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By Bob Sturm 1h ago
The Dallas Cowboys approach their third road test this season with plenty to feel great about.
Sweeping through a three-game homestand is a sign of a team that has a strong likelihood to be playing meaningful football in January. Especially when that team is thoroughly posting divisional wins that are flat-out mismatch destructions.
Demonstrating different ways to administer the result is what makes the Cowboys look like a team to be reckoned with and while the tests will keep coming, there is little that makes you think you are seeing a fluke. If Dallas stays relatively healthy in the most key spots, there is every reason to believe the roster is hunting much higher prizes than a quick start to the season.
But, it is that quick start that makes people take notice. Even if Sunday’s start wasn’t very quick at all.
You probably should credit Giants’ decision-makers Joe Judge and Dave Gettleman with this much; they are determined to challenge you to a fight. They want to see if you are as tough as you say you are and they want that physical approach to essentially walk into the prison yard, find the biggest beast, and punch him in the face to get everyone’s attention that you aren’t scared.
Sunday was no exception as the New York Giants walked in and did just that. They were determined to make life difficult on the Cowboys by aggressively mixing a loaded and determined defensive front to stop the run and to blitz Dak Prescott into mistakes.
They certainly did a decent job of picking their poison because in this case, it forced Dallas into some lapses of frustration and concentration and the first three drives racked up 27 snaps, 121 yards, and seven first downs. But, despite all three drives moving easily into New York territory, the Giants only yielded a single field goal combined. Sure, they were behind and also barely able to get their offense on the field (3:40 of possession in the opening quarter).
The only problem with the results of that first quarter for the Giants was this: There were three more quarters behind it.
In each of those other three quarters, the Cowboys scored at least twice and at least 10 points. In fact, in each quarter of the game, the Cowboys outscored the Giants. That’s right. Even in the first quarter, Dallas outscored New York and won each of the 15-minute segments. If you want to add that to the destruction of the Eagles in their other divisional game, the Cowboys have played eight quarters against their long-time rivals and have not lost any of them. Not a single one. We should extend some credit to Philadelphia for at least tying the third quarter in Week 3 (7-7), but that is it.
We can comfortably say that if you aren’t even losing quarters to your opponents, you are a very good squad. And Coach Judge and his Giants got back on the airplane and limped home knowing that while they will keep fighting and looking for answers, they aren’t trying to play for top team in the NFC East. They know that the team in Dallas is head and shoulders beyond this crowd. The question becomes: What does that mean in the hierarchy of the NFC in general or even the NFL? Is Dallas a confirmed heavyweight?
Time will tell the story and we must continue to go through the grind. But, right now? This team looks different than what Cowboys football has come to mean around here for a couple decades.
As you know, the game Sunday was wrapped around a story about last year’s Week 5 debacle against the Giants. As we detailed in our game preview on Friday, there were too many things that told us the league and Fox desperately wanted to “run it back” to see how both teams would react to a similar time and place to what happened last year. The two rookie coaches were now in their second seasons and this would be a wonderful event to commemorate the year’s anniversary of one of the most devastating, high-profile injuries in the NFL in recent times.
Prescott would be under further review as his latest performance would fuel another week of discussing this team in the way that the national shows so enjoy. He started, in his words, in a bit of a fog, but quickly dialed up some beautiful moments and went about his business as a legitimate MVP candidate in 2021.
And when he produced these big moments, it essentially put a blitzing Giants’ defense in its place and quickly erased much doubt in this game.
In the second quarter with 12:06 to go, Dallas faced third-and-8. Remember, the Cowboys lead 3-0 here and the stadium is anxious because, despite domination, there is no domination on the scoreboard. There is also not much room for patience and understanding in this audience.
The Giants are loading up another blitz and they want to force the issue here. Prescott knows he must depend on Tony Pollard again to pick up the blitz and to Pollard’s credit, he easily does that and Prescott decides to go deep down the right sideline to CeeDee Lamb who has been itching for a breakout moment these past few weeks. Lamb is singled up with the very impressive James Bradberry and off the line he is right in Lamb’s pocket.
But, after the release, Lamb has a subtle lean into Bradberry around the 30-yard line and this is all Prescott needs to see after he holds the free safety Julian Love away from that sideline. He cranks back and fires a beautiful pass that lands in Lamb’s hands at the 15. At this point, Bradberry realizes his fate and Love will soon know his as well. Lamb takes a few steps into the end zone and the damage is administered for a third-and-long touchdown. Shot plays on third-and-long require a lot of faith in protection and the willingness to put everything in as a belief in the ability to convert. Most teams don’t try this until they are desperate, but Prescott now knows that it is not risky when it can be pulled off regularly.
Prescott’s beauty to Amari Cooper was even more impressive. He didn’t really have the benefit of safety manipulation as much as belief that he can put the ball exactly where he wanted to before halftime. Again, 2016-17 Prescott does not have the authorization to try that throw, nor does he have the desire to administer it. The growth and maturation in a player now seeing the chessboard differently is stark. All while the noise about his ability is all around him.
The third-and-6 in the third quarter was exquisite. He is forced to run around in the pocket like Russell Wilson before finding a clearing to his right. The Giants are circling all around him, but again, he knows where the answers are to be found. This time he might be able to run for the first down. Instead — with the scramble rules activated — Dalton Schultz circles and finds a clearing and Prescott in full gallop throws 30 yards on a rope to Schultz’ mitts and the drive continues with a MVP moment. After the slow start, the Cowboys scored on six of their last seven drives and Prescott again was the best player on the field, despite the offense being so powerful that he only had to work when it felt right.
But this is more than the highly compensated QB1 playing like a highly compensated QB1.
Much more.
You probably know this is one of the youngest rosters in the league and it demonstrates a new era in Cowboys football. Sure, the big earners are always going to be veterans, but when your 2016 rookie class is quickly becoming the elder statesmen, we know that time waits for nobody.
This team is better because it is younger, faster and hungrier. It got that way because the roster was changed.
When people want to know why this team is good, they often point to the offense. But, the offense is very similar to what we have seen around here. In fact, through five weeks, how many more points has this offense scored than last year’s?
Seven. They have 170 points in 2021 and 163 points in 2020. How you score them is way different as this team is not desperately trying to catch up. The 2020 team was behind and rallying.
This is in-context offense. That was not.
Tarell Basham (Matthew Emmons / USA Today)
The difference, of course, is the defense is defending. Far from perfect, for sure. But, with guys like Micah Parsons and Trevon Diggs, we can definitely see the strides in playmakers. But, the drop in points against is stark. Through five games, the Cowboys have allowed 63 fewer points against than last year.
Sixty-three! That is nine touchdowns or roughly two per game!
Surely, this isn’t all about Dan Quinn and his new men being amazing, but a combination of what a mess last year was. We know all of the reasons, so we won’t repeat them here, but if you want to see why this has gone from a joke to a contender in 365 days, there you go. The offense has remained excellent and is even better. But the defense is no longer allowing 30 points a game. Not even close.
In a league that allows 23.8 points per game, we felt Dallas just had to get to that average number. Instead, it has gone even further and allows 23.4. This says nothing about the takeaways — the Cowboys are second in the NFL in getting the ball as Mr. Diggs is continuing to teach a clinic.
Dig a little deeper and here is what might actually shock you about “what makes the Cowboys different this year?”
On Sunday, 46 men took the field wearing the Star. Twenty-two starters and 24 other players stepped on the field for a given snap. Of those, 28 have joined the team since Jason Garrett and his coaching staff were dismissed in January of 2020.
That is right, as you are remembering Garrett and his era every time the camera showed him, I am here to tell you that 28 of the 46 players on the field in the white uniforms never played a snap for him.
That’s 61 percent of the team. Fully new and fully from the cloth of this new coaching staff. They are not worried about your anxieties and sadness about what Cowboys football has become.
Yes, there are many holdovers — 18 to be exact. And those 18 probably are 75 percent (or more) of the salary cap.
We would be foolish not to wonder what the new men on the headsets and the new players under their charges — like Parsons, Diggs, and Lamb or the veterans brought in like Keanu Neal, Damontae Kazee, and Jayron Kearse have done to get this thing turned around in short order.
This is not that Cowboys roster. Sixty-one percent has been here less than 18 months. Heck, more than half of that has only been here six months.
You wanted a new era and I would argue we are watching one.
Plenty of tests around the next corner, but if you are thinking this doesn’t feel like the same ol’ Dallas Cowboys, there is a chance that this under-the-radar full makeover of the roster is a real reason why. They aren’t Garrett’s team anymore. Jaylon Smith’s exit might have grabbed your attention, but they had been clearing out the old for quite a while.
It appears to be a bit of a new day. And that new day brings the possibility of big dreams.
