The Houston Texans had outplayed the Dallas Cowboys for 56 minutes.
However, an NFL game is a 60-minute affair and the Texans weren’t able to hold on for the final four minutes Sunday afternoon at AT&T Stadium in Arlington.
The Cowboys mounted a 98-yard drive in 11 plays to reclaim the lead and beat Houston 27-23 in Week 14.
Cowboys owner, president, and general manager Jerry Jones was impressed with the game plan Houston used, especially their platooning at quarterback with Davis Mills and Jeff Driskel.
“I think their quarterback play, the way they deployed their quarterbacks, the way they basically were committed there to stop that run and could stop the run, did stop the run and then to push us into making some throws that maybe we’d like to have back.”
Mills completed 16 passes on 21 attempts for 175 yards and an interception, which occurred on the last play of the game as a Hail Mary attempt. Driskel went 4-of-6 for 38 yards and a touchdown while also carrying seven times for 36 yards.
The Texans’ defense and special teams procured three takeaways and scored 14 points off Dallas’ mistakes. Cornerback Tremon Smith picked off quarterback Dak Prescott twice as the two-time Pro Bowler went 24-of-39 for 284 yards, a touchdown, and two interceptions.
“I don’t want to spend too much time on that, but they were well schemed and we almost lost the game,” Jones said. “To our team’s credit and Dak’s, that 98-yard drive had everything going for them to win that ball game and we won. I give Dak a lot of credit for that 98 yard drive, to be trite.”
After the Texans turned the ball over on downs following a first-and-goal from the Cowboys’ 4-yard line, Dallas got it back with 3:20 to go in the game.