The Dallas Cowboys strolled into Carolina Sunday afternoon and dispatched of the Panthers with little resistance.
Of course, the same social media trolls who predicted a possible upset by the Panthers all of a sudden are saying the win wasn’t impressive.
In a way they are correct.
There would have been zero excuses for the Cowboys if they had struggled versus a 1-8 team, and social media would have exploded had they lost.
No matter, the Cowboys can only play who the NFL schedule makers place in front of them.
This time it was the 1-8 Panthers, quarterbacked by rookie number one overall pick Bryce Young.
Using a strong defense and a steady offense, the Cowboys left Bank of America Stadium with a 33-10 victory and a 7-3 record on the season.
It wasn’t the typical offensive explosion we are used to seeing, but I don’t put much stock into that.
A noon game on the East coast tends to do that to teams.
Dallas started a bit slow, but still managed to leave Charlotte with a 23 point victory, tying them with the Baltimore Ravens for the highest point differential (+127) in the NFL.
Today I’d like to highlight the Cowboys players who played key roles in that victory.
Terence Steele
I’d like to first start by saying that for just the second time since Week 2, Dak Prescott did not take a sack.
Terence Steele played a big part in that, just like how he played a big part in the six straight games giving up double digit sacks.
As good as Steele’s pass protection was versus one of the premier pass rushers in the league, Brian Burns, his run blocking also seemed to get back to form.
Take a look at this clip where he absolutely deleted two of the Panthers defenders at the same time to clear the way for Tony Pollard.
That is the type of nasty block that earned him his new contract, and he is certainly living up to that new money over the past couple of weeks.
Steele looks to build on that success this Thursday versus a Commanders defense that traded away both Chase Young and Montez Sweat.
With plays like that, he will be just fine.
DaRon Bland
Readers are probably wondering why I didn’t list DaRon Bland first in this article.
He certainly deserves to be mentioned first in many conversations after yet another interception returned for touchdown.
Bland carried a Panthers wide receiver all the way across the field, stepped in front of Young’s pass, made the interception, barrel rolled forward, and sprung up to sprint into the endzone.
It marks Bland’s sixth interception of the season, and his fourth returned for a touchdown, tying an NFL record.
Bland’s play has softened the blow of the loss of Trevon Diggs, and even has fans debating if Bland is better than Diggs.
We don’t need to have that conversation. Let’s just appreciate the fact that both of them are on our team.
Bland also contributed a pass break up and five tackles to the stat sheet.
Micah Parsons
I cannot round out this article without mentioning Micah Parsons.
Micah recorded his first three sack game of his career that was later stat corrected to 2.5 because Jayron Kearse laid his fingertips on Bryce Young’s jersey.
Seriously, NFL. Micah had both arms wrapped around the quarterback. I’m not sure how that’s credited as half a sack.
Either way, Parsons’ 2.5 sacks bring his season total up to 10, marking the first time in franchise history a Cowboys’ player records 10+ sacks in his first three seasons.
This is a franchise who has drafted pass rushers like DeMarcus Ware, Jim Jeffcoat, and Greg Ellis.
I’d say that Micah is in good company, but he’s actually in a league all his own.
Along with the 2.5 sacks, Micah also recorded nine pressures and a season high 40% pass rush win rate.
The above photo says everything about how much of a game wrecker Parsons was against the Panthers on Sunday.