David Helman

Dallas Cowboys Insider

With all due respect to the best degree of soccer, this Dallas Cowboys season is beginning to really feel rather a lot like one you may see from a very gifted faculty staff. It’s a becoming parallel, given the time of yr. Down within the collegiate ranks, convention championships have simply been determined and the all-important College Football Playoff discipline is about. Football factories like Georgia and Michigan can lastly cease rolling over their overmatched opposition and switch their focus towards a worthy foe.

Sounds a bit acquainted, proper? Because, as they hurtle towards a Christmas Eve rematch towards 11-1 Philadelphia, it is truthful to surprise if the Cowboys look a bit bored. Their profitable streak now at three video games, Dallas is firmly entrenched among the many quick record of Super Bowl contenders. More importantly, these final two efforts have not even been all that full.

Think about how loopy that sounds. The Cowboys trailed the Giants 13-7 at halftime on Thanksgiving earlier than flipping the change and cruising to a 28-20 win. Sunday night’s 54-19 brutalization of Indianapolis was much more jarring. As late as the three:43 mark within the third quarter, this gave the impression to be a soccer sport. The Colts had used fast passes and screens successfully to mitigate the Cowboys go rush, and Dak Prescott and the Dallas offense had made a handful of impactful errors. The rating was 21-19 — a typical sport to function one other reminder of the issue of enjoying within the NFL. Until it wasn’t. 

Prescott guided his group 75 yards, culminating in a 3-yard landing go to Michael Gallup, to create a two-possession cushion. A mere 18 seconds later, Malik Hooker may scoop up a Colts fumble and return it 38 yards for a landing, and the story was written. By the time it was over, the Cowboys had scored a franchise-record 33 factors within the fourth quarter. They completed the night time with 5 takeaways — 4 of them coming in that frantic last interval, turning a traumatic night right into a laugher within the blink of a watch.

“We get up a couple points, let these guys hunt and get turnovers, and we’re a dangerous team when that happens,” Prescott mentioned afterward.

Dangerous would not really feel prefer it does this justice. The Cowboys chalked up the best rating in an NFL sport this season and did not want a very spectacular day from their quarterback to do it.

That’ll occur when the bottom sport, completely balanced between Ezekiel Elliott and Tony Pollard, racks up 220 whole yards.

The 5 takeaways do not harm, both. Rookie cornerback DaRon Bland notched two interceptions of Ryan, and Hooker swung the momentum of the sport simply earlier than halftime when he dove for a tip drill interception, serving to the offense to go rating for a 21-13 halftime lead.

The narrative clearly wasn’t misplaced on Hooker. Two takeaways and his first NFL landing made this among the finest video games of his professional profession — and who higher to do it to than Indianapolis, the staff that made him the No. 15 general choose within the 2017 NFL Draft?

“I just wanted to come out here and prove that I’m still the player I was drafted to be, and I think I showed that tonight,” Hooker mentioned.

Even the gameplay resembled that of a school sport, the place powerhouses can empty their benches and put much more top-tier expertise on the sphere.

For all of the star energy of the Cowboys, from Prescott to Micah Parsons to CeeDee Lamb, the ultimate touches of this blowout have been utilized by newcomers. Bland, drafted within the fifth spherical this previous spring, has gotten onto the sphere partially due to accidents to the veterans on the depth chart. The fumble that Hooker returned for a landing was punched out by Damone Clark— a fellow fifth-round rookie getting his ft moist on protection. The last factors of the night time got here on a 23-yard rumble from Malik Davis, one other rookie signed as an undrafted free agent.

Of course, it is truthful to level out that this was an anticipated outcome. The Colts are a middling staff with a head coach working his fourth profession sport. There’s a motive the Cowboys have been favored by a whopping 10.5 factors.

Still, we have seen the Cowboys at their crispest — the 40-3 pasting of 10-2 Minnesota involves thoughts. No matter how lopsided the ultimate rating may look, this was not as clear of an effort.

For Dallas to look this dominant, on this sluggish of a begin, calls to thoughts the faculty sport. And it makes one awfully anxious to see what they will do towards an opponent extra worthy of their time.

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David Helman covers the Dallas Cowboys for FOX Sports. He beforehand spent 9 seasons overlaying the Cowboys for the staff’s official web site. In 2018, he received a regional Emmy for his function in producing “Dak Prescott: A Family Reunion” concerning the quarterback’s time at Mississippi State. Follow him on Twitter @davidhelman_.

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