Blogging The Boys
There have been multiple points in Dak Prescott’s career where missing just one starting offensive linemen was crippling for the entire offense around him. Sunday at the New York Jets was not one of those occasions whatsoever. In fact, down four starters up front, Prescott put up another MVP-caliber performance to give the Cowboys not only their second win, but a win they can build on in many positive ways. The fact this win came against the winless Jets is undoubtedly important context for judging it, but also has little to do with the way Dallas absolutely did what they had to do as the better team to impressively control this game and get to 2-2-1. There is a way to go about business as a team favorited to win on the road against a lesser opponent, and the Cowboys absolutely did that nearly from start to finish at the Jets.
Dallas turned a 10-3 second quarter lead into a 23-3 advantage before halftime, and even with the offense slowing down a bit in the second half, the defense stiffened up long enough for them to salt the game away at 37-14 late in the fourth. Coming off of a tie against the Packers that could have felt more like a win or a loss based on what the Cowboys did following it, the Cowboys coaching staff had a masterful game plan to look like far and away the better team against the Jets despite not having Tyler Guyton, Tyler Smith, Cooper Beebe, Tyler Booker, CeeDee Lamb, or KaVontae Turpin.
This was the same Jets team that held a late fourth-quarter lead against the AFC North-leading Steelers in week one and same at the NFC South-leading Buccaneers in week three. They played a back-and-forth affair and lost by six at the Dolphins in week four. The Cowboys made them look every bit of the struggling winless team they still are at 0-5 now, a definitive win for first year head coach Brian Schottenheimer against fellow first year head coach Aaron Glenn.
Finding positives for the Cowboys after their tie against the Packers was convoluted, but the continued success of the offensive line as well as the overall level of preparation this team appears to have under their new coaching staff were two of them. Keeping those things as positives for a game the Cowboys can firmly place in the win column from Sunday afternoon is a great sign, and one that helps add a lot of context to where this team is with another favorable game on tap.
Let’s take a closer look at how a banged up Cowboys team got the job done and then some at the Jets.
The Cowboys missing KaVontae Turpin in this game opened the door for Ryan Flournoy to have his best game as a pro. The second-year draft pick was able to work both out of the slot and outside, doing his best work in the spot Turpin primarily lines up inside. Prescott...
