Maybe it was the addition of newcomers Quinnen Williams and Logan Wilson, the return to action of DeMarvion Overshown, Malik Hooker, and Shavon Revel.
Or, maybe it was the statement made on the opening possession by head coach Brian Schottenheimer by benching George Pickens and CeeDee Lamb for the first drive.
Or it could have been that Dallas was playing the Las Vegas Raiders. No matter the reason, the results were clear to see.
The Cowboys used a nearly perfect second quarter to run the Raiders right out of their own stadium on Monday night.
Williams had four tackles and 1.5 sacks while Wilson added two tackles. Hooker had three tackles while Overshown and Revel had a tackle each.
The win improves Dallas to 4-5-1 on the season, and keeps them in the playoff hunt.
Hopefully, it will light a spark that carries over into the next five weeks as the Cowboys face the toughest stretch of their schedule.
All-Time Stats
Monday night’s win leveled the all-time record between the Cowboys and Raiders at 7-7. However, the Cowboys are now 5-3 against the Raiders when the teams meet outside of Texas.
When it comes to Week 11 contests, the Cowboys are now 35-27-2 overall. They are 18-16-1 when those games are on the road.
This was the eighth-straight year that the Cowboys played on the road in the 11th week.
They are now 6-2 in those games.
The last home game for Dallas in Week 11 came in 2017. They lost to the Eagles that year.
This was the first time Dallas had faced off against the Raiders in the 11th week of the season.
Their most common opponents in Week 11 are the Cardinals (6-1) and Commanders (5-2).
Dallas is now 25-12 all-time in games played after a bye week. They are 16-9 when those games are on the road.
Cowboys Scoragami Update
The final score of 33-16 was the first time a Cowboys game has ended in such a score.
It is the 425th unique score for the Cowboys out of 1075 regular season and playoff games.
Careful What You Ask For
The Cleveland Browns were up 16-10 over Baltimore on Sunday. And Browns fans were booing.
Then starting quarterback Dillon Gabriel did not come out for the second half due to being in the concussion protocol.
And the Browns fans began cheering as Shedeur Sanders took the field at quarterback.
Sanders, once expected to be a top five pick in April’s draft, fell all the way to the fifth round. He was the third quarterback until Joe Flacco was traded.
He still couldn’t supplant Gabriel as the starter until Gabriel’s injury.
On Sunday we saw why Sanders fell as far as he did.
He finished 4-for-16 for 47 yards with one interception. He should have been picked a second time and was lucky his fumble was recovered by a teammate.
Sanders will start this Sunday against the Raiders if Gabriel is still out with a concussion.
He probably won’t fare much better.
Madrid Misstep
Miami Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel should probably have been fired back when the Dolphins canned their general manager.
He might have gotten the pink slip after Sunday’s game against Washington if the Commanders’ hadn’t all but handed Miami a win.
In a tie game with under two minutes to play, the Dolphins had a fourth and goal from the one. Given neither team was lighting up the scoreboard, the smart play would be kick the easy field goal.
McDaniel chose to run the ball instead and the Commanders stuffed Ollie Gordon for a two-yard loss.
The Commanders ran seven plays, getting to Miami’s 38 with 15 seconds to go.
Matt Gay’s 56-yard field goal sailed wide right and off to overtime the teams went. On the first play of overtime, Marcus Mariotta threw an interception.
Four plays later Miami kicked the game-winner and saved McDaniels job, at least until the end of the season.
Did You Learn Nothing?
Apparently, Detroit Lions head coach Dan Campbell didn’t catch the early game from Madrid.
On three straight possessions in the third quarter, after failing on two fourth down attempts in the second quarter, Campbell left his offense on the field.
The Lions ended the game 0-for-5 on fourth down tries in their 16-9 loss. Two of the three attempts in the second half were within field goal range.
Campbell might have been scared off by his kicker missing a long extra-point try in the first half, with windy conditions in Philadelphia.
But the Eagles’ kicker, Jake Elliott hit from 49 yards out. Clearly, it wasn’t an impossible task.
If you can’t trust your kicker to do the one job he was hired to do, why is he even on the roster?
Not to take away from a good performance on both sides of the ball, but maybe because the Raiders are just a really bad team, and Cowboys usually feast on that type of team. Gaping holes in the secondary to start, Geno Smith looks “medium well”, and that RB fans were “prematurely” clamoring about, Jeanty, actually looked small and timid on runs and forget about pass pro. Glad the Cowboys didn’t move up to pick him. Why would Carroll want to be involved with that mess. The only player that looked any good was that TE.
All that said, they played as they should have and maybe have some momentum moving forward. QW is a nice addition and may prove to help that forever run defense problem fans have screamed about for years. Let’s see what they can do against these upcoming “playoff team” games.