Chiefs Lead Disjointed Cowboys at Half, 16-3
Possible Super Bowl matchup? A lot of people are saying yes. The game between the Dallas Cowboys and Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday isn't just a battle for the Preston Road Trophy, it's a matchup between two teams with Super Bowl aspirations before the season started.
But these two teams have taken very different paths to Week 11, as Dallas is 7-2, coming off a 43-3 thumping of the Atlanta Falcons last week. The Chiefs are 6-4, and fresh off an impressive 41-14 performance against the Las Vegas Raiders.
The Cowboys need a win to keep pace with the rest of the NFL leaders and possible home-field advantage in the NFC playoffs. The Chiefs need a win just to keep playoff hopes alive in the AFC.
The Cowboys opened the game with the ball, as has been head coach Mike McCarthy's recent trend, but Dallas could do no better than three plays and eight yards before a punt.
Kansas City found the end zone on its first drive of the game, going 86 yards in nine plays, assisted by a third-and-2 defensive penalty by the Cowboys that gave the Chiefs a first down. In an odd-looking formation, tight end Travis Kelce took a direct snap and ran up the middle through the heart of the Dallas defense for a four-yard touchdown giving the Chiefs a 6-0 lead after a missed Harrison Butker extra point.
The Cowboys would commit the first turnover of the game on the ensuing drive, after losses on first and second down, on a third-and-14, Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott was sacked and fumbled the ball, recovered by the Chief's Chris Jones, giving the Chiefs offense a short field from the Dallas 22.
The Cowboys' defense would hold this time, keeping Kansas City out of the end zone and holding them to a 37-yard field goal. It's the first time since 2017 that Dallas has allowed an opponent to score on its first three possessions of a game.
The Cowboys' offense had its own unique formation and trick-play as running back Tony Pollard took a direct snap on a first-and-10 then faked a toss to Prescott. Pollard gained 31 yards on the run.
That drive, which would see Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott leave the field with an apparent ankle injury, would stall at the Kansas City 15 yard line, but a 33-yard Greg Zuerlein field goal put the Cowboys on the board.
The Chiefs would close the first quarter with a 37-yard pass from Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes to wideout Byron Pringle that gave Kansas City a first-and-10 at the Dallas 14 yard line.
Kansas City would cash in on that drive with a Clyde Edwards-Helaire one-yard touchdown run that put the Chiefs up 16-3.
Through the first quarter, the Chiefs' offense had already put up 158 total yards on the Cowboys' defense, which at times looks almost as confused and out of sorts as it did against the Denver Broncos two weeks ago.
Midway through the second quarter, the Cowboys would have an extended 10-play drive that only went 23 yards due to a combination of penalties on the offensive line and dropped passes by wideouts Noah Brown and Michael Gallup, that was also assisted by a defensive hands-to-the-face call on a third-and-19 that gave Dallas a first down.
Dallas got the ball back at its own 19 with 2:39 left in the first half but consecutive sacks by Jones forced a Cowboys punt.
On the ensuing drive, Cowboys linebacker Micah Parsons chased down a scrambling Mahomes and knocked the ball loose. Tarell Basham recovered for Dallas at the Kansas City 42 with 1:32 left in the half.
Prescott was then intercepted by Kansas City's Charvarious Ward in the end zone for the Cowboys' second turnover of the day. The Chiefs ran the clock out to take a 16-3 Chiefs lead into the locker room.
Kansas City will have the ball to start the second half.
