The Preston Road Trophy is staying in Dallas, and so too are the great vibes around the Dallas Cowboys after their third straight win on Thanksgiving, 31-28 over the Kansas City Chiefs. The Cowboys had to come from behind in a home game yet again, but did so for the second time in five days to knock off the reigning AFC champions after beating the reigning NFC champion Eagles on Sunday.
There is no doubt the Cowboys are a changed team at this point in the season, and winning this stretch of three games has come at the perfect time to set up a December where Dallas will be at least in the conversation of being a playoff team. The Cowboys won this game with their “main course” players Dak Prescott, CeeDee Lamb, and George Pickens, but on Thanksgiving and throughout the winning streak, Schottenheimer’s team has been all about the right mix of “side dishes” working alongside the main course to create balance. We all know turkey isn’t as good without also having some mashed potatoes and maybe mac and cheese on the plate, and right now the Cowboys plate has the best of everything working in unison.
To beat Andy Reid and the Chiefs, it also takes a perfectly cooked-up game plan, and 60 minutes of execution. The Cowboys were the better team in this regard in impressive fashion in front of the national audience. The Chiefs hung in this game the same way they did last Sunday against the Colts before forcing overtime and winning, but had no such heroics on the road this time out, in the NFL’s first-ever meeting between two teams that won their prior game without ever having a lead with any time on the clock. The Chiefs winning on a walk-off field goal in overtime means there was technically never any game time where they led the Colts until the game was over, and Brandon Aubrey’s field goal to beat the Eagles came with zeros on the clock in regulation.
The Cowboys were the team that carried over momentum off a thrilling win, didn’t flinch at being down 7-0 early again, and stayed ready to capitalize on mistakes from the Chiefs the same way they did against the Eagles. The Cowboys having just seven penalties for 50 yards compared to 10 penalties for 119 yards for the Chiefs and converting on nine of 16 third-down attempts while holding the Chiefs to five of 13 on third down were two areas that went a long way in Dallas stacking back-to-back signature wins.
The long quest for Dallas to get above .500 under Schottenheimer in his debut season is finally over going into a Black Friday where the Chicago Bears got a clean sweep of the NFC East this season in Philadelphia. The Bears beat the Cowboys in week three, and also have wins against the Giants and Commanders, and now the Eagles. No matter what path the Cowboys try to take to the playoffs, they will need help beyond the wins that are starting to come, and seeing the Eagles lose two straight for the second time this season helps.
The Cowboys will have time to marinate on their Turkey Day win against the Chiefs, having already feasted on their fourth home win of the year. They were the only home team to win on this Thanksgiving, and their next challenge will be one of Thursday’s losing teams, the Lions who lost to Packers at home to begin the day of holiday football. Before getting into any of the rich recent history between the Cowboys and Lions, here are our notes on a Cowboys win against the team Coach Schotty’s father Marty used to coach, which surely made Thanksgiving dinner sweeter for that family – and the Cowboys as a whole, who will be asking Jake Ferguson to save the turkey for them.
This game was won for the Cowboys by their ability to consistently make big plays on the outside in the pass game with CeeDee Lamb and George Pickens, and contain the Chiefs pass offense from doing the same. The Chiefs have struggled in this area all season, and the fact it continued against a Cowboys secondary that was missing Caelen Carson and Trevon Diggs is not a good sign at all for their hopes of making the playoffs now at 6-6. It is another great sign for Cowboys defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus though, who was able to stick with variations of the five-man fronts Dallas has been playing since the Raiders win. The Cowboys used these fronts to mostly keep contain on Patrick Mahomes, which also required having a linebacker spy at times, and still held up in coverage enough to make more crucial stops all afternoon.
The most sustained success the Chiefs had on offense was attacking the edges of the Cowboys defense horizontally, but even with these plays and a handful of Mahomes plays that only he can make, the Dallas defense put their fingerprints all over another win. The Chiefs caught the Cowboys defense in a drop zone look at the perfect time to throw a swing pass to Rashee Rice and get on the board first. One play after Hollywood Brown made a rare contested catch outside the numbers for a Kansas City WR, Rice outran the Cowboys secondary that was in single high for a 27-yard touchdown. Rookie cornerback Shavon Revel Jr. was dropping backwards at the snap to protect against the type of end zone shots the Chiefs would normally take here, especially off a sudden change. This drive starting after Dak Prescott’s opening drive interception, but the underneath pass from Reid was the perfect call for a huge play.
The Cowboys made their adjustment quickly and contested Rice, Brown, and the Chiefs pass catchers much better all game. Revel had great individual coverage on Rice on a 3rd-and-goal play early in the fourth quarter, forcing the Chiefs to move Rice to the opposite side of the field and work him out of the slot on 4th-and-goal for a touchdown working against Trikweze Bridges instead. The Chiefs had their first lead since Travis Kelce’s touchdown against Kenneth Murray made it 14-7 at this point, but the Cowboys offense had plenty of time to continue controlling this game and regain the lead only down 21-20.
The Cowboys may have only gotten three points off of forcing consecutive punts to start the second half, but more importantly they stopped the Chiefs from having any chance of doubling up on points by scoring before halftime and again to start the third quarter. Jadeveon Clowney’s sack finished off one of many Kansas City drives that was set back by penalties, and forced the second of four straight punts between the second and third quarters which led to Malik Davis’ career-long 43-yard touchdown. This was the Cowboys’ longest rushing touchdown since Tony Pollard in 2022, and a major turning point in this game to put the Cowboys ahead 17-14.
Dallas caught KC’s best defensive linemen Chris Jones upfield on this trap run, clearing the lane for Davis to hit the hole running north-south with speed and pick up a second level block from left tackle Nathan Thomas. This was all Davis needed to make his most impressive play of the season, showing he can be a legitimate spell option for Javonte Williams to give the Cowboys a deeper rushing attack. Picking up where they left off against the Eagles, Schottenheimer was in his bag getting all phases of the run, shot pass, and play-action calls going against a Steve Spagnuolo defense that couldn’t be as aggressive as usual thanks to the Cowboys attacking in all these ways.
Even a deflected pass intended for Pickens in the fourth quarter that put the Cowboys in an obvious pass situation for 3rd-and-8, and chance for the Chiefs to bring pressure, was immediately followed by Pickens’ longest play of the game on a 39-yard catch and run. The Cowboys overcame yet another offensive penalty in the red zone on the very next play when Jake Ferguson was called for pass interference. Prescott scrambled and found Williams for a dump off pass for a walk-in touchdown. This gave the home team a lead they never gave away. The Cowboys went for two to go up by seven, and with Prescott under pressure again he hit Pickens who made a contested catch at the pylon through contact.
The Chiefs went three and out with a key drop by Rice after the Williams touchdown, and the Cowboys weren’t at all done widening the gap between their skill players and those of the visiting team to finish off this win. Lamb started the drive with a 51-yard catch off a play-action pass, and Ryan Flournoy was on the receiving end of one of Prescott’s better throws of the game for 17 yards on third-and-short a few plays later. The Cowboys briefly flirted with disaster in the red zone once again when Pickens fumbled the ball around nothing but Chiefs defenders, but KaVontae Turpin, hustling across the field, was able to fall on the ball. Dallas got a field goal to go ahead two scores after this, but would still need a little more from their offense to finish this game.
Winning and losing with your best players on the field doesn’t just apply to the Cowboys after all, and now in desperation mode Mahomes got the Chiefs downfield quickly for a score that kept the game alive. Escaping the Dallas pass rush to throw downfield to a wide open Xavier Worthy for 42 yards led to Brown scoring a touchdown that cut the Cowboys lead to 31-28.
The Cowboys were going to get the ball back in a situation that offensive players and play-callers live for, especially those that pride themselves on strong offensive line play and a running game. Not giving the ball back to Mahomes only down three was of high priority.
However, instead of using the run game to finish off the Chiefs, the Cowboys did the next best thing and called pass plays they had just as much confidence in as runs, with John Madden game MVP Prescott in full command of the offense. Pickens beat Jaylen Watson across his face on a slant to draw pass interference and a new set of downs after a short Williams run on first down. Williams got the ball again on first down and didn’t get much, but this time on second down it was Lamb drawing a penalty on Trent McDuffie to again reset the downs. Williams had a seven-yard gain after this to put Dallas in a much better situation to end the game, but it still came down to a 3rd-and-2 on the plus side of the two-minute warning. Pickens again made easy work getting across the face of Watson, caught a short pass and dashed 13 yards to move the chains and end the game.
When the Chiefs sat in coverage they simply could not hold up against the Cowboys talent at the skill positions, and when they brought pressure Prescott was able to find Ferguson and other check downs to carve their defense up. This game was a win for Coach Schottenheimer calling plays against a Super Bowl-winning coordinator in Spagnuolo. It’s a landmark win for Prescott in a head-to-head against Mahomes. It was a win for Matt Eberflus calling plays against Andy Reid. It was a win for the Cowboys as a whole taking another step in finding their identity and showing their changed culture can lead to wins.
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