Cowboys find long-missing mojo, dismantle Jaguars
ARLINGTON, Texas – It was like a bunch of impostors showed up at AT&T Stadium in Cowboys uniforms.
That’s how stunning a 40-7 romp over Jacksonville was on Sunday, when everything clicked for Dallas.
Dak Prescott had his best game in two years. Ezekiel Elliott rushed for 106 yards. The defensive linemates who call themselves the “Hot Boys” put a lot of heat on Jaguars quarterback Blake Bortles. The much-maligned secondary came up with two second-half turnovers. Brett Maher booted a 55-yard field goal.
Shoot, the Cowboys (3-3) even went for it on 4th-and-1 twice and converted after all of the well-deserved secondguessing of coach Jason Garrett for refusing to go for it in overtime at Houston a week earlier.
Sure, Cowboys followers might want to pinch themselves after watching the team (without a No. 1 receiver) struggle mightily to score points all season. It had to seem like a dream. Dallas scored
83 points in its first five games, averaging 16.6 per outing. On Sunday, they nearly tripled their average. Go figure.
Yes, for one Sunday, Dallas got its groove back, proving how nothing is a given in the wildly unpredictable NFL. Three other things we learned:
❚ Prescott is better at home than on the road. In three games away from JerryWorld, Prescott has a 66.7 passer rating, including a 2-4 TD-to-interception ratio, with his team 0-3. In three home games, the Cowboys are 3-0, and Prescott hasn’t thrown a pick while throwing
for 5 TDs. And his passer rating is way over 100 at home, including a 107.5 mark on Sunday.
❚ The Jaguars defense is more bark than bite. A week after getting shredded by Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs for 424 yards, Jacksonville allowed a breakout performance for Dallas’ offense. That’s 70 points (including a Blake Bortles pick-six at K.C.) and roughly 800 yards over two games. For all of the bulletin board material supplied by mouthy star cornerback Jalen Ramsey, this is some serious humble pie. Whatever happened to one of the NFL’s best defenses?
❚ Dallas can suddenly roll without
Sean Lee. Used to be a time when Dallas seemingly couldn’t survive, much less win, without its injury-prone weakside linebacker and defensive captain. Yet in the three games Lee has missed due to a hamstring injury, the Cowboys are 2-1. They’ve been able to absorb the loss of Lee because of a dominant D-line, a solid fill-in in first-round rookie Leighton Vander Esch and the remarkable comeback of middle linebacker Jaylon Smith, back to playing like the top prospect he was before a devastating knee injury in his final college game.