Brought to you by: Big Shucks
The Dallas Cowboys escaped Pittsburgh with a hard-fought 35-30 victory against the Steelers. The Cowboys are 8-1 for the first time in nine years and they’re eight-game winning streak is their first since 1977.
A Look at How They Did It
Offense: Dak Prescott threw two touchdowns and had 319 yards through the air, thus having his first career 300-yard game. One of Prescott’s touchdown passes was for 83 yards, which is the longest of his career and the longest touchdown pass this season for the Cowboys offense. Dez Bryant caught six passes for 116 yards, including a 50-yard touchdown. Jason Witten and Cole Beasley combined for eleven catches for 92 yards. Ezekiel Elliot had 21 carries for 114 yards and two catches for 95 yards. He scored three times, including the game-winning touchdown. Elliot passed the 1,000-yard marker, thus becoming the third player in NFL history to reach 1,000 rushing yards in his first nine games, and becoming the first Cowboys rookie running back to rush for 1,000 yards this quickly since Tony Dorsett in 1977. Elliot also had an 83-yard touchdown pass, which is the longest touchdown reception by a Dallas running back since Hershel Walker had an 84-yard reception against Philadelphia in 1986. Offense had 422 total yards. Trailing by one point with 42 seconds left and with three timeouts, the Cowboys drove up the field and were able to score the game-winning touchdown with less than ten seconds remaining. Offense gets an A+ for their performance. On the opening drive, a fumble halted the momentum, but they didn’t let that stop them.
Defense: Allowed 448 yards of total offense. Failed to force a turnover for the second consecutive game. Sacked the quarterback once. Allowed Pittsburgh’s offense to register 30 first downs, and 4-5 in the redzone. On a positive note, the Dallas defense allowed less than 50 yards of rushing and forced Pittsburgh to go 0-4 in two-point conversion attempts. In the final two minutes, the Cowboys were up 29-24 and the defense needed to make a crucial stop. Instead they were torched and fooled by Ben Roethlisberger and company. But lucky for them, the offense was able to score to seal the win. Defense gets a C+ for their performance. They need to force some turnovers and sack the quarterback more.
This week, the Cowboys take on Baltimore. With a win, the Cowboys will be on a nine-game consecutive winning streak for the first time in franchise history.
