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The Morning After Week 4 – A Big Time Road Win
The Cowboys had to leave Houston with a win and they used a big second half to earn it.
Bob Sturm7 hours ago
This football team is going to take you on some wild rides in 2026. And you will not find two games in eight days that followed similar scripts to the extent of these last two for the Dallas Cowboys.
Here was the rough script from last Sunday. They went to Rio and found themselves down double digits early in the third quarter. The offense caught fire and they came all the way back to take a four-point lead in the fourth quarter and then the defense got a rare stop. Up four with the ball, the offense then did absolutely nothing and punted it right back before conceding a long drive touchdown to give the lead back to the Ravens with about two minutes to go. Then, in a do-or-die drive, the Cowboys had a chance to get the win, before giving in to the losing score on the final drive of the game.
They changed the script slightly this week. They went to Houston and found themselves down double digits to start the third quarter. The offense caught fire and they came all the way back to take a four-point lead in the fourth quarter and then the defense got a rare stop. Up four with the ball, the offense did absolutely nothing and punted it right back before conceding a long drive touchdown to give the lead back to the Texans with about two minutes to go. Then, in a do-or-die drive, the Cowboys were able to make several big time plays – most of them from Dak Prescott to CeeDee Lamb to make sure they did not settle for a tie. They scored the Touchdown to get the 4-point lead, before the defense made sure they did not give in on the final drive of the game.
Two weeks, two thrillers, two nearly identical scripts.
Cowboys lose, 34-31. Cowboys win, 34-30.
Cowboys 65, Opponents 64.
Win one, lose one. They will happily take 2-2 after fearing a 1-3 start all week long. That had to be avoided. They could not let both of these efforts go for nothing.
So, yeah, there will be some more wild games coming soon. I hope you realize what you have signed up for this season.
But, we are learning that this team has some traits that are consistent from week to week.
Houston needed that win just as badly and were playing at home. That defense had been thought of as the best in the NFL by many pundits entering this season. You can understand why with the elite playmakers everywhere. Will Anderson and Danielle Hunter are monsters and now Jadeveon Clowney is their third-best edge and they can play all three together. Their secondary is loaded with special draft pieces over the last few years, too.
The first half was playing right into the hands of the Texans overall plan. They wanted to get a lead and then put the Cowboys offense in a vice.
What makes Houston’s defense so impossible to deal with for many teams is that they can generate chaos in the backfield with four rushers, just like what DeMeco Ryans was famous for in San Francisco before Houston hired him. That means they can use seven in coverage to populate the secondary and keep tight ties on the Cowboys weapons downfield. There is nobody open way too often when Dak was back there in the 1st half and it gets progressively more difficult as the downs add leverage. At halftime, Prescott and the weapons had next to nothing going. 4.4 yards per attempt is essentially zero at all downfield. They were trying not to ask too much of their pass protection and in doing so, were too easy for Houston to stop. When you play like that, you better have a big time running game, but that wasn’t doing much either.
Dallas had generated nothing but frustration with their offense and the “GOTI” jokes were already being fired off by the fanbase. You cannot claim to have the best offense in the league and then look so incredibly feeble the first time you play a defense that people in this league fear. This was supposed to be strength vs strength and Dallas looks like they always do against this type of defense. They can’t protect Dak, Dak cannot generate magic, the highly compensated weapons cannot get open (because they don’t have time as the QB isn’t protected long enough) and it is a series of punts and ill-fated field goal attempts from midfield.
The Cowboys do not want to risk the protection holding up against this level of pass rusher – or those years against the 49ers, too – because if Dak gets hit, Dak can get hurt. And if he gets hit, the ball can come out and now you just make everything even worse. You must protect and run the ball, but opponents know this and take it away. Then you are in the exact same bind, but definitely not the greatest offense there is to look so out of sorts with such basic defensive strategy.
We have been here so many times before.
Dallas was down 16-6 at the intermission and seemed near the brink of major crisis if they go quietly in this one. The production was spotty and chasing the midfield field goals had resulted in one block and one miss that led directly to short fields and more easy points for Houston.
It is difficult to express the difference in aggression in the second half. Most likely, the coach and QB admitted how meek they were playing in the 1st half and new that being down double-digits was the right time to move on to Plan B. There is much more risk involved, but again, when you are down double-digits at the half in a very critical situation, there is little left to risk. The season might already be hanging by a thread.
Early in the third quarter on two of the first five plays, Dallas attacked hard on 1st downs. Why there? Because, 1st down is where Houston is trying to stop your run. They are trying to put you in 3rd and long where they make a passing game’s life impossible.
You may note that those two plays ended up being the two biggest plays of the day for the Cowboys offense in terms of gaining yardage.
1st and 10 at the Houston 38 with 13:40 to go in the 3rd Quarter was the first one. It is play-action with their favorite Cover 3 beater. Again, Houston knows on 1st down that Dallas is being cautious, so they bring eight defenders into the box and play a Cover 3 behind it against George Pickens and CeeDee Lamb. Dak sells the fake and then Pickens clears out the deep safety. Lamb hits the over-route (allowing him to run away from the zone defender on his side) and now he has acres of turf to run free. This only works on a 1st down. One play later, they are in the end zone for the first time in the game.
Next drive, 1st and 10 from the Dallas 36, this time they use the jet-sweep motion of Lamb to sell the play-action fake. Houston all charges forward to deal with Lamb and this allows Pickens and Jake Ferguson to put the split-field safety in a conflict. Dak is waiting to see which way 6-Reed Blankenship goes. If he goes to Ferguson, it will be a deep pass to Pickens. If it is Pickens, they will hit Ferguson for an easy 15 yards. Blankenship decides to go with the tight end and this will prove to be a decision he will want back because this unleashes Dak to Pickens for 53 yards on the first play of the drive. The throw flew 55.8 yards in the air and flipped the game on its ear.
In fact, these two plays changed the entire posture of the game. Dallas would score to make it, 23-20 with 6:54 left in the 3rd Quarter and suddenly, the Houston pass rush was not so effective because the coverage was losing to the chemistry of this Cowboys passing attack. Was it just a matter of being willing to cross up tendencies? Was it Dak and CeeDee demonstrating what years of chemistry look like? Either way, it might have saved the season.
For the rest of the game, there was never a time where Houston’s defense was able to get its footing. The Cowboys had the ball five times in the half and scored on four of them. Heck, the one bad drive they had was a 3-and-out and that was the drive where Pickens has a 67-yard touchdown if Dak doesn’t get hit as he throws because George is wide open down the sideline. They just didn’t have an extra second.
And because they had 28 points in the 2nd half, Houston could not keep up. They could not keep up because now Dallas started putting defensive pressure back on Houston by dialing up more blitzes and much more man coverage with Joey Porter Jr putting his stamp on things with far better coverage on Nico Collins then anyone else could provide. The impacts of Quinnen Williams, Rashan Gary, and even flashes of Von Miller were all felt in the 2nd half as now Dallas could flip the script and make the opponent’s QB uncomfortable for once. Pass rushing becomes so much easier when you can play a bit with the lead and Dallas’ defensive posture had changed due to the confidence that the offense was extending.
The Cowboys had a lead in the 4th Quarter, just like last week. But, late, there would be one more major twist.
On 3rd and 14, Houston had to have a touchdown with 2:34 to play. Dalton Schultz caught a short pass – the hook – and Caleb Downs had him for the stop with Dee Winters coming over to help. But, you can see from Winters’ eyes that he knew something bad was happening as his man, David Montgomery, was swinging wide behind Schultz to collect the lateral part of the masterful hook and lateral call that gained 19 yards. One play later, Woody Marks was in the end zone and Houston had the 30-27 lead with 2:23 to play.
From there, Dallas needed a drive and this offense is right back to where they were in Brazil. One drive and they need points. A touchdown to win and a field goal to force overtime. Redemption has a funny way of arriving right back on your front porch.
On the final drive, Prescott knows that he has CeeDee Lamb and there is nobody you would rather have in this spot. In one drive, he threw six different passes to Lamb. SIX! The last five of them were completed. Yes, he needed a 4th down conversion to Jake Ferguson and he needed a deep sluggo to George Pickens for 22 yards, but most everything was that Houston could not stop Lamb. Houston was also curiously calling all of its timeouts which seemed to only serve to give Dallas opportunities to collect their breath and their thoughts and remind themselves not to settle for a field goal. If I am Houston, I am not doing Dallas the favor of allowing them time to organize. We have seen Dallas fail that test often enough. But, with all of those Houston timeouts, Dallas was deliberate and prepared. They kept attacking.
Right down the field they went and with :43 to go, Houston would make one last defensive mistake by leaving Jalen Pitre in man to man with Lamb and no safety help.
Just a crazy idea that would give Dallas the dagger they were seeking and put them up four points. Our flashback to Brazil reminds us of the difference between playing for the tie and trying to end the game right then and there with your best players deciding the verdict on the scene.
The Dallas defense survived the Hail Mary – Malik Hooker probably needs to knock it down next time, please – and Dallas pulled a scalp out of Houston they needed in the worst way.
It was a fantastic response to the Brazil episode and now they can prepare for Tampa Bay on a very short week with a backup QB leading them. But, for now, we ponder just how good this attack can be to score 28 in the 2nd half against that defense.
We also can’t help but notice what this team is doing to the scoreboard in the 2nd half of games when they adjust the aggression up and introduce risk out of necessity.
Points by half:
- 1st half: 43 points (10.8 per game)
- 2nd half: 79 points (19.8 per game)
- Week 1 at Giants (L 20-28): 7 in the 1st half, 13 in the 2nd
- Week 2 vs. Commanders (W 37-20): 17 in the 1st half, 20 in the 2nd
- Week 3 vs. Ravens (L 31-34): 13 in the 1st half, 18 in the 2nd
- Week 4 at Texans (W 34-30): 6 in the 1st half, 28 in the 2nd
In other words, maybe they are not crazy to believe in what they can accomplish.
For now, 2-2 puts them back in the mix and all things considered if they end this week at 3-2 and add Tyler Smith and DeMarvion Overshown back to their group, I bet everyone will be feeling better about things around here.
