A lot of things worked out for the Dallas Cowboys in Sunday’s road test against the Seattle Seahawks, but not the final score. The Cowboys got an early break when defensive back Trevon Diggs tracked down unexpecting Seahawks’ receiver DK Metcalf and forced a touchback rather than a touchdown, and they also got a career-high 472 passing yards (and three touchdowns) from quarterback Dak Prescott. But in the end, they wound up losing 38-31.
And the final play wound up being a pretty apt microcosm of the Cowboys’ day. It saw Prescott (seen above taking a hit from Seattle’s Jamal Adams) miraculously managing to stay off the ground after tough pressure, and he got a pass off into the end zone. But that pass was picked by Seahawks’ defensive back Ryan Neal, who was only activated from the practice squad Saturday.
Ryan Neal intercepts the pass in the end zone and the @Seahawks hang on! #DALvsSEA pic.twitter.com/uYpWa7Khth
— NFL (@NFL) September 27, 2020
That was one of Prescott’s two interceptions on the day, but that one did come with the extraneous circumstances of little time left and a long way to go. Yes, he could have thrown that ball away and tried again on fourth down, but that might not have worked any better. And overall, his day wound up being pretty decent; he completed 37 of 57 passes (64.9 percent) for 472 yards with three touchdowns and two interceptions . The larger issues for the Cowboys came from their total lack of a ground game and from their porous defense.
On the ground, Dallas running back Ezekiel Elliott collected just 34 yards on 14 carries Sunday. That’s an average of 2.4 yards per rush, and while he did have one touchdown, it was not a great showing for the guy who signed a six-year, $90 million extension last year after much ado. Prescott was more effective as a runner himself in this game, picking up 26 yards on six carries.
And the Cowboys’ defense also had major problems in this one. Seattle quarterback Russell Wilson completed 27 of 40 passes (67.5 percent) for 315 yards with five touchdowns and no interceptions, and he also ran six times for 22 yards. Meanwhile, Seahawks’ running back Chris Carson added 64 yards on 14 carries (4.6 yards per carry). So this was a pretty rough day for Dallas in a lot of facets of the game, and that had a lot to do with how they wound up with a loss despite Prescott’s impressive passing numbers.
[NFL.com]
