Eatman: The Cowboys returned for more and third quarters.

 

Since I am the host of the StoryLine podcast, I really couldn’t choose just one after this game.

Is it possible that Dak Prescott is currently acting completely irrationally? How about if DaRon Bland played merely ok for three and a half quarters and then, just like that, recorded another NFL single-season record-setting pick-six?

Micah Parsons needed one more 1.5 sacks to tie his career high. Tony Pollard had one of his best games of the year, CeeDee Lamb caught another touchdown pass, and the offensive line is beginning to appear relatively dominant once more.

Just the on-field narratives are included there. The fact that Dolly Parton wore a Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders outfit during the halftime show and that the Cowboys put turkey legs in every red kettle with a Dolly theme in the stadium before the game ended are two examples of things that I’m not even sure where to put them.

I was asked a couple of times today how many Thanksgiving Day games I had attended over the years, and my answer was approximately thirty. After so many, you would think that they would start to blend together in your memory. However, I have a feeling that we will be discussing this for some time to come, and for good reason.

Whoa, I just discovered the immediate solution to my first query regarding “Where to start?” with a game like this. The response is inconsequential. This game is evidence that the outcome is more important than the beginning.

Because the Cowboys turned a close third quarter into a rout for the second straight game. When it was 20-10 Cowboys and the Commanders were throwing a deep pass into the end zone, I think everyone had the same feeling that we were getting ready for a nail-biting finish.

Rather, the Cowboys made a huge stop there and scored a field goal on the ensuing drive. They then scored touchdowns on a couple more stops. Next, DaRon Bland unleashes his signature pick-six, which literally had me swearing in the press box. “You’ve got to be… um… kidding me right now,” was all I could say as Bland was sprinting to the end zone and forcing people to miss on his way to becoming history. He can’t possibly be doing this.”

However, Bland did exactly that, as he had done four times previously. The amusing thing about it all was that Bland wasn’t playing well at all.

He was letting passes go under him to avoid getting hit deep when the Commanders threw the ball directly at him. Ultimately, it appeared as though he decided to give up and took one of those shortcuts, and the rest is history.

Hey, you could say the same thing about Dak. During the game’s opening drive, he missed two deep passes and had a few other passes sail over the heads of his receivers when they were wide open. But when the 60 minutes of football are up, you look up and Dak has finished with 331 passing yards, four touchdowns, and no interceptions, good for the fifth-highest QB rating of his career (142.1).

Check out the run defense of the Cowboys. Even though it was giving up a few big runs here and there, in the end, that unit stopped the Commanders on two fourth-down plays in the third and fourth quarters, which changed the course of the game.

The floodgates were opened when Washington’s attempt to spark a comeback to tie the game failed.

That, in my opinion, is just an indication of a strong football team. Even though it wasn’t a total rout from the beginning, the scoreboard shows a one-sided game after four complete quarters of football. The 2007 Cowboys vs. Patriots game, which pitted two unbeaten teams, will always be in my memory. The Cowboys appeared to have a chance to pull off the upset at one point, even holding a lead in the third quarter. But the Cowboys stopped scoring at the end, while the Patriots continued to do so, and they went on to win by a score of 21 points.

The Cowboys had a strong season, going 13-3, but the Patriots were unmatched, winning 19 games in a row prior to losing to the Giants in the Super Bowl.

Yes, I am aware of the current narrative, which holds that the Cowboys are capable of defeating lower-tier teams but not elite ones.

Okay, that makes sense because the Cowboys have won eight games, none of which have come against teams that have a winning record.

However, that will need to change if the Cowboys are to be the team that they truly believe they are. Seattle, Philadelphia, Buffalo, Miami, and Detroit are among the teams they will play in the upcoming games; all of them have winning records.

Another illustration of the fact that the way something ends matters far more than how it started, similar to the game on Thursday.

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