Still missing that first-round pick? Cowboys WR Amari Cooper scored three touchdowns, including the game-winner, as Dallas held off the Philadelphia Eagles 29-23 in a thrilling overtime victory.
On the final play, the Eagles' Rasul Douglas had great coverage and moved in for what should have been a deflection on the throw to Amari. But the ball popped up, and Cooper had enough space to snag it out of the air and take into the endzone.
Amari had 10 catches for 217 yards, almost all of which came after halftime. He had just one catch for 27 yards before the third quarter.
The Cowboys squandered a chance to put the game away in regulation, marching the field but then falling out of field goal range with a penalty and a bad snap from Joe Looney. However, they won the coin toss and never gave the ball back to the Eagles.
Dak Prescott crushed his career high with 455 passing yards today. It's the first time he's gone for 400 or more, and only the fifth time he's even been over 300 yards.
After struggling throughout much of the game, not just with three turnovers but also missing open receivers with inaccurate throws, Prescott seemed to find his footing again.
The win moves Dallas to 8-5, their fifth win in a row, and gives them a commanding lead in the NFC East. It also gives them the season sweep of the Eagles, who drop to 6-7.
Other Notes
- Brett Maher set a new Cowboys record with a 62-yard field goal to end the first half. He was 3/4 for the day, and his field goals were the only points Dallas scored for their 9-0 halftime lead.
- Ezekiel Elliott ground out 114 tough rushing yards on 28 carries. He also had 79 yards receiving.
- The tight end position is back! Blake Jarwin had a career-high seven catches for 56 yards and Dalton Schultz had 37 yards on three catches. Even Rico Gathers got a catch today, thought it was for minus-one yard.
- Zack Martin left the game late with a knee injury and did not return. Connor Williams came in to play RG in his absence.
- Tyron Smith was hit with multiple penalties, and you have to wonder how much missed practice and the nagging neck injury threw him off today.
- Anthony Brown made several key plays on pass deflections. It's easy to forget Brown, but he has more experience than most of our secondary. It showed today.
- Randy Gregory was called for two questionable penalties for roughing the passer. It feels like he's being targeted right now by officials, and hopefully it doesn't get in his head. Gregory contributed a sack to the defensive effort.
- DeMarcus Lawrence was kept off the sack board today, his second-straight game without getting to the quarterback.
- With Washington also losing today against the Giants and falling to 6-7, Dallas is in great position to take the division. They could clinch the NFC East as soon as next week.
- The Cowboys now head to Indianapolis, where the Colts are coming off an upset win over Houston and fighting to stay in the AFC playoff race.
My only two concerns: the amount of injuries that are piling up at the OL and Dak inaccuracy.
Hector please read what steve & I have written. Daks inaccuracies are based on the coaching. His quarterback coach is his former backup quarterback on the team. Dak showed balls yesterday, three turnovers but he had three TDS as well. Miss throws happened in the NFL with every quarterback. We just seem to try and magnify it when Dak makes an error.
the guy persevered yesterday and the Cowboys are still winning. They may be grinding to win but I would rather have a grinding team to win then a team that loses with those kind of mistakes. Give her a quarterback a chance who is showing Improvement every week or get off the Cowboys bandwagon if you’re looking for somebody to be perfect all the time. Remember this is Dak Prescott 3rd year and it’s not completed yet. We have a Hall of Famer in Troy Aikman, but Troy Aikman never, I mean never threw for 3500 yards in any season. Dak Prescott has, go check it out and he’s going to throw over 3,500 yards this year as well!
We are on the same page. Despite the fact that his mistakes are mostly consequence of having a QB coach with less experience than him, he’s the final responsible for the bad throwns. Moreover, if Cooper was brought in to help him and JJ trust and support are intact as we all know, I don’t see the problem of asking and giving him a better coach to recover the growth he has had. Or is better to lose games in the sake of protecting Moore?
Yes, I believe we should get rid of Kellen Moore. He should go down to the college ranks and start helping those young guys come up and develop and get some experience, he is not a suitable coach for Dak Prescott who I believe in my opinion is on the rise. You can’t question the fact that he showed resiliency in that Victory on Sunday. That’s the kind of quarterback I want on my team who won’t quit, just get a well-trained and thoroughly experience coach and we’ll be fine.
Indeed, resiliency is one of his best assets. Couple that with a sound technique and you got your franchise QB. A new QB Coach is a no brainer if you want to release the pressure from your QB.
Amen to that!
Sports writers of America, please stop evaluating Dak Prescott on every throw he misses. Several established QBs missed easy throws and it’s not magnified at the level of what Dak gets. He does miss some easy throws, but he does a heck of a job completing more than he misses. Give this guy a QB coach to help him with his mechanics and the mistakes will go away. Who in there right mind hires a backup QB from the same team to be the starting QB coach. Only in Dallas! Not his best game with the 3 turnovers, but 455 & 3 TD passes & the win I will take that. The team & Dak persevered fought back and won the ball game. To many people live on what ifs, live in the reality of what happened in this game. Dallas 29
Eagles 23 Reality for real!
@Bruce Hood I totally agree with you having Kellen Moore as a QB coach is just plain ignorant! Seriously Dak needs a HC as well to scold him when he is a little to sloppy holding the ball. As you say getting a true QB coach and having Dak focus on his mechanics and how to protect the ball and he will be fine! He has the arm to be a Elite QB and can also cut up the field and make plays with his feet! I believe in Dak and he is starting to gain confidence every game and fighting for that game yesterday proves how tough mentally he is because most QB’s that has 3 turnovers fold like a lawn chair and that proves that he can be Elite!
Steve, well said!