The Dallas Cowboys entered the week with plenty of QTNAs, questions that need answers. Was their offense really solved in Week 9 by Vic Fangio and the Denver Broncos? Would they be able to generate a pass rush without Randy Gregory, out with a calf injury? If that took Micah Parsons, would they have answers for Kyle Pitts and Cordarelle Patterson? Would missing Tyron Smith for a second straight game expose Terence Steele as a one-sided solution? Would the Atlanta Falcons have the secret sauce to expose their former head coach Dan Quinn and be able to stymie the Dallas defense?
Those answers came early and often in another noon kickoff for the Cowboys. Dallas scored on their opening possession, then went about absolutely dismantling every shred of pride, stripping every single feather from the Atlanta Falcons. Dallas took a 7-0 lead on their opening drive and led 7-3 as the second quarter started. Then they pulled off a 29-0 quarter to blow the roof off of AT&T Stadium en route to a 43-3 victory to get back in the win column.
The Cowboys improved to 7-2 on the season.
For the third time in five home games, Dallas surpassed the 40-point marker.
Every phase of the game was in on the action. Dallas scored through the air and on the ground, they got a special teams score and the secondary secured three different interceptions to continue to mute any semblance of a response from Matt Ryan and the Falcons. There was not a match to be found for what Dak Prescott and company were dishing out and now a new question must be asked.
Are the Dallas Cowboys the best team in football?
Prescott finished just shy of 300 passing yards, doing so in three quarters before being pulled for Cooper Rush. Whatever rust was there in Week 9 after missing two weeks, the garbage-time scores to Malik Turner chipped them off and he was back in MVP-esque form on Sunday. He threw for 296 yards on 24-for-31 passing, with two touchdowns, both to CeeDee Lamb. His final passer rating was 127.9 for the game.
Lamb had 94 receiving yards and his two scores all in the first half, as Dallas led 36-3 after a crazy dominant end of half sequence that concluded with a punt block recovered by rookie corner Nahshon Wright.
Yes, if anyone was looking for symmetry, it was Wright who screwed up last week’s punt block at the beginning of the third quarter that could have changed everthing in the loss to Denver. Also different from Week 9? The offense coming through in the clutch.
The Cowboys scored touchdowns on all five of their red-zone possessions as they converted all three of their fourth-down conversion attempts.
The Falcons were no slouches. They entered the game winners of three of their last four contests, scoring at least 27 in each, to sit at 4-4 and hold the final wild-card spot entering the weekend of football. They were clearly not in the same league as Dallas on this afternoon.
Dallas kept Ryan frustrated, sacking the QB just twice but getting their hands on a whopping nine of his passes. It started with Jourdan Lewis getting back-to-back breakups to stop a drive and went on to Anthony Brown getting a self-tip interception to start the run of turnovers.
Trevon Diggs would chip in with his eighth interception in nine games, and Lewis himself came up with the third pick a bit later.
After a tough week, Dallas responded in all phases of the game to reclaim their status as one of the NFL’s best.
Now they’ll regroup and ready themselves for the annual Thanksgiving gauntlet. Dallas will travel to Kansas City for a late afternoon game next week before returning to Texas to host the Las Vegas Raiders and former ST coach Rich Bisaccia on the holiday. Seven days later, they’ll travel to New Orleans to face the Saints for a three-game-in-12-day gauntlet.
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