Posted on December 16, 2019, by Travis Pulver
The world expects Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones to fire his head coach, Jason Garrett, eventually. After a string of disappointing losses, it looked like there was a chance he could do it Sunday if the Cowboys lost to the Rams.
At 6-8, they would still have a chance of making the playoffs. But had the team lost a fourth consecutive game Jones would have had to pull the trigger.
With how the Rams had been playing, it did not look good for Garrett and the Cowboys. But then the Cowboys went and did something they had yet to do this season.
They beat a team with a winning record.
Things got off to a less-than-promising start when Dak Prescott nearly messed up the coin toss, which Prescott joked about after the game:
“Definitely a weird start. We wanted to set adversity there instead of on the field so we could play from behind immediately. Just bad use of words by me … Just wasn’t the cleanest coin flip I’ve been a part of.”
As plans go, that ended up being a good one. With 21-points in the second quarter, the Cowboys took a 28-7 lead into the half and never looked back. The defense gave up a pair of late touchdowns to make the final score look closer than the game was, 44-21.
The Cowboys played one of their cleanest games of the season as they got back to basics and ran the ball. Ezekiel Elliot got a season-high 24 carries on the night to pace the rushing attack with 117 yards and two touchdowns.
“How many rushing yards did we have today? Like 300? Close to it?” Elliott asked while talking to reporters after the game. “Yeah, I mean, we ran the ball really well today. The O-line, I don’t know what they ate for breakfast, but they did a hell of a job and made it easy on us.”
via ESPN
Rookie Tony Pollard tacked on 131 yards and a touchdown on 12 carries. A handful of carries by Dak Prescott and Tavon Austin gave the Cowboys 263 yards on the ground for the night.
The Dallas defense stepped up and got the job done as well. They gang tackled Todd Gurley every time he touched the ball and held him to just 20 yards on 11 carries. With the running game not working well, the Rams were forced to lean on Jared Goff. But the Dallas defense kept him in check as well for most of the game.
Much of Goff’s 284 yards came late in the game when the Cowboys already had it well in hand.
As happy as Dallas fans must be with the offense and defense, they must be ecstatic with the kicking game. Kai Forbath, who was signed this week, made all three field-goal attempts, one from 50 and two from 42-yards out.
Garrett and the Cowboys live to fight another day with the win. But they are far from out of the woods and into the playoffs. They still need to beat the Eagles in Philadelphia next week to clinch the division. There will still be a small chance they could make it even if they lose, but it is a very small chance.