Cowboys are looking to change losing ways against Brady, Pats
As a young football fan growing up in California, it didn’t take Tom Brady long to dislike the Dallas Cowboys.
“I’ve really not liked the Cowboys since coming out of the womb as a Niner fan,” Brady joked this week. “They’ve got a lot of great players in their history. Guys that I just, as a Niner fan, you’d play the Cowboys and every time they’d hand off to Emmitt Smith would be a 5-yard gain and you would pull you hair out.”
It’s been more than 20 years since Dallas’ trio of Smith, quarterback Troy Aikman and receiver Michael Irvin helped propel the Cowboys to their most recent Super Bowl win.
And since he entered the league in 2000, Brady has taken out his childhood frustrations on them every chance he’s gotten, beating the Cowboys in each of his four meetings against them as the Patriots’ starting quarterback.
Dallas is hoping the team it’s bringing to New England on Sunday can change some of that recent history.
Thanks largely to the play of quarterback Dak Prescott over their past three games, the Cowboys (6-4) enter Week 12 as the NFL’s top-ranked offense, a position they haven’t held at the end of a season in more than 40 years.
They'll face a 9-1 Patriots team being led not by Brady’s arm but by the league’s top-rated defense. It is holding teams to just under 11 points per game to go along with an NFLbest 28 takeaways.
“It’s exciting,” Prescott said. “You talk about wanting to win championships. You’ve got to beat the people that have won.”
The Patriots have given up only nine total touchdowns on defense in 2019, four of which came in their 37-20 loss at Baltimore in Week 9.
While the Cowboys don’t have a dual-threat quarterback such as Baltimore’s Lamar Jackson, Prescott is having a career season. He leads the NFL with 322.1 passing yards per game and has thrown for 1,098 yards over his past three games — the best three-game stretch in franchise history.
“That’s who he is,” Dallas running back Ezekiel Elliott said. “That’s the type of player he is, the guy he is, the leader he is and he’s continuing to attack. He hasn’t let up, as we expect from Dak.”
Likewise, the task of trying to contain Prescott is high on the priority list for the Patriots.
“They’re at the top of the league for a reason,” cornerback Stephon Gilmore said. “It’s a big challenge. And I’m looking forward to it.”
Dallas defensive lineman Michael Bennett is set to play at New England exactly a month after the Patriots traded him for a conditional late-round draft pick in 2021. The former Texas A&M player has 3 1⁄ sacks
2 in three games with the Cowboys after getting to the quarterback 2 1⁄ times
2 in his only six games with New England. Bennett, who also had stints with Tampa Bay, Seattle and Philadelphia, is one of 11 players in NFL history to have multiple sacks with five franchises.
With a victory, New England would extend its streak to 17 consecutive seasons with at least 10 wins, which would be an NFL record. The Patriots have won at least 10 games every year since going 9-7 in 2002.
ELSEWHERE
Fines: Steelers quarterback Mason Rudolph was fined $50,000 by the NFL for his involvement in a brawl that began when Browns defensive end Myles Garrett hit him over the head with a helmet.
Rudolph was one of 33 players fined by the league Saturday.
Garrett was indefinitely suspended by the league for ripping off Rudolph’s helmet and using it “as a weapon” in the final seconds of Cleveland’s 21-7 win over Pittsburgh last week. Garrett’s appeal was denied earlier this week, when he told appeals officer James Thrash that Rudolph used a racial slur against him.
Rudolph wrestled with Garrett and attempted to pull off the Pro Bowler’s helmet before charging at him and then being struck on the top of the head.
Earlier this week, Rudolph said “there’s no acceptable excuse” for his behavior.
The league also fined the Steelers and Browns $250,000 apiece. They play again Dec. 1 in Pittsburgh.
Saints: Top cornerback Marshon Lattimore is listed as questionable and top returner Deonte Harris has been scratched for Sunday’s game against Carolina.
Fullback Zach Line also has been ruled out, while tight end Josh Hill practiced fully on Friday for the first time since being concussed at Tampa Bay last weekend and appears ready to play.
Lattimore and Harris both have hamstring injuries that sidelined them last week.