Tag: 2021 week 10

3 Stars: Jourdan Lewis shines, Prescott, Lamb lead offensive explosion

Cornerback Jourdan Lewis tallied three pass breakups and an interception. Dak Prescott threw two touchdown passes, both to CeeDee Lamb. | From @StarConscience

The Dallas Cowboys needed a strong performance in Week 10 after having their six-game win streak snapped by the Denver Broncos. They got just that, and the Atlanta Falcons were the unfortunate victims of their wrath. Offense, defense, and special teams played their parts in the Cowboys’ 43-3 win.

Several players stepped up to contribute for Dallas. Rookie linebacker Micah Parsons got his sixth sack of the season, forcing a fumble, and once again led the team in tackles. Defensive end Dorance Armstrong recorded a sack as well and blocked a punt, which was recovered for a touchdown by rookie cornerback Nahshon Wright. Trevon Diggs hauled in his league-leading eighth interception and Anthony Brown registered his third of the season and tipped a pass that ended up in the arms of another defender. Ezekiel Elliott made it in the end zone on three separate occasions.

How good was the team’s performance? None of those players made this week’s edition of 3 Stars.

Next-level passing , Quinn’s motivation among things learned in Cowboys Week 10 win

The Dallas Cowboys learned that the offense had one bad game, not a slump. Michael Gallup makes them better, and the defense loves Dan Quinn. | From @CDPiglet

Championship-contending teams like the Dallas Cowboys have multiple litmus tests during a season. This week they had to show they were capable of bouncing back from an embarrassing performance and a disappointing loss. The Atlanta Falcons came in winning three of their last four games. A poor team, riding momentum, and trending upwards coming into town. If the Cowboys overlooked them like they did the Denver Broncos, then this could have turned November into a nightmare month for Dallas.

The Cowboys came in prepared, motivated, and took care of business early so they could rest starters in the fourth quarter. Finishing the game with Cooper Rush at quarterback, Cory Clement at running back, Connor McGovern on the offensive line and Sean Mckeon at tight end was the perfect result, and now they can move on to the Kansas City Chiefs.

Litmus test games always give teams a lot to learn, and even in a blowout, the Cowboys gained plenty to take with them going forward for the rest of the season.

NFC Playoff Picture: Cowboys move out of dangerous 4-seed with Week 10 win

A look at how the results of Sunday’s action impacts the Cowboys’ shot at the playoffs and the battle for the No. 1 seed. There’s a new team in the NFC driver seat. | From @KDDrummondNFL

The Dallas Cowboys’ Week 9 loss could have been worse, all things being considered. After falling, embarrassingly, to the Denver Broncos in the early game last week, the Cowboys saw both the Los Angeles Rams and the Green Bay Packers go down in defeat. With three of the five teams in competition for the NFC’s No 1 seed losing, it was a good day for the Arizona Cardinals and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, but it could have been really bad for Dallas if the Rams and Packers didn’t go down.

Arizona won their game, while Tampa Bay was on their bye week. The Cowboys fell to the No. 4 seed in the race, as the tiebreaker loser to the Bucs, among the four division leaders. The fourth seed, of course, is the seed to avoid as it will likely match up with the team that doesn’t win the NFC West between the Cards and Los Angeles. Not ideal for a team that looks on pace to have at least 12 wins on the season. Sunday’s Week 10 action gave the Cowboys a bit firmer ground to stand on with seven games left in their season.

Here’s how the action played out.

Good, Bad, Ugly: Cowboys strong arm Falcons into submission despite penalty woes

From Dak Prescott to the defense, the Dallas Cowboys dominated the Atlanta Falcons 43-3 in Week 10 to get back on the winning track. | From @BenGrimaldi

What a difference a week makes for the Dallas Cowboys. After a horrific outing that saw the Cowboys soundly beaten last Sunday, Mike McCarthy’s team came out and thrashed the Atlanta Falcons, 43-3, to put last game’s debacle in the rearview.

From start to finish, the Cowboys dominated the action. The offense came out and made a statement by scoring a touchdown on their first drive and never looked back. The defense held down an opponent which had been scoring at a successful clip as they had managed to win three of their last four contests. In the end, Dallas did whatever they wanted on the field on Sunday afternoon and were able to sit back and enjoy the rest of the slate of action.

Here’s the good, the bad and the ugly from an easy Week 10 victory by the Cowboys.

Instant Analysis: Cowboys tie Falconers Knot, ground Matt Ryan in 43-3

A crazy red-zone scoring streak. The best defensive performance since, 2019? 2017? Game balls, key stats and more as Dallas accepted the challenge. | From @KDDrummondNFL

The Dallas Cowboys worked their way back into the win column this past week. Yes, the victory was achieved during their week of practice where the players were none too happy with their performance against the Denver Broncos in Week 9. The Atlanta Falcons were in the wrong place at the wrong time and found themselves on the receiving end of a 40 burger that went down easy for win-hungry Cowboys.

Dallas started off quickly, scoring on their first possession, then floored the pedal in the second quarter, scoring 29 straight points to tuck the game away at halftime. They barely broke a second-half sweat in winning 43-3.

Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy has been on the hot seat pretty much since 2020 went awry, but he should have built a lot of leeway with Dallas’ 6-1 start to the season. However his decision making was questioned yet again as Dallas fell flat for the first time all year. However, he orchestrated the most chest-beating bounce back that could be imagined, a thorough and absolute beat down of a conference opponent which entering the game was holding down a playoff spot.

Here’s how it all went down.

Pheasant Falcons: Cowboys dominate, dine, devour in Week 10 win, 43-3

The Cowboys answered all of the questions from the last week, with exclamation points not periods. Here’s how they clipped the Falcons’ wings. | From @KDDrummondNFL

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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WATCH: Cowboys excorcise Week 9 punt-block demons with scoop, score

The Cowboys have opened up a can on the Atlanta Falcons with another Lamb TD and a block punt for a score. Dan Quinn’s revenge game is here. Watch the highlights. | From @KDDrummondNFL

The Dallas Cowboys are adding insult to insult in the Week 10 game against the Atlanta Falcons. Following a second connection between Dak Prescott and CeeDee Lamb, a beautiful escape-the-pressure heave into the open area of the end zone, the defense and special teams wanted a piece of the action.

Dallas’ defense has completely curtailed the Falcons push since making an early fourth-down stop, and thanks to a Micah Parsons strip sack Atlanta recovered, the Cowboys were able to force the Falcons to punt the ball with just under a minute remaining and already leading 28-3.

Dorance Armstrong, who got his first sack of the season on the previous drive, made a beautiful move to get in for the punt block. Unlike last week when Nahshon Wright made the wrong decision in touching the ball past the line of scrimmage, this recovery went for a score.

Then to pour salt on the wound, after Atlanta was offside on the extra point, Dallas decided to go for two points, with Ezekiel Elliott adding two more points to his two TDs from earlier.

The Cowboys scored 29 points in the second quarter. Over the last four quarters, Dallas has outscored Atlanta 67-13 and lead in this contest 36-3.

 

WATCH: Gallup converts on 4th, Elliott scores 2nd TD as Cowboys pull away

The Cowboys’ offense is rolling now, converting big fourth downs and finishing in the red zone.

The Dallas Cowboys are handing out the whooping the way most expected Week 9 to go. After opening up the scoring with a touchdown pass to CeeDee Lamb, the run game has scored twice in the second quarter to extend Dallas’ lead over the Atlanta Falcons to 21-3.

Ezekiel Elliott followed up the team’s second successful fourth-down conversion, this one a pass to the two-yard line to returning WR Michael Gallup, with his second score of the game.

The Dallas Cowboys have loved their last four quarters against the Falcons. In Week 2 of last season, the Cowboys found themselves down 29-10 at halftime. They went on a 30-10 run to win that game after the famed watermelon onsides kick,

By outscoring Atlanta 21-3 thus far, that’s a 50-burger over the last four quarters.

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WATCH: Cowboys cure 4th-down blues, convert ahead of Elliott’s score

The Dallas Cowboys’ offense is back to humming after a weird Week 9 collapse. Here’s how they extended their lead to double digits.

The Atlanta Falcons decided they were going to test mettle first, going for fourth-and-seven despite being well within the range of their field goal kicker. They failed, giving the Dallas Cowboys solid field position with a 7-3 lead. As fate would have it, the Cowboys would soonafter be presented with their own fourth-down decision.

Unlike in Week 9, when Dallas went 0-for-4 in conversions, this time it was all good. Motion sent WR CeeDee Lamb from trips left to the right side and his option route led him to the numbers where QB Dak Prescott found him for the conversion. With the drive continuing, RB Ezekiel Elliott checked into the drive which had been manned by Tony Pollard before the quarter break.

Elliott then did the heavy lifting, with five straight targets (three runs, two pass attempts) and plunged into the end zone on second-and goal to give Dallas a 14-3 lead in the second quarter.

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Tyron Smith headlines Cowboys-Falcons inactives for Week 10

The Dallas Cowboys are without their top edge protector. Who else is sitting out the Week 10 contest to make room for Trysten Hill? | From @KDDrummondNFL

The Dallas Cowboys have a full, 53-man roster for Week 10, after two players were activated. WR Michael Gallup and DT Trysten Hill are back, replacing DE Randy Gregory on the full roster and both are active as part of the 48-man game day group. Taking the place of kicker Greg Zuerlein is kicker Lirim Hajrullahu, as the former is out under COVID protocols.

With 53 players, Dallas needs to remove five to get down to the game-day maximum, and the lead name of course is the left tackle. Tyron Smith has been ruled out for the second-straight week thanks to his injured ankle. The bone spurs are being treated by rest instead of surgery and as such he hasn’t been placed on injured reserve. As for the other inactives for Sunday’s match against the Atlanta Falcons, here’s a look at the group.