The Cowboys scored 49 points yesterday afternoon against the Bears, the most all season, racking up 442 yards on offense.
A hot start from Dak Prescott and a career day from Tony Pollard helped the offense have its best game of the year.
In the absence of Ezekiel Elliott, Pollard rushed for 131 yards and three touchdowns on 14 carries; he added one catch for 16 yards.
Prescott completed his first 10-of-11 passes for 107 yards. Capping the first two drives of the game with a touchdown run and TD pass to CeeDee Lamb.
He finished 21-of-27 for 250 yards, three touchdowns (one rushing), and an interception.
The offense moved the ball at will yesterday, the type of movement I remember from early last year when they were lighting up the scoreboard.
Let’s not kid ourselves, this is the best the offense has looked all season, and a blazing start from Prescott allowed Pollard to dominate the rest of the game.
The offense scored on six of eight possessions; regardless of who you play, that is an offensive output you look for every week.
In a game where the Cowboys’ defense gave up a season-high in points, the offense found a great time to deliver the best game of the season.
The balance was beautiful; let me tell you, the third-down offense was fantastic. Coming into this matchup, the Cowboys were ranked 30th in the NFL. Yesterday Dallas converted 9 of 11 third-down attempts, another great takeaway from that side of the ball.
The Bears had the third-ranked passing defense entering yesterday, and the balance of the offense allowed them to make everything seem simple without Zeke or Noah Brown in the lineup.
Even when the Bears cut the lead to five early in the third quarter, the offense stayed hot and responded with a 70-yard touchdown drive, and the defense finally made that game-changing play we have seen so often from them.
Linebacker Leighton Vander Esch knocked the ball out of David Montgomery’s hands, and Micah Parsons fell on top of it and, when nobody touched him, took it 36 yards for the touchdown.
Obviously, the play of Prescott was stellar with the great start, but Pollard has proved once again that he is the best running back on this team. Elliott has been good this year; let’s not take anything away from him.
His pass blocking and being able to put up anything in short-yardage is critical, and I am not here to say he should lose his job because they both are good at what they do, but you can see the explosiveness of the offense when they have Pollard on the field.
Sitting at 6-2 at the bye week is a great feeling after everyone wrote them off after one week of football. The defense has a week to recover, and the offense found the mojo at the right time, pouring out 49 points.
They travel to Lambeau Field on November 13th to face a struggling Packers team after the bye, and let’s hope they can keep the pace going because this team has real promise when healthy.