Next stop, Super Bowl?
It may feel comical to suggest the 6-5-1 Cowboys are Super Bowl contenders, but they just beat the two teams from last year’s Super Bowl – not to mention the last two Super Bowl winners – in a span of just five days. Whether or not they’re contenders for the big game, it’s hard to deny this team is different.
Just a few days after their grueling comeback win over the Eagles, Dallas played host to the Chiefs in an island game on Thanksgiving. A win could provide a catalyst forward for the rest of the season, not only for the record but for the confidence of the locker room.
Things started out as poorly as it could have, though. Dak Prescott, hit as he threw, was intercepted on the third play of the game. Two plays later, Patrick Mahomes hit Rashee Rice for a touchdown. Both the offense and the defense were off to miserable starts.
Then, things stabilized.
Prescott started to get into a rhythm, hitting CeeDee Lamb on third down to move the chains twice before finding him in the corner of the endzone for a score. Just like that, the game was tied up again. It was time for the defense to respond, though against someone like Mahomes, that’s easier said than done. It proved to be true, as well, with Mahomes picking up a first down on a third-and-14 scramble before finding Travis Kelce for a touchdown on fourth-and-goal.
On the Cowboys’ next drive, Brian Schottenheimer demonstrated a clear understanding of how crucial it was to come away with points. On fourth-and-short at the Kansas City 48, he went for it, and Prescott found Jake Ferguson for the first down. A few plays later, though, Dallas came up short on third down and opted for the field goal, cutting it to a 14-10 Chiefs lead.
Now it was the defense’s turn to step up. Just as they did against the Eagles, Matt Eberflus’ unit locked in early into the second quarter. They took advantage of a first down holding call and Jadeveon Clowney sacked Mahomes on second down, setting up third and 26. Kansas City punted for the first time.
The Chiefs’ next drive went similarly. A second down hold backed them up and led to third-and-16, at which point Dante Fowler got a sack on Mahomes – which had to be confirmed via replay, as the quarterback had tried to throw it away – to help run the clock out and get to halftime.
Of course, in between those two drives came a crucial score. Prescott had two big third-down conversions, one to Ferguson and one to George Pickens, before Malik Davis came in to spell Javonte Williams and ripped off a big one.
That score gave the Cowboys a halftime lead over the Chiefs, somehow overcoming the terrible start to the game and wresting away control. The Chiefs, who had been shut out in the second quarter, saw a similar fate in the third quarter. They had two drives combine for 24 yards and two punts. Meanwhile, Dallas hit a field goal late in the third to go up 20-14.
That sparked Mahomes and company back to life. He hit four passes of 12 or more yards, including a 28-yard bomb to Rice, before finding him again in the endzone on fourth-and-goal. The Cowboys defense forced Kansas City to use every down and then some, but they still reclaimed the lead early in the fourth quarter.
That transitioned directly into the George Pickens drive. An early pass interference penalty helped move the chains, as did a run from Williams, but on third-and-eight the Cowboys were right on the cusp of field goal range when Prescott found Pickens. From there, it was all demon time.
A rare offensive pass interference on the next play backed the Cowboys up, threatening to rob them of six points, but some impressive scrambling from Prescott resulted in a Mahomes-esque flip to Williams for the touchdown. The Cowboys then decided to go for two and Prescott hit – who else? – Pickens to put them up by one touchdown.
The defense stepped up yet again, forcing a three-and-out on the next drive and giving the ball back to Prescott with nine and a half minutes left. A mere field goal would just about put things out of reach, and the Cowboys knew that. Prescott felt it, and went for the throat on the very first play.
The 51-yard bomb took all the drama out of it. Lamb’s catch – a sufficient atonement for last week’s drops – made a field goal a sure thing. From there, it was a matter of trying to kill some clock before kicking it. Tragedy nearly struck when Pickens fumbled a third-down catch, but impressive effort from KaVontae Turpin on the recovery helped set up the field goal from Brandon Aubrey.
The Chiefs responded quickly, scoring a touchdown in less than two minutes, but the Cowboys just needed to eat up three minutes of clock. Two different pass interference penalties helped move the chains on second down, and then Prescott hit Pickens on a slant for a crucial third down just on the other side of the two minute warning. With Kansas City being out of timeouts, all it took was a few kneel downs before the win was secured.
This game right down to the wire, and usually that ends up with the Chiefs finding a way to win in frustrating fashion. The fact that it didn’t – and that Prescott outdueled Mahomes and Schottenheimer outcoached Andy Reid – will offer more confidence inside that locker room than anything else could.
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