The Cowboys Panthers game turned out to be a lot closer than it should have been in the end. After the Cowboys blew the game wide open in the third quarter on route to a potential blowout, they nearly allowed the Panthers to claw back into the game. At the end of the day, the Cowboys earned and deserved the victory and have improved to 3-1 on the year.
Dak Prescott was effective with his legs when he needed to be and although he didn’t throw for many yards, he did throw four touchdown passes. Ezekiel Elliott had his first 100-yard rushing game of the season against the NFL’s No. 1 defense over the first 3 games (statistically) and the Dallas Cowboys beat the Carolina Panthers with a final score of 36-28 on Sunday. Elliott finished with 143 yards and a touchdown on 20 carries as the Cowboys (3-1) rolled up 245 yards on the ground on a Panthers defense that had only allowed 135 total rushing yards in the first three games of the season.
Panthers quarterback Sam Darnold looked great in the first half before completely unravelling in the third quarter. A late fourth quarter push was not enough for Darnold and the Panthers to overcome a 22 point deficit. Trevon Diggs, who leads the league with 5 interceptions over 4 games, made Darnold pay for some of his few mistakes and that was the biggest difference in the ball game. One of those interceptions was an impressive individual effort where Diggs wrestled the ball from impressive Panthers WR D.J. Moore, who had been a problem for the Cowboys all day yesterday. Diggs has recorded an interception in all four games this season become the first Cowboys player to accomplish that since the 1970 NFL/AFL merger. The Cowboys continue to lead the league in turnovers this season with 8 and have produced multiple takeaways in 8 consecutive games going back to last season. That is currently the longest active streak in the NFL.
The Dallas Cowboys defense did struggle to contain Sam Darnold in the first half but they were able to generate a ton of pressure in the second half. Rookies Osi Odi Odighizuwa and Chancey Golston took advantage of the Panthers mediocre offensive line. In the end, the Cowboys defense sacked Sam Darnold five times, including two from Randy Gregory. Meanwhile, Dak Prescott was kept upright against a defense that entered the game with a league leading 14 sacks. Although Carolina’s defense didn’t record any sacks on Dak, they were able to pressure Prescott and force him into more incompletions than he’s been used to after putting up a league best 77.5% completion percentage over the first 3 games.
Overall, it was a good performance from Dak Prescott who finished 14-22 for 188 yards and 4 TD’s. He threw TD passes to Blake Jarwin (18 yrds), Amari Cooper (35 yards), Cedrick Wilson (23 yrds), and Dalton Schultz (6 yards). Schultz had issues holding onto the football and was fortunate to have a lost fumble negated after being ruled down by forward progress. Schultz’s TD catch was set up after an Ezekiel Elliott 55 yard run which was his longest run since his rookie season in 2016. Elliott’s 143 rushing yards were the most he amassed in a game since the 2018 season.
The Cowboys will look to extend their early NFC East division lead when they face the divisional rival New York Giants next week.
*Photo by Kieth Allison https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/legalcode
