For the Cowboys to win back-to-back games, something they hadn’t done in over a calendar year, they had to do something else they hadn’t done since 2019: win the turnover battle for a second week in a row.
A pair of recovered fumbles and two interceptions gave Andy Dalton and the Dallas offense plenty of chances and great field position to work with on Sunday; in return, the Cowboys didn’t turn the ball over at all. Instead, they capitalized on those takeaways and turned each one into points en route to a thrilling 41-33 win over San Francisco to keep their faint playoff hopes alive.
“It’s huge,” Dalton said afterward of the forced fumbles that gave Dallas possession on the 49ers’ 22- and 24-yard-lines in the opening six minutes. “That’s momentum. Short field, you want to take advantage of it. You want to score touchdowns when you’re in that position. For us, I think that was big for us today. I think we had 24 points off of turnovers. That’s huge. That’s the difference in the game.”
It’s been the difference in the team’s past two games. Dallas is plus-seven over this mini-win streak; through their first 12 outings, they were minus-13. During many of those games, it was Dallas turning the ball over early and finding themselves in holes they just couldn’t dig their way out of.
“You can get into chasing the game when you’re on the other side of the turnover differential. That’s clearly the case, as we understood early in the year,” head coach Mike McCarthy explained during his postgame press conference. “There’s momentum swings that go on throughout every football game… To get it early, definitely, you can see it brought a lot of energy to our sideline. Guys are feeding off of one another.”
“It is contagious,” defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence agreed in his remarks after the win. “It starts with practice. You practice the fundamentals, and you practice the way you want to play, soon enough, it will come to life.”
Takeaways are key to a defense’s success. But it’s only half the equation.
“It’s been very impactful,” wide receiver CeeDee Lamb said of the takeaways in his postgame Q&A session. “You can see it on TV, you can see it on [the] screen, you can feel it in the arena. Defensive guys, when they turn over the ball, it’s electric. Gives a boost to the offense, and it forces us to play complementary football. That’s what we’ve been preaching and what we’ve been practicing.”
“I think it’s just a combination,” McCarthy replied when asked about the offense’s sudden knack for turning takeaways into points. “We have an offensive line that’s played a couple weeks together now, Andy’s in a good rhythm- we had some receivers go in and out of the game today- but I think you’re just seeing more continuity, particularly in the execution of the offense, that allows us to score off those opportunities.”
Those scores, in turn, fuel the defense to keep creating more chances.
“It’s amazing,” cornerback Jourdan Lewis told media members. “Complimentary football is the best thing for any team, when you get guys on the offensive side playing the way they’re playing, and then you get us in there juiced up, you can feel the momentum swing in our direction. Every time they break a big run like that or a big pass, it’s amazing. It’s a good thing for our defense.”
Good things have been hard to come by for the Dallas defense in 2020. Mike Nolan’s first year as coordinator brought a new scheme, and that has brought some serious growing pains. And while Nolan’s unit has plenty of deficiencies still to be addressed- they allowed 458 yards to the 49ers on Sunday, their second-highest total of the season- McCarthy is thankful that some of what his staff has been selling is finally sinking in.
“We have a lot more takeaway opportunities that we’re putting ourselves in position [for] throughout defense and special teams,” the coach offered. “That’s just a real credit to the guys, everybody staying the course, staying after it. Unfortunately, sometimes it takes longer than some, but I think the path that we’ve been on, it’s refreshing to see the success these last two weeks with what everybody’s put into this.”
But the recent success has come by simply continuing to hammer away at the same things they’ve been working on all season.
“Staying focused on the little things, the details,” McCarthy said. “That’s what football always comes down to. It’s always about the fundamentals and the execution of it. I think our guys did a really good job. I think we’ve had to go through the pains of the newness and the challenges that we’ve had in the early season.”
It’s taken most of the 2020 campaign, but the Dallas defense may be finally coming into its own. And the players sense the evolution.
“We’re doing a lot in practice,” Lawrence said. “I feel like we’re starting to step up to the plate, live up to our expectations. When you’re playing football, it always starts with the ball.”
“We’ve just been able to put it together,” according to Lewis. “We always knew we were capable, but we just found the ingredients these last few games, and we’re sticking with it.”
For the Cowboys to continue the upward trend- whether or not it results in an unlikely postseason berth- the turnover differential will continue to be an important key. They’ll have their next shot at winning that battle on Sunday when the Eagles come calling.
McCarthy, for one, is hoping they can continue not only the winning streak, but the first-quarter takeaway habit the defense seems to have started.
“That’s two weeks in a row we’ve been able to go out and, back-to-back series, have turnovers to start the game. It’d be great if we could keep it up.”
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