marioherreraThe Dallas Cowboys got back on the winning track late Sunday afternoon with a lopsided 38-3 victory over the New England Patriots.
Dallas accomplished a few things with the victory over Bill Belichick and his minions on Sunday.
Like we talked about in my most recent article analyzing past matchups, the Cowboys had not defeated Bill Belichick in their home stadium this century.
Dallas eked out a victory in overtime at Foxborough back in 2021, but two other matchups in Dallas during the 2007 and 2015 seasons did not go their way.
Not only did the Cowboys finally walk off the AT&T Stadium turf victors over the Patriots, but they did so while giving Belichick the worst loss of his career.
The 35 point win is the largest margin of victory over a Belichick coached team in his entire career as a head coach.
After this victory, we can chalk up that Arizona game as a fluke, an anomaly of the first quarter of the season.
Let’s take a look at some specific moments and performances that led the Cowboys to their current 3-1 record.
Key Plays
Last week when I wrote about key hidden plays, I received several comments telling me those plays didn’t matter, and people only mentioned the big plays.
To those of you that want only the obvious, maybe my writing style isn’t specifically for you.
However, I did listen, and now I’ll mix in hidden plays with the obvious plays for your reading pleasure.
Key plays will not be separated by a good or bad label. Instead, the structure will be much more informal, and mentioned in chronological order.
Schoonmaker Drops TD
For what feels like a weekly occurrence now, a Cowboys tight end drops a pass in the endzone that would have resulted in a touchdown if caught.
On the first drive of the game, Dak Prescott and the Cowboys were moving through the Patriots defense like a hot knife through butter.
On 2nd & 6 from the 18, Prescott fired a pass up the right hash to the rookie TE Luke Schoonmaker.
The ball hit his hands and fell to the turf before he could corral it.
Dallas settled for a field goal, but an opening drive touchdown for an offense struggling in the redzone would have quieted some of the chatter.
3rd Down Attempt Ends In Bad Handoff
Dallas had more than one mishap on this same drive in the redzone.
After a 1st & Goal from the four yard line, the Cowboys could not punch it in for a touchdown for the sixth straight drive.
Prescott lined up the offense for a 3rd & Goal play from the two yard line, and immediately audibled at the line.
We will never know if Tony Pollard could have punched it in because they botched the handoff, and settled for a field goal.
CeeDee Lamb Finds the Endzone
For the first time this season, Prescott threw a touchdown pass to a wide receiver.
After a shoulder injury to Patriots rookie CB Christian Gonzalez forced him to exit the game, Prescott immediately attacked his replacement.
Another wide-eyed rookie fell victim to the CeeDee Lamb effect, getting beat right off the line and being outran to the endzone.
It seems like a routine play, but underneath the surface shows us the difference between head coach and new play-caller Mike McCarthy and his predecessor Kellen Moore.
That touchdown showed us McCarthy’s offense is willing to adjust to favorable matchups of their best weapon instead of Moore’s philosophy of “just find the open man”.
Big Defensive Plays
After Lamb’s touchdown, the Patriots fell right into the hands of the Cowboys defense.
With an ineffective running game, QB Mac Jones was forced to drop back to pass, allowing the Dallas defense to do what they do best: bring pressure and create turnovers.
Down 10-3, Jones was flushed out of the pocket, and eventually ran down by Dante Fowler Jr., who recorded the sack and forced fumble.
LB Leighton Vander Esch picked up the ball and ran in 11 yards for a touchdown, the first of his career.
Later, in Dallas territory for the first time since their opening drive, Mac Jones again dropped back to pass.
He scrambled around before firing a pass into the left flat that was read perfectly by CB DaRon Bland, who stepped in front for the interception and 54 yard return for touchdown.
On the first drive of the second half, Bland would once again find himself with the ball in his hands.
Down 28-3 and needing a spark, New England elected to go for a 4th & 2 from the Dallas 40 yard line.
Another Jones pass into the flat was read perfectly by Bland, who stepped in front for his second interception of the day.
Scattered Observations
Dak Prescott is playing very well.
Another efficient game from Dak that will be dissected because he didn’t throw for 300 yards and three touchdowns.
I’ll take 82% completions and zero turnovers any day of the week.
The defense is back.
It appears the defensive struggles in Arizona were just a fluke.
Chalk it up to the defense being too emotional after the season-ending injury of All-Pro CB Trevon Diggs.
Whatever it was, the defense was back to stuffing the run and creating chaos on passing downs.
They did give up nine plays of 10 yards or more. A figure they need to bring down versus better teams.
Mike McCarthy trusts rookie K Brandon Aubrey.
Aubrey lined up for a 66 yard field goal attempt before the end of the first half, but a false start put the offense back on the field instead.
He has made every kick this season after missing the first extra point attempt of his career.
The team’s trust in him grows with each made field goal.
With the undefeated San Francisco 49ers up next, a dominant win like this should give the Cowboys the confidence to go into Santa Clara, and play a very competitive football game.
Big difference this week was effort. Last week, defense was not hustling to the ball which allowed big runs. This week, everyone ran to be in on the tackle. Problem developing in that Parsons is so focused on pass rush, blockers are guiding him out of position and QB scrambles to his vacated area. Great players have to also play with discipline.
Scoring inside the 10 requires either power or creating isolation.. McCarthy is calling slow developing plays that have no chance with all the defense concentrated. Can we move on from the Vaughn publicity stunt? He was always smal but not quick and actually slow. Jerry got his publicity, now cut him and get a real back.
Big difference this week was they were on turf. One of the analysts during last week’s game pointed out that the defense plays a lot slower on natural surfaces. Guess what they’re playing on in S.F.? Against a very balanced and tough team.
I hope they prove that analyst wrong. I hope Parsons is closer to 100% than 75%. I hope our OL is finally healthy enough to put our best 5 on the field at the same time. I hope our TE’s can finally consistently catch the dang ball. I hope bad Dak is finally a distant memory.
That’s a lot of hope. With that much hope, maybe I’ll win the PowerBall tonight.