Cowboys Calf-Rope Bears: 'We Need Everybody!' in Blowout Before Bye
ARLINGTON - In advance of the Dallas Cowboys' NFL Week 8 game on Sunday here at AT&T Stadium against the Chicago Bears - and in advance of Tuesday's trade deadline - Dallas coach Mike McCarthy said of his roster, "We need 'em all.''
Time will tell whether McCarthy was prescient in regard to Dallas skipping on engineering a swap in the coming hours. But he was certainly correct about Cowboys 49-29 over Bears.
The Cowboys jumped to 6-2 entering the bye week by riding an early-game explosion from Dak Prescott (in his second game back after missing five outings with a thumb fracture) as the QB ran for a score and tossed to CeeDee Lamb for a 14-0 first quarter lead. ... and eventually elevated into half-a-hundred scoreboard territory.
And in the end, the offense - this year buttressed by one of the league's best defenses but not so much in this game - did more than its part, with injured Ezekiel Elliott replacement Tony Pollard slicing his way to success behind a strong O-line effort, and with Lamb and Michael Gallup doing their best to answer any questions about Dallas needing to trade for a receiver.
Meanwhile, the Cowboys defense - coming in among the NFL's stingiest in points allowed and the best in terms of sacks - did give up ground to elusive Chicago QB Justin Fields. On this day, the Dallas D was less about "perfection'' and more about "play-making,'' as witnessed by Micah Parsons' spectacular "I'm a running back!'' fumble return for a TD.
But generally, the Bears (3-5) lacked the weaponry to match was Dallas was doing on both sides of the ball.
McCarthy predicted that the Bears would work to find their "sweet spot'' for Fields success. Some of that happened ... but a win was accomplished even with a handful of key contributors joining Elliott on the inactive list, meaning some lesser lights would need to pitch in.
And indeed, this outing included a Jake Ferguson calf-rope TD, an end-zone pass defended by rookie DaRon Bland, and the debut of vet newcomer Johnathan Hankins and of rookies Malik Davis and Damone Clark, and really was the stage for some help from some "need-'em-all'' cast members. ... maybe most of all, Pollard, who'd predicted poetically, "If they call it, I'll haul it.''
And now the Cowboys "haul it'' into the bye enduring injuries and issues to build a foundation to title contention.
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