Upside-Down: Dallas Cowboys' Powerhouse Defense Helps Dak Prescott Beat Lions
ARLINGTON - The Dallas Cowboys have taken a glance at the NFC East standings and realized that it might be "a bit of an uphill battle.''
But at least Dak Prescott - flawed as he was on this day - is back to be a a part of the expedition that is being led by the Dallas defense.
The Cowboys on Sunday's NFL Week 7 managed to handle the Detroit Lions here at AT&T Stadium in a 24-6 victory keyed in part by the emotional return of quarterback Prescott, who'd missed five weeks after thumb surgery. The Cowboys' most scrutinized digit held up just fine, with Dak shaking off rust to survive his way to Dallas moving to 5-2.
An. "impressive'' win? Home-stadium fans didn't think so, at least not when some booed the team as it trailed 6-3 at the half.
A "win is a win''? Yes, though that still doesn't push Dallas to the top of the NFC East. But the Cowboys - who rode a four-game winning streak with Cooper Rush at QB before last week's loss at the Eagles - entered the weekend as one of just four NFC teams with a winning record.
So they are "up the hill'' to some degree. And defense, as was the successful case during Dak's absence, is the reason.
''We still have a lot to prove,'' Dallas running back Ezekiel Elliott said before a game in which he would grind it out for two TDs. "We still got to win this division. Right now, it's a little bit of an uphill battle, but we're going to have to scratch and claw our way out of it.''
Foes like the lowly Lions (now 1-5) can help that cause. But it's the Dallas offense that needs to "scratch and claw.''
On defense, Dallas simply dominates.
The Lions usually can score; they averaged 35 points per game in the first month of the season. Unfortunately for QB Jared Goff and company, the Cowboys were not buying any of that.
Here, it wasn't about high scoring, but about high defensive intensity, with the Micah Parsons-led Dallas defense limiting Detroit (Dallas entered with a league-best 24 sacks) with a quartet of big sacks (two from rookie Sam Williams), a pair of big interceptions (from Trevon Diggs and Jourdan Lewis) and a monster goal-line stand ...
Oh, and with and with Prescott taking a step toward some day, maybe soon, being ready to push his offense back to where it was a year ago.
Even during the non-Dak winning streak, the Cowboys were lacking on offense, ranking in the NFL's bottom 10 in most categories. That's a far cry from where they were in 2021, when the Prescott-keyed offense was top-three in most areas. And they still are not there, as this game certainly wasn't about fat offensive numbers for Dallas, even with Dak’s late TD pass to rookie tight end Peyton Hendershot..
But now starts the climb, on the stat sheet, sure. But more importantly, in the standings.
"The Dallas Cowboys offense,'' receiver CeeDee Lamb said coming in, "is the Dallas Cowboys offense.''
Maybe not yet. But the Dallas Cowboys defense is the Dallas Cowboys defense. And that's just as important.
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