For the ones with shorter Cowboys memories — or perhaps those less interested in the lower moments of team history — Sunday‘s Cowboys-Eagles game marked the 36th anniversary of “The Bounty Bowl,” an otherwise mundane 27-0 Dallas loss if not for Jimmy Johnson’s postgame accusation that Buddy Ryan had offered bounties on Troy Aikman and kicker Luis Zendejas.
And for about 20 minutes, it appeared the latest editions of the two teams were staging a re-enactment. The Eagles, without anything that resembled spectacular effort, had grabbed a 21-0 lead and the Cowboys’ half of the crowd was mostly limited to cheering the mariachi tune “El Rey” which the team trots out when things are going poorly.
Then came something wildly unexpected.
Then came redemption.
Cowboys
Then came 24-21 Cowboys at the final buzzer to give Dallas its only two-game win streak of the year and raise its record to 5-5-1. There is a world of difference between 5-5-1 and 4-6-1 that we will get to shortly, but, for the moment, the redemption carried across the board for the Cowboys.
High-steppin’: See photos as Cowboys cap off wild comeback win vs. Eagles
View Gallery
The defense needed it after surrendering three straight Eagles touchdowns to start the game. To hold Jalen Hurts and Co. scoreless for the final 41 minutes, to get an Osa Odighizuwa sack of Hurts on the Eagles’ final possession, the defensive players were the real heroes.
But there was redemption for Dak Prescott, too. He didn’t start the game like a house afire. His second-and-goal pass late in the second period was intercepted by safety Reed Blankenship and was a poor throw, one of several but definitely the most egregious for Prescott in the opening half. It kept the score at 21-0 until KaVontae Turpin broke loose for a 48-yard catch to set up a George Pickens touchdown catch right before half.
There was redemption for head coach Brian Schottenheimer, who should have challenged a roughing-the-punter call that contributed heavily to the Eagles‘ second touchdown. Ryan Flournoy signaled that he had touched the ball, and replays indicated that was true, but, in fairness, it was not immediately obvious on replay and Schottenheimer has not yet thrown his challenge flag as a head coach. He also needed a little final redemption after getting too cute near the goal line in the fourth quarter. Javonte Williams ran six yards from the eight to the two on first down, then didn’t touch the ball again as three straight pass calls (Dak tried to run it in on one) gave possession back to Philadelphia.
It would have been a terrible blow if not for Osa’s sack that reminded everyone this team had at least one big-time tackle before the Quinnen Williams trade.
In the end, Dak threw for 354 yards and a pair of touchdowns, ran another one in as he even soared through the air. He passed Tony Romo as the Cowboys’ all-time passing yards leader, and he didn’t have to do it with a bittersweet result. The Cowboys beat the Super Bowl champs because Dak outplayed Hurts, because Javonte Williams was a much, much bigger factor (87 yards rushing on 20 carries) than the Eagles’ Saquon Barkley (22 yards on 10 carries). They won because while A.J. Brown got off to a great start and finished with 110 yards, Pickens was the receiving star of the afternoon with 146 yards on nine catches.
“Tons of confidence in this group and, yes, it starts with our defense,” Prescott said. “They’re the reason we’re able to come back in this game and win it. We’ve got to stop shooting ourselves in the foot. This game could have been completely different.”
It took more than three months, but the Cowboys finally won back-to-back games. It took more than three months, but the Cowboys beat a team with a winning record (and a great one). And it prevented the team from rolling quickly into a Thanksgiving Day date with last year’s other Super Bowl team, one that has nearly become a perennial Super Bowl visitor, with a losing record.
At 4-6-1, the Cowboys would be playing out the string, half the roster maybe auditioning for jobs here and elsewhere for next year. At 5-5-1, while the Cowboys aren’t in the thick of the NFC East race, they aren’t too far off the wild-card pace to be considered. There are five teams ahead of the Cowboys for the NFC’s three wild card spots, and I don’t think the 8-3 Seahawks or 7-3-1 Packers are too worried about sliding behind Dallas. But San Francisco is a wobbly 7-4 and the same goes for Detroit, which is on deck for the Cowboys after the Thanksgiving game. It might seem preposterous to be predicting a road win over the Lions, but Detroit needed overtime to hold off the New York Giants early Sunday.
Maybe, like Winston Churchill once said following victory in Africa, this wasn’t the end and this wasn’t even the beginning of the end, but perhaps it was the end of the beginning. The perception of this team as one patently incapable of overcoming its mistakes, of staging a big comeback against a winning team, is now history.
Doesn’t mean they won’t fall shy again or that this short little win streak is going to last deep into December. But it’s now a team that can generate big, winning plays on both sides of the ball. That makes it a team with hope.
More Cowboys-Eagles
– How Cowboys’ defense turned ‘21-skunked’ into one of the season’s biggest victories
– As George Pickens shines for Cowboys yet again, his price tag only goes in one direction
– Five takeaways from Cowboys-Eagles: Dallas keeps hope alive with second-half comeback
Find more Cowboys coverage from The Dallas Morning News here.