Thanksgiving Day was an absolute dream for the Dallas Cowboys. Just a few sleeps removed from storming back against the Philadelphia Eagles following an early 21-0 hole, the Cowboys “only” had to dig out of a 7-0 proposition against the Kansas City Chiefs. They did so successfully, and as a result they took care of last season’s Super Bowl teams in under a week. Pretty cool.
As Cowboys fans we are well aware of how enjoyable a Thanksgiving Day win is. The team plays on Thursday night next week so there is no mini-bye, but being able to enjoy all of the college football rivalry games or shopping experiences or whatever else is consuming your weekend with this performance in the bank is never not enjoyable.
Thursday was a lot of fun, and it was so because of several players on the team. Here is our Stock Report following all of the action. It is full of all ups given, well, everything.
Stock Up: CeeDee Lamb
There is no question that the Eagles game was a tough one for Lamb, relatively speaking, and he came out on a clear mission to avenge it. What’s more is that he delivered.
Lamb was extremely reliable and on a different sort of level in this game. He kept coming up with big catch after big catch, and in the moments when he wasn’t, he was drawing significant pass interference penalties. As noted, there was a lot of chatter about his outing last week, but he had a huge bounce back game.
Stock Up: Malik Davis
How about that 43-yard touchdown? My goodness.
Back in the days of training camp we all envisioned Jaydon Blue spelling Javonte Williams (who we had no idea would be so awesome in his own right) as the flashy point of juice. Without dragging Blue into any kind of conversation, there were maybe two people total who thought the role in question could, or should, actually go to Malik Davis.
Thursday featured the huge touchdown run, but Davis has proven to be the proper RB2 for this offense. He deserves enormous credit for battling his way back to the Cowboys in general and for maximizing the opportunities he got to the point that he keeps getting more of them.
Stock Up: KaVontae Turpin
Last week Turpin fumbled when getting involved out of the backfield and in this game he proved that those plays are definitely worth exploring. He was a great alternative option for the offense in general, and what’s more is that he pounced on a George Pickens fumble late that provided what wound up being the game-winning three points from Brandon Aubrey.
Stock Up: Shavon Revel
For the last few weeks Jerry Jones has been hyping up both Shavon Revel and DeMarvion Overshown (more on him in a moment, but this note does apply to the duo) as players who were going to return and help the team. While that makes sense in a literal sense, it felt unfair for him to put such heavy responsibility on players who were coming back from serious injuries. In Revel’s case it was on a player with zero NFL experience.
The sample size is small, but Revel has been a breath of fresh air. He has been a mostly dependable cornerback that held his own against an offense with a very strong and noteworthy reputation.
Stock Up: DeMarvion Overshown
As noted the Cowboys have seen their two injury returners step up and deliver in ways that they promised. That in and of itself is worthy of praise, but Overshown is really helping to fix a lot of what was wrong with the defense.
He has yet to reach the status that saw him dominating almost every play before his injury last year, but again he is raising the floor of the linebacker play. Having a steady presence right in front him has to be helping matters, but ultimately it is just nice to see some level of dependability from the linebacker group at certain points and Overshown is a big reason for that.
Stock Up: Quinnen Williams
There was a lot of excitement around here when the Cowboys traded for Quinnen Williams, but I don’t know that we knew when to expect it to translate. It seems pretty obvious that he has been an absolute rising tide for all boats on the defensive side of the ball.
Consider that at one point the Chiefs punted four straight times. The entire defense deserves credit for this, but the catalyst for how they have played as of late (consider how they shut down the Eagles last week after the initial scoring) is clearly the newest superstar in Quinnen Williams. He has changed everything.
Stock Up: Dak Prescott
While Williams has invigorated the defense, there is zero doubt that the charge supplying the whole team with energy is at the quarterback position in Dak Prescott. There was an interception early in this game that was obviously not ideal, but the rest of the outing was phenomenal from Dak.
Think back to when the Cowboys fell down by a point and Prescott was completely unfazed in leading the team down to take the lead right back. Or the next possession when they had a touchdown lead and he came out firing to CeeDee Lamb to go take the game and make it a two-score proposition. If you have this element, anything is possible.
Stock Up: George Pickens
Things started off a little slow for Pickens relative to expectations, but he made sure to leave his mark on the game before it was all said and done. The hurdle. The two-point conversion. The game-winning first down. He is magnificent
It is strange that Pickens could continually defy expectations, but that is the territory that we have entered with him. He is reliably great which is the most impressive thing possible.
Stock Up: Jake Ferguson
There were some seriously tough catches in this game that Jake Ferguson made look easy. The most difficult catch that he made look the most nonchalant wound up not counting in terms of the touchdown that got called back, but ultimately the game was a nice effort from him in an overall perspective.
We have rightfully spent so much time talking about the wide receivers on this team or Prescott when he is playing well. But Jake Ferguson is having an amazing season and deserves praise as well.
Stock Up: Brian Schottenheimer
These last three games have been a huge, pleasant surprise from the Cowboys. They have navigated a personal tragedy and there is no doubt that the loss of Marshawn Kneeland is something that weighs on the team more than anything related to the football of all of this.
The point is that handling things could not have been easy and Brian Schottenheimer appears to be the perfect leader and support person for this group. He has a locker room full of players who will line up and fight for him, and that is the hallmark of a great person. Obviously it is an incredible quality in a football coach.
Were there some moments in this game in the redzone where he could be a little bit cleaner as a play-caller? I will certainly say yes. But ultimately the most football-y takeaway from him in that sense is that he is really leaning into aggression and trusting his guys. That matters a lot. That matters more than anything.
See More:
