It's nearly been a full two days since the Dallas Cowboys defeated the Seattle Seahawks 24-22, but I'm still pretty pumped. I was prepared for yet another first-round letdown in the playoffs, but was really hoping for the best. I believe that's exactly what the Cowboys gave us Saturday night.
Despite the closeness of the score, the Cowboys are the ones that pretty much dominated the entire game from start to finish. For the most part it was a mistake free game, even though there were a few missed calls and mental mistakes here and there. This might just have been their most complete game of the season to date.
Today though, I want to share with you what I believed was The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly like I do after every Dallas Cowboys game, win or lose. And as always, please feel free to share your thoughts and opinions on this topic in the comment section provided at the end of the article.
Let's get started…
The Good
The Dallas Cowboys needed to play an outstanding game in order to defeat the Seattle Seahawks in the Wild Card round, and were able to do just that. There was a lot of good that happened Saturday night, but I think the thing that really stood out to me was Quarterback Dak Prescott.
The Cowboys offense is only going to go as far as Prescott takes them in the postseason. Running Back Ezekiel Elliott may be the engine that drives this offense, but it's Dak in the driver seat plotting the course. Fortunately, he's playing some of his best football right now and nearly had a perfect game against the Seahawks Saturday night.
Prescott completed 22 of his 33 passes for 226 yards and made an absolutely perfect throw to Wide Receiver Michael Gallup for an 11 yard touchdown. He did have an interception later in the game, but that probably should've been negated by a pass interference penalty that went uncalled.
Prescott was good through the air Saturday, but what he did on the ground won the Cowboys the game. His 29 rushing yards and a TD was the difference maker! It's a part of his game that should be a big part of the game plan from here on out.
The Bad
If I'm being completely honest, it was a little difficult to come up with something for this section. The Dallas Cowboys played an absolutely outstanding game against a very talented Seahawks team. But, the one thing that really bothered me was some of the big plays they gave up. For me, that was the bad.
I know it's a little nitpicky considering the way the Cowboys defense pretty much dominated the game, but a lot of those big plays are what kept the score so close. I believe just about all of the long completions to Tyler Lockett and the toe-tapping catch by Doug Baldwin along the sideline were on third or fourth down. Those plays unfortunately extended several drives for Seattle.
From here on out, the Cowboys are going to see a lot more high-powered offenses in the playoffs and really need to limit some of these big plays if they want to keep their Super Bowl aspirations alive. Luckily, this is a very talented defense playing at a really high level right now. They definitely have it in them to play even better.
The Ugly
Most of the time, but not always I usually go with something negative here that happened in the game for the Dallas Cowboys. This week I'm going to change it up a little bit because I think the Cowboys defense absolutely made the Seahawks running game look ugly.
Coming into the Wild Card round the Seahawks had the league's best rushing attack. That didn't seem to intimidate the Cowboys defense in the least bit, because they pretty much made Chris Carson nonexistent the entire game. He only had 20 of the Seahawks 73 rushing yards. That's how dominant the Cowboys run defense was.
The way the Cowboys run defense was able to contain Chris Carson and the Seahawks rushing attack is great news considering who they will face next in the playoffs. Los Angeles Rams RB Todd Gurley will be much more difficult to contain, but not if Dallas' D continues to play the way they did Saturday night. Containing Gurley would you give the Cowboys a much better chance at another playoff victory.
