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January 5, 2025

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Dallas, TX

Cowboys come alive on offense, capitalize on turnovers to beat Panthers for 6th win

Cowboys come alive on offense, capitalize on turnovers to beat Panthers for 6th win

Photo by Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images

The Dallas Cowboys upset the Carolina Panthers to earn their sixth win of the season on Sunday. This is a real sentence and thing that happened. The Panthers had not been the favorites to win any game over their last 34 tries, but oddsmakers had them slated to defend home field and snap a four-game losing streak against a Cowboys team that came in winners of two of their last three. The lone loss was on Monday night against the Cincinnati Bengals and came on a botched punt block recovery, all but ending already distant playoff hopes for the Cowboys. Understandably, their motivation to continue playing hard to close out a lost season defined by equal parts ineptitude and injuries has come into question.

Dallas answered this question with one of their most complete performances of the season to win 30-14. Mike McCarthy’s team is now 6-8 with three games remaining, and momentum is building towards the fifth-year head coach returning on a new contract. Every performance like this one for a Cowboys team still sitting in third place of the division they won a year ago helps justify letting McCarthy see through the roster getting healthier and Dak Prescott back in the starting lineup at QB. There is still the question of where any resemblance of consistency has been for a team that’s still won just once at home all year. With the Panthers stuck on three wins since Week 10, the combined record of the teams the Cowboys have beat this season is 24-32. The Steelers account for close to half of the wins here as a current 10-4 division leader under Russell Wilson, who did not start the Sunday night game against the Cowboys.

What the Cowboys did earn with their early kickoff win at the Panthers, one that FOX analyst Greg Olsen called “gym class” at one point in a penalty-filled second half, is another chance to bring some intrigue to their last primetime game of the season. Similar to the Cowboys hosting the Bengals as a meeting of two losing teams last Monday night but still bringing in record ratings, the Cowboys now have a quality win going into a matchup with a Buccaneers team that’s won four in a row. Tampa Bay is making a surge towards the playoffs, most recently dropping 40 points on a Chargers defense who’s previous high was 30 to the Ravens this season. The matchup of their Baker Mayfield-led offense going up against a Mike Zimmer defense that just had two interceptions, six sacks, and two fumble recoveries against the Panthers will quietly be one of the better ones around the league in Week 16 for Sunday Night Football.

Zimmer’s defense had the benefit of playing from ahead in the win at Carolina, with the Cowboys offense getting better as the game went on. They found easy completions for Cooper Rush, ran the ball for a season high 211 yards (surpassing last week’s high of 156), and converted 6 of 12 third-down attempts to control the game. The Bryce Young-led Panthers offense had no answers. Micah Parsons, Osa Odighizuwa, Carl Lawson, and Mazi Smith all set the tone up front for Dallas by beating blocks and getting in the backfield.

Even though this group is still missing a Pro Bowl player in DeMarcus Lawrence, they showed a lot against a Panthers team that’s struggled on the offensive line for multiple seasons now. Improved offensive line play in protection of Young had been a huge reason why the Panthers came into this game playing much better football despite close losses, but the Cowboys defensive line proved too much for them.

Dallas’ own offensive line had much more of a say in winning up front in this game, with another patchwork group still paving the way for Rico Dowdle to have a career day and giving Rush time to read the field.

Though not technically eliminated from the playoff picture yet, the Cowboys are still very much in the mode of evaluating what they have for 2025 at this point in the year, and saw a lot to like in all three phases against the Panthers to earn a bounce-back win. Let’s get to a few other notes on the action that saw Dallas jump ahead 10-0 in the first half and never look back, leading by as much as 20 in the fourth quarter.

Photo by Grant Halverson/Getty Images

  • The Cowboys did their best to show why they were betting underdogs to a three-win team early on this game, forced to punt on their first two possessions including the first of the game. A big second-down play down the middle to CeeDee Lamb was negated by an illegal formation penalty, and Dallas did the predictable thing of force-feeding Lamb the ball again on a screen on second and even longer to bring up their first third-down try of the afternoon. Rush was sacked on a corner blitz, and the Cowboys quickly punted.

The Panthers held the ball for 13 plays on the ensuing drive, their longest of the game, and got into the red zone, looking to quickly seize momentum and take the lead. The Cowboys have plenty of replacement level players taking the field on defense on a weekly basis right now, and the Panthers found last week’s scapegoat in Amani Oruwariye quickly to keep the drive alive. Oruwariye also had an offsides penalty lining up in the neutral zone in press coverage.

The Panthers also picked on Marist Liufau in coverage, who is much more of a downhill linebacker against the run than one able to stick with backs or receivers in man coverage. Luckily for Dallas, a Panthers team that came in with the sixth-worst turnover differential in the NFL would give them one early as their promising opening drive came up empty. After impressively spinning away from Micah Parsons on a scramble, Young was hit by Liufau and coughed up the ball, recovered by rookie Marshawn Kneeland. It feels like the more Liufau is on the field on an every down basis, the closer he gets at any given time to making a splash play. Zimmer and the Cowboys staff have been impressed with his instinctual ability as a prospect out of Notre Dame, and now Liufau finds himself the biggest beneficiary of a playing time boost following DeMarvion Overshown’s injury.

Photo by Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images

This change in momentum would not spark the Cowboys offense just yet, as they promptly had their only three and out of the game. The Cowboys did have the gift of time to settle into this game though, perhaps showing they don’t belong among the true bottom feeders in this league stuck on two or three wins, and did just that after forcing another punt to jump ahead 7-0.

Still working the screen game on this scoring drive, the Cowboys went to it on second and long again for Jake Ferguson to bring up a third and eight. Another screen, this time to Lamb, would move the chains, and after two Dowdle runs and Lamb’s longest catch of the game for 28 yards, the Cowboys WR1 was in the end zone on a fade route from 14 yards out. Dowdle had the key blitz pickup coming all the way across the formation on the downfield shot to Lamb, working out of the slot where a lot of his best plays have come in recent weeks.

Lamb was one of three Cowboys receivers with at least two receptions in this game to average over ten yards a catch. McCarthy’s offense has gotten this type of production from receivers in the games Rush has started before, despite his struggles to always deliver the ball downfield accurately, but what made this win against the Panthers different was Jalen Tolbert finding the end zone for the fifth time this season and Jalen Brooks scoring for the first time in his NFL career.

Tolbert’s touchdown came after an Osa Odighizuwa sack on the first play of the second half created another fumble, and Brooks got in the end zone from 17 yards out to cap off the longest drive of the game for the Cowboys after getting the ball off a three and out when Chauncey Golston got to Young for another sack. It’s unfortunate that the often-used term “complementary football” has not helped the Cowboys get anywhere close to the 12 wins of seasons past despite finding ways to play it in stretches, but despite all the injuries it was on full display against the Panthers.

Photo by Grant Halverson/Getty Images

  • The Cowboys did allow seven points of their own off another Rush mesh point fumble that led to the longest offensive touchdown for the Panthers since 2019, but their ten points off turnovers with the other three being a field goal following Eric Kendricks’ interception was more than enough to win.

It was Jourdan Lewis in coverage on the contested throw by Young that ended up being picked by Kendricks. Cornerback has been a revolving door for the Cowboys this season, now without the opportunity to play with both DaRon Bland and Trevon Diggs together for the rest of the season following Diggs’ latest knee injury. Lewis has been a consistent veteran presence that’s found new life in Zimmer’s defense and under the coaching of Al Harris. The Cowboys learning they can rely on Lewis as a defender capable of covering out of the slot or on the boundary could be one of their best takeaways from this tough season. Lewis also had a third-down sack that forced a punt in the second half.

Staying on this side of the ball, Dallas also saw Mazi Smith flash a few times throughout this game, staying square at the point of attack and shedding blocks to make plays along the line of scrimmage.

Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images

The conversation about how this team can retain Mike McCarthy and still improve enough to return to the playoffs next season, something that can’t be solely dependent on Prescott bringing them there, will be an ongoing one. A performance like this from Zimmer’s defense, particularly up front where Dallas was expected to take a step back after Dan Quinn took not only his coaching but several defensive linemen with him to Washington, can be a real step towards this time finding the identity they want under McCarthy. A new head coach wanting to retain Zimmer and not bring in yet another new defensive coordinator would be unlikely.

On the other side, the Cowboys are seeing an offensive line that’s turned to the likes of Chuma Edoga and Brock Hoffman multiple times this season still play formidably, even with a backup QB starting. Continuing to take strides here as well would make Dallas a stout team up front both offensively and defensively, and although playing this way against the Panthers is admittedly a low bar to clear, it did lead to one of the best all-around Cowboys wins of the year.

A regular season win against the Panthers in December with both teams hardly thinking about the playoffs (Carolina was officially eliminated with this loss) certainly needs to be put in full context before anyone makes this a defining win for the 2024 Cowboys that carries too much relevance to next season. Still, his was a team under all these negative circumstances that came out and executed a great gameplan, played hard, and got a decisive victory.

The Cowboys did have a season high 14 penalties in this game, but being able to run the ball 25 times for 141 yards in the second half and 40 times total, also a season high, went a long way in not letting penalties affect the outcome.

Photo by Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images

Rico Dowdle’s new career highs in attempts with 25, and yards with 149 on the ground, gave Dallas yet another thing to take from this game that can apply to building towards the future. Ever since being declared the starting running back, Dowdle has provided the much-needed balance to this Cowboys offense by getting the most out of every run with a physical between the tackles style.

The Cowboys will look to earn a 2-2 split against the NFC South this season against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at home next week, their second-to-last opportunity to add another AT&T Stadium win before ending the season against the Commanders. This win against the Panthers ensured that McCarthy, in his 17th full season as a head coach, will not finish with less than six wins for the first time ever. The 2008 Packers finished 6-10 as did the 2020 Cowboys, but a McCarthy team has never dipped below this line. The 2024 Cowboys are doing everything they can to prove they aren’t as historically bad and incapable at a franchise-altering level as previously thought, and in that way this win against the Panthers can mean a lot now with less than a month to go on the season.


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