The Dallas Cowboys put together their best overall performance of the season on Sunday at MetLife Stadium.
It was a dominating victory, 37-22 to be clear, where things were never really in doubt. Many will point to the opponent being the New York Jets, but thrashing any NFL team by a margin like that is impressive work.
What was most impressive about how Dallas played on Sunday was that their success came despite missing so many important players. CeeDee Lamb has been out. The defense continues to be shaken up. Oh, and the offensive line was without four its intended starters.
To make a long story short there are no apologies necessary for winning and particularly for winning like this. The Cowboys took care of business and in the process improved to 2-2-1 on the season with a road trip next week against the Carolina Panthers that presents the opportunity to get above .500 for the first time this season. One game at a time, though.
Below you will find our recap of Sunday’s Cowboys game against the Jets broken down by quarter.
The Cowboys won. Massively. What an awesome day.
First Quarter
The Dallas Cowboys won the toss and deferred to the second half. Justin Fields and Co. were officially up first.
It was more of the same early on for the Cowboys defense, though. The Jets were moving down the field and doing so with very little pushback. To make matters worse the Cowboys defense was called for both too-many-men-on-the-field and offsides which helped the Jets offense.
When New York got up against the goal line things tightened up, shockingly. Solomon Thomas served as the catalytic effort for Dallas to hold the Jets to a field goal instead of a touchdown, but New York did score and took a 3-0 lead.
The Cowboys offense went to work and kept up their pattern of mining points. Ryan Flournoy had the big moment as his 40-yard reception put the team in field goal range and that is how the drive ended to tie the game at 3-all.
Initially it looked like the Jets would cruise to more points, but then Justin Fields missed an open Garrett Wilson for a big gain. DaRon Bland was in coverage so the Cowboys really dodged one there.
This made converting a little bit tough for New York and they ultimately unable to do so. A punt happened. For real!
The quarter ended with Dallas having just converted a first down by way of Dak Prescott to George Pickens on Pickens’ first reception of the game.
Second Quarter
The beginning of the second quarter was notable for the Cowboys as it included Jaydon Blue lined up at running back. His first touch did not yield any yardage, but he quickly found his footing.
Hunter Luepke, Luke Schoonmaker, and the aforementioned Blue all had nice moments on the drive. Javonte Williams continued his hard running.
But it was Jake Ferguson who did the heaviest lifting as he took a dump off and ran it all the way into the endzone for a 26-yard score!
Initially the Jets were called for a penalty on the extra point attempt so Brian Schottenheimer sent his offense back onto the field to attempt a two-point conversion thanks to the yardage. Unfortunately the Cowboys had a false start which backed them up so they took the standard extra point to give themselves a 10-3 lead.
You will never believe this, but the Cowboys defense forced a second straight punt. It was quite the development and the direct result of back to back sacks from Osa Odighizuwa and James Houston!
Things finally cooled a bit for the Cowboys offense, though. They punted for the first time in a while to give the ball back to New YOrk.
The next drive featured what felt like a million penalties. As they were happening there appeared to be issues with the FOX broadcast as well from an audio standpoint as there was no play-by-play or analysis happening. All that could be heard were the sounds from the game which was actually kind of a breath of fresh air.
New York was finding offensive success in spite of all of the penalties. Thankfully Marist Liufau put an end to it and forced a fumble to give the Cowboys the ball back!
This set the Cowboys up with two important opportunities: scoring off of a turnover and double-dipping as they were deferred the opening kick off. Those are much easier said than done.
Ryan Flournoy came to the rescue, though. Flournoy eclipsed 100 receiving yards on the day on this drive and it was one where Javonte Williams thrived once more.
Thanks to some incredible lead blocking by Hunter Luepke, Williams was the one who cashed in with the touchdown to put Dallas up 17-3.
The Jets were in a pretty big hole and facing the Cowboys getting the ball after halftime as noted. You would think they would have at least focused on draining time off of the clock.
Brian Schottenheimer would not let that happen, though. He made it a point to use his timeouts in the name of giving his offense a chance at more points before the break. Ultimately Dallas took over at their own 33-yard line with 29 seconds left.
On the first play the Cowboys handed the ball off to Javonte Williams and he was able to break through the entire Jets defense before being pushed out of bounds right before reaching the endzone.
One play later the Cowboys were in the endzone as Dak Prescott hit Jake Ferguson.
Amazingly, Brandon Aubrey missed the extra point. That was the lone demerit in the first half!
Third Quarter
The Cowboys had a unique double-dip opportunity (unique because of how they scored at the end of the first half) to start the third quarter, but unfortunately things did not go that route. A quick three and out gave New York the ball.
That didn’t seem to matter much. Dante Fowler had a great stop of Breece Hall in the backfield and then Sam Williams picked up the team’s fourth sack of the day on third down. The Jets were stopped for the fifth time in a row which felt pretty wild given, um, recent events for the Cowboys.
Unfortunately the offense still could not find itself despite looking better than their previous possession. The Cowboys punted the ball back with a 20-point lead for the defense to continue to protect.
The Jets were able to make things fourth and short for them right past midfield and decided that this was a proper time to roll the dice. To be fair that is pretty sound logic.
Despite Justin Fields’ best attempts to get creative (it was a bit of a mess from his perspective) the Cowboys stopped New York for a sixth time in a row and gave the offense the ball back.
It did not take long for the Cowboys offense to wake up on this possession. Just after it began Dak Prescott wound up and hit George Pickens for a touchdown to make this one a matter of time.
The Jets managed to get into field goal range and on 4th and 17 decided that some points were better than none. It was a curious decision to say the least.
The quarter ended with Dallas well in control.
Fourth Quarter
The Jets managed to get the ball back quickly as the fourth quarter started. It did not take long for them to turn it over on downs though and for the Cowboys to punt it right back. Both sides seemed ready to get through this one to the end of the game and onto Week 6.
New York likely wanted to feel something good though and had reason to after marching down the field for a meaningless score. They did get the two-point conversion on it which made this one 30-14 officially. They did go for an onside kick after that Dallas recovered.
Even though the game was over for all intents and purposes it still had to be played out.
Dak Prescott and Javonte Williams connected for another touchdown, Prescott’s fourth of the day.
The Jets were able to grind out a Justin Fields to Garrett Wilson touchdown before it was all said and done. They went for two and got it to make things 37-22 where they ended.
Cowboys win!
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