Script Flip: Defensive Cowboys 'Practicing Playoff Football' Says Jerry Jones
FRISCO - Different formula. Different feeling.
And, hopefully for the Dallas Cowboys come playoff time, different results.
A season ago after seven games the Cowboys were ransacking the NFC East thanks to a record-breaking offense. They were 6-1 and had scored a league-leading 225 points, thanks to a gaudy 16 touchdown passes from quarterback Dak Prescott.
These Cowboys are not using 2021's blueprint.
This season after seven games the Cowboys are 5-2, but taking a much different route to success. With Prescott having missed five games and Dallas pressed into using backup Cooper Rush, the more conservative game plan has called for less risky throws, more running and a reliance upon one of the NFL's best defenses.
These Cowboys have scored only 134 points - 19 per game compared to last season's 32 - and Prescott and his fractured thumb have only one touchdown pass. Last season they led the NFL scoring; now they're 10th in the NFC. Last season through seven games they had scored 40 points twice and topped 35 four times. This season it's Dallas' defense dictating success by holding six of seven opponents under 20 points.
The Cowboys' last three victories have been by 15, 12 and 18 points, but because of the style and seemingly smaller margin for error the games feel closer and more intense.
Right, Jerry Jones?
"It feels like we're practicing playoff football," the owner said Tuesday on his weekly radio appearance on 105.3 The Fan. "When you get to the postseason those games are tighter fits."
Even the 24-6 victory over the Detroit Lions is misleading. The Cowboys trailed 6-3 at halftime and led only 10-6 with Detroit inside their 5-yard line early in the fourth quarter.
Said Jones, "That was uncomfortable. We were in harm's way."
Cowboys fans know this all too well. After watching the offense score a franchise-record 530 points and sweep the NFC East in 2021, they were ground to a halt in a 23-17 Wild Card loss to the San Francisco 49ers.
Despite saying Prescott experienced "no adverse aspects" from his first game in six weeks last Sunday, Jones expects similarly close games moving forward starting with this week's home game against the 3-4 Chicago Bears.
"There's nobody that can't step up and win these games," he said. "It's exciting. It's the most balance I've seen in the NFL since I've been involved."
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