The Morning After Wk 13 - Shootout Night
Dallas and Seattle engaged in a long, gritty, exhausting, and penalty-filled track meet
It was everything this team needed in one game. That is not some postgame rationalization. Instead, it was the call in this space and on the radio in the pregame. This 2023 Dallas Cowboys team may not have had the proper preparation for how to win games like this until Thursday; Games that are uglier than you want and the opponent is more determined than that, too.
We see this often in boxing and MMA. A top talent is coasting along with decisive wins and fearful opponents. The 1st round stoppages are partly based on a force of violence and the other part is a terrified foe who just wants to survive to see tomorrow. These types can be useful, but only to a degree. There comes a point, however, where you know your fighter needs to move up a level where the opponents have been in enough wars that they are not scared of you. They are going to make you work harder than you want and go deeper into the water and the late rounds than you would prefer. They are going to hit back hard and try to rock you. They are going to make you dig deep and provide you with a stiff test.
That was what Dallas needed from Seattle as they walked into December. They needed a team that belongs in the playoffs to push them to the brink. Something between the best teams in the league and the very worst. A game against an opponent playing for something, too. They needed games like this to show that sometimes you will need to use the 4th Quarter for more than stretching out the reserves.
And boy, did Seattle give them all they wanted and plenty they didn’t.
When it was over, Dallas had its hard-fought 41-35, victory, but it wasn’t easy and it wasn’t pretty. Dallas moves to 9-3 on the season but for the first time since Week 6 in Los Angeles, they won a game against a team that could push back and that wasn’t going to back down. It was a tough fight and the ability to “find a way or make a way” will make the Cowboys a better team moving forward.
This is exactly what they needed.
It was a game with no punts from either team and pure chaos from both. It was cleanly played in that there was 143 plays and just one turnover. But, it was not cleanly played in that we witnessed 257 yards in 19 combined penalties assessed with countless others declined.
It took all night to play it and even the viewers were exhausted when it was finally over. But, doggone, what a night of football to witness. And what a game for Dallas to grind out. After being told all year that they will need the defense to drag them to victories because the offense couldn’t do it, I think we saw the truth last night. This offense is clicking at a level that puts them in a very scary category. It appears for large swaths of each performance, they simply can boss the game right down the field repeatedly.
And I think we all know what that means – this is easily the best version of Dak Prescott that any of us have ever seen. He appears to have certainly leveled-up and therefore this team can win in more ways than one and looks capable of more than they have in a long time.
Now, before anyone gets too worked up, let’s acknowledge a few things. It was just Seattle and that team is definitely not going to contend for a Super Bowl. Their offense seldom looks like it did against Dallas, so, allowing them to roll up 400 yards, 35 points, and nine different 3rd down conversions won’t make anyone in Dan Quinn’s office too happy.