Tag: Dallas Cowboys vs Seattle Seahawks

Cowboys Jake Ferguson, Markquese Bell fined for actions during Week 13 win over Seattle

From @ToddBrock24f7: Ferguson was involved in a minor scuffle after a first-down catch; Bell grabbed a facemask during a tackle. Both will be docked for it.

Cowboys tight end Jake Ferguson did some jawing with Seahawks safeties Jamal Adams and Quandre Diggs during their Week 13 win. Now all three players will do a little paying up, too.

Adams and Diggs were fined $10,927 each by the league for unsportsmanlike conduct; Ferguson took a lesser hit for $5,812. None of them drew a penalty flag at the time.

The incident came in the third quarter of the Cowboys’ 41-35 win, following an 14-yard pass play that gave Dallas a new set of downs and put them on the Seattle 6. Ferguson popped up after the tackle and gave an emphatic first-down signal in Diggs’s face. Diggs shoved back, and Adams stalked after Ferguson to share a few words.

Ferguson returned, and the two came helmet-to-helmet, with Adams finally taking a quick swipe at the tight end’s facemask.

[affiliatewidget_smgtolocal]

Cowboys safety Markquese Bell was also fined for an instance of unnecessary roughness. He’ll be docked $4,861 for grabbing the facemask of Seahawks running back Zach Charbonnet on a third-quarter play. That misstep also drew a 15-yard flag during the contest.

[lawrence-auto-related count=3]

[mm-video type=video id=01hh26fazzyn2p4fm286 playlist_id=01eqbwens7sctqdrqg player_id=none image=https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/video/thumbnail/mmplus/01hh26fazzyn2p4fm286/01hh26fazzyn2p4fm286-acf567d1f64362c4d54c17491df59bad.jpg]

[lawrence-newsletter]

 

Prescott’s TNF performance sets Week 13 standard for MVP candidates

Prescott continues his MVP bid in a thrilling Thursday night game against the Seattle Seahawks, now the rest of the contenders must keep up. | From @TimLettiero

There was plenty on the line as Dallas looked to prove themselves against a formidable opponent on Thursday night as Seattle looked to keep their playoff hopes alive. Only one of those ended up happening.

The Dallas defense could not keep Seattle out of the end zone, leaving the winning to the offense. Thankfully for the Cowboys, the offense delivered. Spearheaded by the hottest player in the league QB Dak Prescott, the Seahawks had to munch down the Cowboys’ fifth 40 burger of the year and fly back to the Pacific Northwest on the losing end of a 41-35 battle.

Prescott finished the day with 299 passing yards, three scores through the air, and a score on the ground that was called back for holding. This wasn’t his flashiest game statistically, thanks to two end zone drops, but he captained the offense in clutch situations to squeak out a victory.

A 7-3 deficit after a quick Seattle touchdown, Dallas quickly returned the favor. In just six plays and under three minutes, the drive concluded in what feels like an inevitable Prescott to WR CeeDee Lamb touchdown.

Entering the second quarter, Prescott dipped into his Houdini bag to keep the drive alive and connect with RB Tony Pollard for a 12-yard gain.

Later that drive, the white-hot WR Brandin Cooks continued his run of good form with a wide-open catch for a touchdown on a great read from Prescott.

Skipping ahead to the fourth, Dallas finds themselves down eight needing points to keep the game within reach. On 1st-and-10, Prescott pulls more magic out of nowhere and escapes a sack to keep Dallas driving downfield.

Now only down five, Dallas needed a touchdown to take their first lead since the second quarter. Prescott drove the offense downfield efficiently to set up this all-too-easy pitch and catch with TE Jake Ferguson. This makes the score 38-35 after Prescott and Cooks connect on a two-point conversion.

Two ensuing defensive stops and a field goal would ice the game for Dallas and move them to 9-3 on the season.

When asked to describe the victory in his postgame interview QB Dak Prescott replied immediately, “We needed this” as he was nearly drowned out by MVP chants from fans in the background.

Studs and duds in Cowboys’ 41-35 Week 13 win over Seahawks

Dak Prescott was clutch throughout and the defense when it needed to be, but Dan Quinn’s unit has things to clean up. | From @BenGrimaldi

The Dallas Cowboys were finally tested at home against the Seattle Seahawks in Week 13, and they came away with a 41-35 win. It wasn’t as easy as expected, but the Cowboys pushed their current win streak to three games, extended their home winning streak to 14, and kept the pressure on the Philadelphia Eagles to win to keep their two-game lead in the division.

It was a grind for the Cowboys in this one as their defense had a bad night and the penalties piled up giving the struggling Seahawks a chance to come away with the upset. However, behind another stellar performance from their MVP candidate quarterback Dak Prescott, the team was able to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. Here are the studs and duds for the Cowboys in a narrow win in Week 13.

Jake Ferguson’s adding extremely important elements to Cowboys’ identity

The Cowboys are loaded with playmakers and star power, but Jake Ferguson adds a layer of grit and crazy the Dallas offense sorely needs. | From @ReidDHanson

For the better part of the 2023 season, Jake Ferguson has been the No. 2 option in Dallas. He trails only CeeDee Lamb in targets and receptions and with five games yet to play, he’s already nearly tripled his output from 2022.

Even though he’s been a key cog in the Cowboys machine throughout the year, it took a big day on the Thursday Night Football stage to truly elevate him into the hearts and minds of the nation. Tony Gonzalez, a former NFL tight end and current TNF analyst, gushed over his six reception, 77-yard and one-touchdown performance, prompting many to call this Ferguson’s “coming out party.”

Those close to the team know better. The former fourth-rounder from Wisconsin has been that guy in Dallas all season long. And it didn’t take a couple flashy plays in primetime football to make it official.

As a blocker, Ferguson has quietly established himself in the NFL’s top tier. Of those with at least 300 snaps, Ferguson ranks sixth in run blocking and fifth in pass protection. With the same snap minimum, Pro Football Focus grades him seventh overall this season, making him the second-youngest TE in their top-10.

But while the pure blocking and receiving numbers are great, it’s the intangibles that seem to set him apart.

“He’s a baller,” Dak Prescott said. “His mentality is why he is the guy that he is. He expects to do what he did in tonight’s game and he’s no different than me.”

It wasn’t just what Ferguson did on Thursday, but how and to whom he did it. Jawing with All-Pro Jamal Adams early, Ferguson essentially went after the biggest bully in the yard. It was a beef only made beefier when Ferguson pulled in the go-ahead touchdown in the face of Adams in the endzone.

“He’s got a lot of swag, a little bit of craziness,” described Prescott. “You want a guy who can definitely get dirty but have some swag, be able to catch some passes, go get more, finish runs. He’s talented. A young guy – a bright, bright future ahead of him.”

While the swag is nice, it’s the grit that accompanies the swag that sets him apart from other playmakers on the team. Ferguson’s “tough guy” demeanor is the grit the Cowboys offense needs. It’s not only inspiring to others, but it’s arguably what’s been lacking in recent postseason campaigns.

San Francisco, the unofficial boogeyman of the Cowboys, has out gritted Dallas in consecutive postseasons. The Cowboys offense has repeatedly bogged down against ultra-physical teams like the 49ers and need players like Ferguson to not only step up in the playmaker department but also as a team leader and inspirational tough guy.

If something woke up on Thursday night against Seattle, it wasn’t Ferguson the playmaker, it was Ferguson the tough guy. It’s a personality trait the Cowboys have been missing in many ways, and something that could pay major dividends in the postseason.

[affiliatewidget_smgtolocal]

[lawrence-auto-related count=3]

Has the Dan Quinn defense been exposed or are the Cowboys just exhausted?

The Cowboys defense played poorly against Seattle in Week 13, are the issues explainable or is this a sign of more bad things to come? | From @ReidDHanson

In what was possibly the most entertaining Thursday Night Football matchup of the season, the Cowboys successful dispatched their second winning team, beating Seattle 41-35 and moving to 9-3 on the season. It kept Dallas fresh on the heels of the NFC East leading Eagles and pushed Dak Prescott front and center into the MVP conversation.

While the high-scoring and puntless affair was a rousing success for TNF and truly fun to watch by most entertainment standards, entertaining football isn’t always good football. From the perspective of the Dallas defense, the Week 13 shootout with the Seahawks was anything but.

Passing for 334 yards with an EPA/play of +0.50, Geno Smith not only played his best game of the season, but arguably of his career. He carved up the Cowboys defense with relative ease and did so without the benefit of a running game.

Opponents with a winning record are now averaging over 35 points against Dallas in 2023. For perspective, Washington, the NFL’s worst defense in 2023, is averaging 29.2 points against them this season. The Cowboys are essentially playing like one of the worst defenses in the league when they match up against a winning team.

‘Not a good strategy’: Cowboys’ Micah Parsons left unblocked on purpose on Seattle’s final play

From @ToddBrock24f7: Even Parsons was shocked at how quickly he found himself in the backfield on Seattle’s last gasp Thursday. Turns out, they let him come.

With 1:11 to play and facing a do-or-die 4th-and-2 from the midfield logo, the Seattle Seahawks needed to convert one play to keep their final drive alive if they hoped to reach the end zone and pull out a comeback win over the Cowboys.

Less than two seconds after the ball was snapped, though, the Seahawks’ fate was sealed. Cowboys linebacker Micah Parsons had darted around Seattle running DeeJay Dallas and, completely untouched, was making a beeline for quarterback Geno Smith. Smith drifted backward, trying to buy just enough time for a receiver to come open.

With Parsons in his face a full 12 yards behind the line of scrimmage, Smith pushed a desperate sidearm toss toward his running back. It fell harmlessly to the turf, and the Cowboys ran out the clock for a 41-35 win in a thrilling back-and-forth affair.

It was one of the few highlights of the night for Parsons, who ended the game with an uncharacteristic and relatively quiet two tackles, three QB hits, and zero sacks.

But the most surprising part of the game’s final play? It was exactly how the Seahawks had drawn it up.

“It is the design,” Smith confirmed to reporters in a postgame press conference.

It’s a bold strategy, Pete Carroll. Let’s see if it pays off.

The Ringer‘s Benjamin Solak broke down how it was supposed to go.

While former NFL offensive lineman Mitchell Schwartz weighed in to explain that Seattle’s concept was actually slightly different from the Notre Dame/Navy example in terms of the O-line responsibilities, he agrees that the running back (Dallas) doesn’t end up where he’s supposed to be for the play to work.

Smith also admitted as much after the game.

“The right tackle had to squeeze- right there versus zero [-blitz], so he did the right thing. Micah came free. We knew that would possibly happen. I tried to get the ball around him and just wasn’t able to,” Smith said.

“We thought DeeJay could slip through there, and we could get him the ball in the flat. He wasn’t able to get through there, kind of got held up. And that’s kind of how the play went.”

What held Dallas up? As Solak points out, it’s Lawrence, the Cowboys’ other starting defensive end, who was lined up to the inside of Parsons on this play.

“Sometimes teams have what they call a peel with the end, where if the back releases, then the end will peel. Parsons will peel,” Smith explained. “On that play it was an all-out, so he continued to rush.”

Parsons himself was surprised at how quickly he was able to get into the backfield.

“Yeah for sure,” Parsons told reporters after the game. “I feel like I was getting there pretty fast all game. Geno was doing a great job, just getting the ball out fast. And that’s not something he had on film, where it was just quick-game all game.”

[affiliatewidget_smgtolocal]

It turns out Smith and the Seahawks had practiced all week on getting the ball out of his hands quickly, in preparation of the Cowboys’ pass rush. He was sacked just once on the night, due in large part to a 2.54-second average time to throw, his quickest of the season.

Even with a hair-trigger, that final play was a gamble, to be sure: to beat Parsons- one of the most dominant game-wreckers in the league- by leaving him totally unblocked, letting him come scot-free, and throwing the ball- either right past his earhole to an inexperienced running back in the flat… or to DK Metcalf, who had already torched the Cowboys for 134 yards and three touchdowns and was wide open.

 

Seattle is no stranger to making bizarre short-yardage play-call decisions when the game is literally on the line. Remember how Super Bowl XLIX ended? In that nail-biter, the Seahawks didn’t rely on their superstud running back (Marshawn Lynch) when they needed a yard.

On Thursday in Arlington, they relied too heavily on a third-string rusher when they needed twice that.

“I think they left the back on me,” Parsons said afterward. “That’s not a good strategy, either.”

[lawrence-auto-related count=3]

[mm-video type=video id=01hgk43hn4g35y9p3qhg playlist_id=01eqbwens7sctqdrqg player_id=none image=https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/video/thumbnail/mmplus/01hgk43hn4g35y9p3qhg/01hgk43hn4g35y9p3qhg-465096c39118919e79d756d753c1544d.jpg]

[lawrence-newsletter]

Good, Bad, Ugly: Cowboys survive questionable play calls, excessive penalties to beat Seahawks

From @ToddBrock24f7: Dak Prescott continued to impress. But DaRon Bland getting torched and a dubious decision late nearly cost the Cowboys a Week 13 win.

Week 13’s instant classic between the Cowboys and Seahawks certainly had its ups and downs. Dak Prescott continued to perform at an MVP-caliber level, and CeeDee Lamb stayed red-hot in a win that provided 76 combined points, 800-plus yards of offense, and was just the fifth game in NFL history with zero punts.

But the Dallas defense seems to have cooled considerably from their hair-on-fire start to the season, and fans watched on as their newest star-in-the-making was brought back down to earth by a relentless passing attack aimed straight at him.

Add in an absurd number of penalty flags thrown, frustratingly mediocre red-zone numbers, and a head-scratching decision in the waning moments, and the Thursday-night rollercoaster had Cowboys Nation feeling all the feelings before it was over.

Here’s a look back at the good, the bad, and the ugly from the team’s 41-35 win.

[affiliatewidget_smgtolocal]

Twitter reacts to Dak Prescott’s relentless ascent up MVP ranks

The detractors are quickly losing their excuses to why they are denying how magical a season Prescott is having. | From @KDDrummondNFL

Dak Prescott has done it again. For the sixth straight game since the Dallas Cowboys took their bye week, Prescott has put on an absolute show for his fanbase. In Thursday’s 41-35 victory, Prescott threw for three touchdowns on 299 passing yards, starting the game off in familar fashion.

For in all six of those games, Prescott had at least two passing touchdowns in the first halves, getting the offense off on the right foot. In most of the contests, the defense has matched his intensity, but not in Week 13. The defense didn’t show much of a pulse in the win until the final three drives, putting Prescott in a position where he had to orchestrate an offensive response over and over.

And that he did, in spectacular fashion. His numbers should’ve actually have been better as he lost two sure touchdowns to drops and a rushing touchdown to a holding penalty where he likely would’ve scored anyway.

All in all, it was a strong feather in his cap and one that will temporarily silence his dwindling number of critics and detractors, who were hanging on by fingernails to reasons why Prescott isn’t playing the best ball out of every NFL player at the moment. Playing huge when his defense isn’t giving him big leads and points? Check. Willing his team to win against a playoff-caliber opponent? Check. What’s the next hurdle that will pop up?

Here’s a look at several reactions on Twitter to his performance.

Week 13 Inactives: Samesies, right? Seahawks without Walker, Cowboys without Vaughn

The Cowboys are a full-go while the Seahawks will miss Kenneth Walker III, a key producer in the run game for Thursday Night Football. | From @cdburnett7

This is the gauntlet of the Dallas Cowboys 2023 schedule in multiple ways. Coming into their third game in 11 days, injury was avoided over the span and it’s a clean slate heading into Thursday Night Football. Meanwhile, this kicks off the toughest stretch of games.

Dallas had the opportunity to play tight end Peyton Hendershot for the first time of the season, but he wasn’t elevated as the end of his 21-day practice window nears a close. Other than Hendershot, the Cowboys are a full-go in AT&T Stadium.

The Seahawks aren’t so lucky, and it’ll be without leading rusher Kenneth Walker III, who’s up to 613 yards and six touchdowns on the ground. That’s the main casualty as defensive end Leonard Williams is active after a questionable designation during the week.

Here’s a full look at the inactives ahead of Cowboys-Seahawks on TNF at 7:15 p.m., streamed on Prime Video.

How to watch, stream Cowboys-Seahawks in Week 13, plus 10 top prop bets

Seattle has won 4 of the last 5 in the series and Dak Prescott has only defeated the Seahawks once in his career. Here’s how to watch Dallas turn the tide. | From @KDDrummondNFL

The Dallas Cowboys return to the field on Thursday night, seeking their 14th consecutive home victory. The opponent, a pseudo-rival from yesteryear, the Seattle Seahawks. The two teams are currently both in the playoff picture, hoping they haven’t fallen too far behind their division leaders with only six games remaining on the schedule.

Thursday night will feature a ton of firepower and two defenses which currently appear on opposite sides of the spectrum. The Cowboys have already put themselves behind the eightball and cannot afford to lose to a third NFC West team. Here’s how to catch all of the action, which won’t be the normal viewing process as this game is only available online for most of the country.