Cowboys Recent Surge has Philadelphia Looking in the Rearview Mirror – Mario Herrera Jr., Inside the Star
Objects are closer than they appear for the NFC East leader Philadelphia.
For diehard fans, it’s difficult to set aside the anguish of a Cowboys loss, even on a special day like Thanksgiving, where a win just adds to the holiday cheer of spending time with loved ones. Adding a cherry on top of this victory sundae is the fact that the Eagles have now dropped two games in a row after losing to the Bears on Friday afternoon. The loss dropped Philadelphia’s record to 8-4, putting the Cowboys (6-5-1) in striking distance of the NFC East title. Eagles fans know this, and the recent surge by the Cowboys in their three-game winning streak has those fans looking in the rear view.
Post-Bye Success
The Cowboys’ current three-game win streak started after the bye week, and after gaining reinforcements on defense. Dallas used the bye to acquire DT Quinnen Williams and LB Logan Wilson from the Jets and Bengals, respectively. Each of these players, especially Williams, has brought a different dynamic to the defense, and has given DC Matt Eberflus the ammunition to deploy his unit to his liking. Add in the fact that LB DeMarvion Overshown and CB Shavon Revel returned from injury, and the Cowboys’ defense is a complete 180 from what we saw the first nine games.
Dallas started with a convincing win over the Las Vegas Raiders on Monday Night Football, leading into a tough matchup with the defending Super Bowl champion Eagles. After falling behind 21-0 early in the 2nd quarter, the season seemed lost. However, the defense finally tightened up, shutting out the Eagles for eight consecutive possessions spanning nearly a full three quarters.
This allowed Dak Prescott and the offense to rise from the dead and tie the franchise record for the biggest comeback win: 21 points. The Cowboys then defeated the other Super Bowl participant (Kansas City Chiefs) on the national stage on Thanksgiving Day after another solid team performance. Dallas now sits at 6-5-1, and have their eye on catching the Eagles in the standings.
Longtime Cowboys veteran may be nearing the end of his Dallas run – Jaleel Grandberry, The Landry Hat
This veteran starter may be playing his last days with the Cowboys.
While the Dallas Cowboys are still fighting to stay in the playoff race, it’s already clear the franchise will have a lot of business to take care of in the offseason, regardless of how the rest of the year plays out. Like always, Dallas has some contract situations to figure out, and a few pending free agents who could be saying goodbye to the team this offseason. One of the veterans who could be moving on from the Cowboys in the offseason is safety Donovan Wilson. The veteran defender has been a staple on Dallas’ defense for seven seasons now. As his seventh season with the team nears an end, an eighth year with the team is looking increasingly unlikely.
Donovan Wilson could be playing his final games with the Cowboys
Wilson was drafted by Dallas in the sixth round of the 2019 Draft, and by his second season, he was an impact starter for the team. Now, seven seasons and a three-year contract extension later, the safety has played in 92 games for the Cowboys, starting 69. In his seven seasons, he has recorded 422 tackles, 13 sacks, eight forced fumbles, 18 pass deflections, and eight interceptions.
While Wilson is still a contributing starter, he is in the final season of his contract. Set to enter free agency this offseason, a return to Dallas could definitely be an option, but the team may decide to go in a different direction. Currently, the Cowboys’ two starting safeties are Wilson and Malik Hooker. Wilson turns 31 this offseason, and Hooker will be turning 30.
While both are still productive, Dallas needs to start thinking about the future, and getting younger in the secondary. Since Hooker is signed beyond this season already, Donovan Wilson could be the safety the team says farewell to first. While getting younger at the position is an understandable philosophy, it’s not always an easy one.
Re-living the Cowboys amazing 31-28 victory over the Chiefs – David Howman, Blogging the Boys
Two days later, and the win over Kansas City is still sweeter than Thanksgiving dessert.
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.
Malik Davis’ TD run vs. Chiefs an emotional one: ‘I prayed for this’ – DallasCowboys.com
Perseverance paid off.
A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, but what’s often lost in that age-old bit of wisdom is the fact that there are often things that knock a person back several steps, multiple times, to test their will and resolve toward their goal. Malik Davis can readily attest to the truth of that matter and, on Thanksgiving, the Dallas Cowboys’ running back got his chance to take a hundred steps forward.
That’s roughly the number of them he took, give or take, when All-Pro quarterback Dak Prescott handed him the ball on 2nd-and-1 from the Chiefs 43-yard line, late in the second quarter, and Davis exploded through the line of scrimmage before juking a defender and turning on the jets to pull away for a 43-yard touchdown.
It was the longest of his NFL career, the longest rushing touchdown of the Cowboys’ season, and it gave Dallas their first lead of the game just ahead of halftime in a game they went on to win, their third in a row to move to 6-5-1 on the year.
“It’s a great feeling,” Davis said after the game, still soaking in the surrealism of the moment. “I told [my teammates] when I was coming off the field, I was like, ‘It’s no better feeling, you know?’ I prayed so hard for these moments, and my teammates, they watched me, and they know what I’ve been going through — my family, they watched me come in and work every day, and it feels great.
“Now that the world can see, I’m just scratching the surface. They just saw a little peek of what I could do.”
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