defense ain’t play up to the standards,” Lawrence said. “We want to shut people out every time. The offense came to play, they looked out for us. A good team victory.” Closing notes
- Defensive end Taco Charlton was a healthy scratch, inactive for the first time this season. He battled through shoulder issues in the middle of the season, but sitting for the Eagles game was a surprise. “It is what it is,” Charlton told The Athletic after the game. Charlton played a season-low four snaps against the Saints last week. Now he’s wearing a sweatsuit.
- Zack Martin left the game with a left knee injury; the same issue that has bothered him most of the season. Rookie Connor Williams replaced him at right guard. Martin will get an MRI on Monday to determine the severity of his sprained knee.
- Elliott left the game with a stinger after he was penalized for initiating a helmet hit in the second half. It was the first time this season an offensive player was penalized for this play.
- Left tackle Tyron Smith was penalized three times for holding. Smith said he tried to explain his blocking technique to officials, but of course, they weren’t hearing it. The Cowboys were not happy with referee Clete Blakeman’s crew.
- There was an ESPN report that Garrett asked Jason Witten to come out of retirement. Maybe the report inspired the Cowboys’ three tight ends; Blake Jarwin, Dalton Schultz, and Rico Gathers combined for 11 catches for 92 yards. “The dude’s a helluva player,” rookie tight end Dalton Schultz said of Witten. “He takes a year off, if he ever did (return), he’s still going to be the guy right? I’ve never been really worried about that, I never pay attention to that, especially in season.”
- The Cowboys were a little dismayed about a roughing the passer penalty on defensive end Randy Gregory, who grabbed Wentz’s knee. Gregory said the refs told him the GMs told the referees to protect quarterbacks.
