Tag: Dallas Cowboys vs Chicago Bears

Cowboys’ Prescott risked injury, re-weaponized legs on gritty 25-yard QB sneak vs Bears: ‘You asked for it, and you got it’

Dak found the end zone for the first time in a year and ripped off the longest run since his 2020 injury, sending a message with his legs. | From @ToddBrock24f7

A week after all eyes were on Dak Prescott’s right thumb in his return to action, the Cowboys quarterback reminded everyone about his legs.

Prescott kicked off the Week 8 scoring bonanza for Dallas with a seven-yard carry, finishing in the end zone for the 26th rushing touchdown of his career and his first in almost a full calendar year.

“He’s just a really smart runner in the red zone,” offensive coordinator Kellen Moore said of Prescott’s scoring run the day after the Cowboys’ 49-29 win. “I think he’s always done that, for as long as he’s been here. He had the opportunity to pull it, I thought our guys up front did a great job blocking, leading him.”

A quarterback keeper out of the shotgun to cap off the game’s opening drive may have seemed like an unusual play call, but it wasn’t at all random.

A week prior, as Prescott reclaimed the starting quarterback job from Cooper Rush after rehabbing a fractured thumb on his throwing hand, it was Cowboys owner Jerry Jones who had said what he really wanted to see from his returning passer was more running.

“I’d like to see him get more chances with [run-pass options],” Jones told Yahoo Sports. “Because to me, that does a lot of things that gets him out of the pocket. I think that’s some of his best football. And I think that gives him edge.”

Enough edge, in fact, that this week after the victory over the Bears, Prescott admitted that he was sending a very conscious message to management as he crossed the goal line.

“When I stuck my arms out,” he said, “that was for Jerry: ‘Here you go. You asked for it, and you got it.'”

Prescott is no stranger to touchdown carries; he walked it in three times in a 2020 game versus Atlanta and has 26 total for his 88-game career.

“I know that I can run the ball,” Prescott said Sunday, “which is just going to open up the offense and the running game more.”

But what he may not have realized was that he’d be opening up the running game… for himself.

Early in the second quarter, up 14-7, the Cowboys offense found itself facing a 3rd-and-1 just past midfield. It was the kind of situation the team had been focusing on of late: converting third downs to first downs, maintaining possession, sustaining drives, moving the chains.

Prescott tucked the ball and ran headlong into the scrum of bodies in front of him, looking to just eke out the yard needed.

Instead, he improbably squirted free and was looking at a whole lot of daylight.

“I had my head down, just trying to get the first down,” Prescott explained. “I
was just moving my feet, and I’m like, ‘Wait a minute, nobody’s touched me yet,’ and I looked up, and it was just me and the safety. Going for a QB sneak untouched, 20 yards down the field, is a credit to those guys and everybody.”

He picked up 25 yards. According to Touchdown Wire and Sports Info Solutions, that one run represents over 10% of the entire NFL’s total quarterback sneak yardage thus far in 2022.

And the Cowboys made it count. Tony Pollard took the ball 18 yards to the end zone on the very next snap to give Dallas a two-touchdown lead.

“You’ve got to extend plays in this league,” Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy told media members this week. “When you talk about the fundamentals of professional football, big-play opportunity generation and production is critical. You can’t win in this league without making big plays. You can’t score points on offense going 10-, 11-, 12-, 13-play drives every time. You need big plays. Extended plays from the quarterback position is a big part of that. It was the coolest quarterback sneak I think I’ve ever been a part of, the way he came out of there.”

The short-yardage sneak turned into the third-longest run of Prescott’s pro career, trailing only a 28-yarder against Jacksonville in 2018 and a 42-yard rush recorded against Washington in 2019. Perhaps more important, it was Prescott’s longest run since coming back from his 2020 ankle dislocation and compound fracture.

For a frightening fraction of a second at the end of the run, though, Prescott looked like he was going to try to do too much and lay a stiff-arm on approaching Chicago safety Eddie Jackson. Replays seem to indicate he thought better of it at the last moment, much to the relief of his teammates, who just got him back from a hand injury.

“I’m not a fan of that,” receiver CeeDee Lamb shared. “I’m not, and I’ll be the first to say that. I mean, that was great that we got the first down, et cetera. But I’m not… not really nervous, I just don’t know what’s going to happen. I have all of the faith in my quarterback; I’m sure no one else is a fan of that either.”

Moore joked about it in his weekly press conference.

“Yeah, he’s going to get me in trouble,” Moore laughed.

As it was, Prescott didn’t come away from the ensuing tackle completely unscathed.

Jackson stepped on Prescott’s non-throwing hand after hurling him to the sideline turf. Thankfully, the wound seemed to be just superficial.

It was a tough and gritty run that checked a lot of boxes: for the Dallas offense as a unit, for Prescott personally, for Cowboys fans waiting to see if No. 4 could still be an effective dual-threat, even for Jerry Jones.

“I thought Dak played his best game of the year,” McCarthy summed up.

Prescott could always utilize his legs before his ankle injury; now he’s shown that weapon is still very much in his arsenal.

“I know who I am, and I know what I am capable of,” Prescott said.

He ended the day with only five carries for 34 yards. But between the I’m-baa-ack touchdown and the sucker-punch QB sneak that traveled a quarter of the field, Prescott made the most of his ground-game opportunities.

“He’s going to mix in a few of them here and there,” said Moore. “He’s not going to be the 15-attempt guy, but he’s going to get a couple when we need it.”

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Cowboys’ Prescott risked injury, re-weaponized legs on gritty 25-yard QB sneak vs Bears: ‘You asked for it, and you got it’

Dak found the end zone for the first time in a year and ripped off the longest run since his 2020 injury, sending a message with his legs. | From @ToddBrock24f7

A week after all eyes were on Dak Prescott’s right thumb in his return to action, the Cowboys quarterback reminded everyone about his legs.

Prescott kicked off the Week 8 scoring bonanza for Dallas with a seven-yard carry, finishing in the end zone for the 26th rushing touchdown of his career and his first in almost a full calendar year.

“He’s just a really smart runner in the red zone,” offensive coordinator Kellen Moore said of Prescott’s scoring run the day after the Cowboys’ 49-29 win. “I think he’s always done that, for as long as he’s been here. He had the opportunity to pull it, I thought our guys up front did a great job blocking, leading him.”

A quarterback keeper out of the shotgun to cap off the game’s opening drive may have seemed like an unusual play call, but it wasn’t at all random.

A week prior, as Prescott reclaimed the starting quarterback job from Cooper Rush after rehabbing a fractured thumb on his throwing hand, it was Cowboys owner Jerry Jones who had said what he really wanted to see from his returning passer was more running.

“I’d like to see him get more chances with [run-pass options],” Jones told Yahoo Sports. “Because to me, that does a lot of things that gets him out of the pocket. I think that’s some of his best football. And I think that gives him edge.”

Enough edge, in fact, that this week after the victory over the Bears, Prescott admitted that he was sending a very conscious message to management as he crossed the goal line.

“When I stuck my arms out,” he said, “that was for Jerry: ‘Here you go. You asked for it, and you got it.'”

Prescott is no stranger to touchdown carries; he walked it in three times in a 2020 game versus Atlanta and has 26 total for his 88-game career.

“I know that I can run the ball,” Prescott said Sunday, “which is just going to open up the offense and the running game more.”

But what he may not have realized was that he’d be opening up the running game… for himself.

Early in the second quarter, up 14-7, the Cowboys offense found itself facing a 3rd-and-1 just past midfield. It was the kind of situation the team had been focusing on of late: converting third downs to first downs, maintaining possession, sustaining drives, moving the chains.

Prescott tucked the ball and ran headlong into the scrum of bodies in front of him, looking to just eke out the yard needed.

Instead, he improbably squirted free and was looking at a whole lot of daylight.

“I had my head down, just trying to get the first down,” Prescott explained. “I
was just moving my feet, and I’m like, ‘Wait a minute, nobody’s touched me yet,’ and I looked up, and it was just me and the safety. Going for a QB sneak untouched, 20 yards down the field, is a credit to those guys and everybody.”

He picked up 25 yards. According to Touchdown Wire and Sports Info Solutions, that one run represents over 10% of the entire NFL’s total quarterback sneak yardage thus far in 2022.

And the Cowboys made it count. Tony Pollard took the ball 18 yards to the end zone on the very next snap to give Dallas a two-touchdown lead.

“You’ve got to extend plays in this league,” Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy told media members this week. “When you talk about the fundamentals of professional football, big-play opportunity generation and production is critical. You can’t win in this league without making big plays. You can’t score points on offense going 10-, 11-, 12-, 13-play drives every time. You need big plays. Extended plays from the quarterback position is a big part of that. It was the coolest quarterback sneak I think I’ve ever been a part of, the way he came out of there.”

The short-yardage sneak turned into the third-longest run of Prescott’s pro career, trailing only a 28-yarder against Jacksonville in 2018 and a 42-yard rush recorded against Washington in 2019. Perhaps more important, it was Prescott’s longest run since coming back from his 2020 ankle dislocation and compound fracture.

For a frightening fraction of a second at the end of the run, though, Prescott looked like he was going to try to do too much and lay a stiff-arm on approaching Chicago safety Eddie Jackson. Replays seem to indicate he thought better of it at the last moment, much to the relief of his teammates, who just got him back from a hand injury.

“I’m not a fan of that,” receiver CeeDee Lamb shared. “I’m not, and I’ll be the first to say that. I mean, that was great that we got the first down, et cetera. But I’m not… not really nervous, I just don’t know what’s going to happen. I have all of the faith in my quarterback; I’m sure no one else is a fan of that either.”

Moore joked about it in his weekly press conference.

“Yeah, he’s going to get me in trouble,” Moore laughed.

As it was, Prescott didn’t come away from the ensuing tackle completely unscathed.

Jackson stepped on Prescott’s non-throwing hand after hurling him to the sideline turf. Thankfully, the wound seemed to be just superficial.

It was a tough and gritty run that checked a lot of boxes: for the Dallas offense as a unit, for Prescott personally, for Cowboys fans waiting to see if No. 4 could still be an effective dual-threat, even for Jerry Jones.

“I thought Dak played his best game of the year,” McCarthy summed up.

Prescott could always utilize his legs before his ankle injury; now he’s shown that weapon is still very much in his arsenal.

“I know who I am, and I know what I am capable of,” Prescott said.

He ended the day with only five carries for 34 yards. But between the I’m-baa-ack touchdown and the sucker-punch QB sneak that traveled a quarter of the field, Prescott made the most of his ground-game opportunities.

“He’s going to mix in a few of them here and there,” said Moore. “He’s not going to be the 15-attempt guy, but he’s going to get a couple when we need it.”

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Top-10 Toxic, Impact plays from Cowboys’ Week 8 victory over Bears

A look at the 10 plays that had the biggest impact on Dallas’ win vs the Bears. | From @KDDrummondNFL

For the first time all season, every single Dallas Cowboys target had a positive cumulative EPA. What is EPA? It stands for Expected Points Added and it’s a really simple concept to grasp. Based on down, distance and field position, every situation has an impact on the likelihood a team scores, or Expected Points. The impact a single play has on the Expected Points for that drive, positive or negative, are called Expected Points Added.

Obviously explosive plays have a big impact on EPA. Passes of over 20 yards or runs longer than 10 yards qualify as explosive and, as named by former Ravens head coach Brian Billick, are considered toxic to the opponent. Several years ago I added turnovers to the definition and as witnessed in Dallas’ 49-29 win over the Chicago Bears on Sunday, they have huge momentum in winning and losing.

The influence of a play on a team’s chances of winning take into account the score of a game and the time on the clock. That’s measured in win probability and like expected points, can be measured on a play-by-play basis in Win Probability Added.

Toxicity will normally have large EPA and WPA numbers, but they are not the only way to measure. With Impact Score, we take into account the impact of a big play on the team’s improved chances of winning the game, adding a clutch factor if you will. Here’s a look at the top Cowboys plays from Sunday’s win.

Nom, Nom, Nom: Twitter reacts to Cowboys’ 40-burger win over Bears

The Cowboys offense put on their best performance of the season and Twitter didn’t disappoint. @ProfessorO_NFL takes a look at the best reactions of Week 8.

Did somebody order a “40 burger”? While it may be too early to proclaim that the offense is officially back, it was certainly a sight for sore eyes. Entering Week 8 with a lengthy list of injuries and a bye looming, the Cowboys elected to play it safe and opted to rest several key players including: RB Ezekiel Elliott, WR Noah Brown, DE Sam Williams and S Malik Hooker.

Tony Pollard had his opportunity to showcase what he is capable of and delivered three touchdown runs and over 150 combined yards. Quarterback Dak Prescott had his best performance of the season and looked sharp as he dissected the Bears secondary. With a final score of 49-29, the Cowboys improved their record to 6-2 as the enter the bye week. Here are the best Twitter reactions of the Cowboys win over the Chicago Bears.

Cowboys RB Tony Pollard calls 3-TD career rushing day ‘a pretty good performance’

Pollard tied career highs in carries and rushing yards and did something not even Ezekiel Elliott has done, but there’s no RB controversy. | From @ToddBrock24f7

All week long leading up to kickoff, Pollard fielded questions from the media about whether he could carry the bulk of the Cowboys’ rushing load for a full game in place of an injured Ezekiel Elliott.

Pollard gave the first part of his answer on Wednesday, telling reporters, “They call it, I’m going to haul it.”

He punctuated that reply on Sunday, and it was an exclamation point.

Pollard’s 14 rushing attempts tied his career high, as did the 131 rushing yards he accumulated over the course of the Cowboys’ 49-29 dismantling of the Bears. At the conclusion of the Sunday slate of games, his 9.4 yards-per-carry average led all NFL rushers for Week 8.

Afterward, Pollard was his usual understated self in summing up his day.

“I would say I had a pretty good performance.”

While the outside world seemed to treat Pollard’s three-touchdown afternoon- something not even Ezekiel Elliott has done- as some sort of unexpected coming-out party, his teammates and bosses weren’t shocked in the least.

“Tony is extremely confident,” said head coach Mike McCarthy. “That’s been my experience since I arrived here. He doesn’t blink. He works the same every day, practices hard. He’s an extremely consistent player and person.”

“It didn’t surprise me a bit,” added receiver CeeDee Lamb. “He knew he had a bigger role in this game, understanding that he’s going to have a lot more carries than normal.”

“I’ve never seen him tired,” owner Jerry Jones offered after the win.

“He did a great job. Nothing that we didn’t expect,” said guard Zack Martin. “He’s been great for us all year, so when his number is called, we know it’s big-play potential at any time.”

Pollard actually saved his biggest play for last, breaking off a 54-yard touchdown run on his 14th and final carry of the game.

The first Cowboys player to congratulate him on the sideline? Elliott, the man whose starting slot Pollard took for the week.

Pollard now ranks 14th in the NFL in rushing yards, seven spots and 63 yards ahead of Elliott (on 28 fewer carries). So with the 6-2 Cowboys now on a bye week, expect plenty of chatter about a running back controversy in Dallas to fill the down time.

Just don’t expect it to come from within the building.

“We look at Tony as a 1 and Zeke as a 1. We’re very fortunate to have this duo of backs,” McCarthy explained. “I thought Tony Pollard played the way he always does, he just had more opportunities today.”

But not as many as he could have had. McCarthy confirmed that the plan was to get Pollard “around 20 carries,” and that he could have easily handled even more.

“He said it earlier in the week: we call it, and he’s going to haul it,” quarterback Dak Prescott shared in his postgame remarks. “He went out there, backed those words up, and that’s who he is, honestly. Him saying that statement is not about, ‘Hey, give me 30 carries so I can show you.’ It’s, ‘Hey whatever coach calls for me to do, I’m going to do it to the best of my ability for this team.’ Whether that’s sparing Zeke in the run game or going out there and taking the starting role and going for 130 and three touchdowns, or lining up in the slot, or coming out of the backfield for passes. He’s talented as hell and he’s not just another back for us. He’s a playmaker and a weapon that we will continue to use. He’s just great for the offense and this team.”

And the team insists he’ll continue to be great alongside Elliott in the Cowboys offense, not instead of the two-time rushing champ.

Both runners are now averaging exactly 63.3 rushing yards per game, the textbook definition of a balanced two-pronged attack.

“We go as Zeke goes. And I really mean that; Zeke’s that important to this team and every bit as important as he was before the game,” Jones confirmed. “We’ll have a healthier Zeke for not using him this ballgame.”

But now the Cowboys also have a healthier overall run game, too, having just proven to the rest of the league that Pollard can belly up to the bar and eat just as voraciously as Elliott.

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Cowboys’ Micah Parsons on his improbable first NFL touchdown: ‘That’s just the football gods’

The star LB finally got his first takeaway and his first touchdown on the same play, but it required a stunning mental lapse from Chicago. | From @ToddBrock24f7

The ever-growing man cave at Micah Parsons’s house has a new centerpiece.

The second-year linebacker, who won the NFL’s Defensive Rookie of the Year Award last season, led the Cowboys in sacks in his first year, and leads the team so far this year, finally- in his 24th game as a pro- got his hands on the ball.

And boy, did he make the most of it.

Late in Sunday’s third quarter, Parsons pounced on a David Montgomery fumble, the first recovery of his still-young career. But then the 23-year-old was able to return the ball 36 yards for a touchdown, also the first of his career.

And to think, the former first-round pick nearly lost track of his souvenir after crossing the goal line.

“I dropped it; I said, ‘Oh no, where’d it go?'” Parsons told sideline reporter Jane Slater following the Cowboys’ 49-29 win. “I actually thought about giving it away, but I said, ‘No, no, no, no.'”

In hindsight, two things made Parsons’s first NFL touchdown especially memorable.

The first was how much hustle Parsons showed just to be in the vicinity of the loose ball. He was originally in Fields’s face at the 10-yard-line, causing the quarterback to scramble and eventually toss a short pass to Montgomery.

But when linebacker Leighton Vander Esch knocked the ball free from Montgomery’s grasp 22 yards downfield- and just five seconds later– it was Parsons who was immediately on the scene for the recovery.

“It just shows effort. You can’t teach effort,” Parsons explained after the game. “Just running to the ball regardless of if you make the play or don’t make the play. You just never know what happens on the football field. Kids out there, who may like, ‘Hmm, I’m running to the ball, but it’s not turning out:’ Man, it took me a year and a half before I finally got lucky. So, sometimes it’s just consistency. Just keep running to the ball and keep striving; eventually the ball is going to come your way. That’s just the football gods.”

And that brings us to the second amazing, darn-near-miraculous thing about the scoop-and-score: how the “and-score” part came as an unlikely bonus. Bears quarterback Justin Fields was within inches of Parsons as he cradled the recovered ball on the turf. Touching him at all- even accidentally- would have ended the play. But Fields inexplicably leaped over Parsons, going out of his way to avoid all contact.

It was a stunning mental lapse from the Chicago signal-caller.

“It’s my fault for just hopping over him,” Fields admitted later. “I should have tackled him. I can’t remember the last time I made a tackle. I’ve just got to be aware in that situation and make sure he’s down.”

Bears head coach (and former Cowboys assistant) Matt Eberflus acknowledged that the gaffe was a major turning point in the game. A successful Chicago drive there could have cut the Dallas lead to four points; instead, Parsons extended the margin to 19.

“Yeah, just touch him down,” Eberflus reiterated in his postgame comments. “We’ve showed multiple times during the course of our situations tape that we show every Friday that you’ve got to touch guys down. When you see that, you’ve got to touch them down. We know that. It’s part of pro football, and we’ve just got to do a better job there.”

But they didn’t, even though Parsons himself believed he was down after securing the fumble.

“I kind of popped up, ready to celebrate with the team,” Parsons told media members. “I thought I was down. Everyone was like, ‘Go go go,’ and I just went went went.”

It may have been the true game-icing moment, but Parsons’s teammates and coaches were reluctant to give the uber-competitive linebacker too much credit for his touchdown run.

“Those are game-changing type plays- not only to create the takeaway, but to be able to finish it,” head coach Mike McCarthy told reporters. “Obviously very excited, but part of me is annoyed because he wants to be on offense already. Now I’m going to have a hard time keeping him out of my office. His ball security is awful, so he still needs to focus on defense.”

“Honestly, I’m like, ‘Jeez, I’m going to hear this for a while, about how he needs to run the ball or be on offense,'” Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott also joked from the podium.

“Zeke [Elliott, Cowboys running back] said I looked just like him,” Parsons offered with a grin. “I think I definitely deserve a rep now. They can’t say that they haven’t seen it in a game, so hopefully I get thrown into a goal-line package or red-zone package. But hey, who knows?”

Parsons can continue to dream about taking a real handoff and busting through the offensive line for a big gain. For now, though, his first pro touchdown as a defensive superstar will have to suffice.

“That guy’s an athlete, that guy’s a hell of a player, one of the best in the league,” Prescott said. “For him to be able to go get that touchdown- and trust me, many more are going to come in his career and hopefully a few more this year. He’s a special player, and we’re just blessed to have him on this team.”

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3 Stars: Offense finally has to carry Cowboys and their shoulders were indeed broad

The fastest linebacker in the NFL? Not Micah. Meanwhile the Dallas offense finally had to lead the way and @CDPiglet says they showed themselves more than capable in Sunday’s win.

The Dallas Cowboys were winning games while without quarterback Dak Prescott by relying on the defense to hold opponents down and then asking the offense to not make critical mistakes. The reason the team was excited to get Prescott back was because eventually the Dallas defense was going to have a bad game and the offense would need to carry the team to a win. They weren’t going to do that with Cooper Rush under center.

Unexpectedly, the Week 8 Chicago Bears were the team to bring that challenge. They fell behind early but stuck to their game plan of running the ball at Dallas with multiple running backs, the quarterback, and even WR Velus Jones. Chicago ran 14 more plays than Dallas, controlling the clock for over 36 minutes, rushing for 240 yards. The Cowboys’ offense was going to have to show up and more than 400 yards and over 40 points later, last year’s No. 1 offense produced three stars of the game.

Yes, Micah Parsons did take a fumble and return it for a touchdown. Dalton Schultz brought in six of his seven targets for 74 yards, CeeDee Lamb had five receptions for 77 yards and a TD, and Kellen Moore was dialing up a great offensive plan all game. Any of those could have received a star this game, but sometimes it can be about more than who had the best stats of the day.

Good, bad, ugly from Cowboys’ 49-29 victory over Chicago Bears

Contain the QB? Nope. Contain the run game? Nope. So exactly how did Dallas still have their largest win of the season? @BenGrimaldi breaks it all down.

The Dallas Cowboys had their first offensive explosion of the season in their 49-29 routing of the Chicago Bears. Quarterback Dak Prescott returned to the form that made him an MVP candidate in the first half of 202, also utilizing his legs to keep the chains moving in the Cowboys’ sixth win of the 2022 campaign.

This was a game where it seemed like the Cowboys had the game well in hand, but allowed the Bears to stick around with some sloppy play. Luckily, the Cowboys had the right answers, which included Prescott and running back Tony Pollard, to keep the Bears playing from behind.

It wasn’t a fun day for the defense, who were gashed in the running game once again. The unit made enough plays though, despite fighting through some injuries and misfortunes. Here’s the good, the bad, and the ugly as Dallas won their second game in a row, and heads to their much-needed bye week at 6-2.

Cowboys’ Jones says ‘I would do that’ on trade; 1 target from each team

A list of one player from each team who could be traded becomes more intriguing after Jerry Jones’ words on Sunday. | From @KDDrummondNFL

Following the Cowboys 49-29 win over the Chicago Bears, Dallas sits at 6-2. The team has started with this record 10 other times in the Jerry Jones era, and all 10 times they proceeded to make the playoffs. Even with the Philadelphia Eagles racing out to a 7-0 record, including a win over a Cooper Rush-led Dallas team, it feels as if this roster is capable of representing the conference in the Super Bowl.

While over the offseason it appeared that Dallas wasn’t interesting in going all in, it appears they have a belief many didn’t over the summer. To that point, Jones admitted after the game that he’s heard proposals from other teams and is willing to make a trade to improve the depth of the club. In speaking to Kevin Gray of 105.3 The Fan, Jones allowed that he’d be willing to trade draft picks to acquire the right target. His exact quote, “I’d give up some future currency to go for it.”

So if the phones are ringing (Jones also said multiple teams have offered Dallas receivers), then Jones is listening. What kind of offers? This week, the Wire network all named one player per team the editors think would be on the trade block.

Top photos from Cowboys 20-point drubbing of Bears in Week 8

Get those right-click-save-as fingers going because there’s a ton of great photo captures from Dallas’ 49-29 win in Week 8. | From @KDDrummondNFL

The Dallas Cowboys handled their business. Entering the game as 9.5-point favorites, the expectation was that despite the Bears 16-point win the week prior, Dallas was the much better team. The early returns proved that, the middle of the game made one wonder, but by the final window there was no uncertainty. The Cowboys may have given up a ton of ground yardage to Justin Fields and the Chicago offense, but everything else was working for the club.

Dallas won 49-29 for their biggest win of the season and improved to 6-2 on the year. Playing without Ezekiel Elliott, Tony Pollard and the Dallas run game didn’t miss a beat. Quarterback Dak Prescott was precise on almost every throw. A hobbled and further-injured defense was confounded by Fields’ athleticism but still managed to get multiple sacks and added to the scoring column themselves. Here’s a look at the best pics from all of the action in Week 8, courtesy of the USA Today and Getty Images photographers.