By Dwain Price, NDG Sports
ARLINGTON — Apparently a passionate pre-game speech by Dallas Cowboys coach Jason Garret was the catalyst behind his team’s very dominant and very impressive 44-21 not-even-that-close blowout victory over the highly-touted Los Angeles Rams on Sunday afternoon at AT&T Stadium.
The Cowboys ripped through the Rams the way kids rip the paper off presents on Christmas morning. In looking like a well-oiled machine, the Cowboys dominated all three phases of the game.
While running roughshod over the Rams, the Cowboys sent a direct message to the rest of the teams in the NFC that, when they’re clicking on all cylinders, they’re still one of the most resourceful teams in the entire National Football League.
“Obviously it was a good win for us, but there are plenty of things we’ve got to address and clean up as we go forward,” Garrett said. “We just try to focus on what we need to do each week. The best teams are able to do that.
“They put the wins and losses behind them and prepare for the next challenge, and our team did a good job at that this week.”
As far as Garrett’s pre-game speech is concerned, quarterback Dak Prescott said: “He gave us the story about him playing baseball and about what it means to be a team and about having each other’s backs. Saying (no) matter what happens, I got you, I’ll pick you up. That’s what it was.
“That’s what we did (Sunday) through adversity and success. A bunch of guys voiced it, looked at each other and said, ‘I got you, I’m going to pick you up.’ We were able to do that (Sunday) and we have to continue to build on it.”
Because they were able to snap their three-game losing streak with the lopsided victory over the Rams, the Cowboys are 7-7 and tied with the Philadelphia Eagles for first place in the NFC East. Those two teams will battle for sole possession of the first place in the NFC East – the winner will likely win the division – when they face each other next Sunday at 3:25 p.m. in Philadelphia.
In prevailing over the Rams, the Cowboys went back to the days of smash-mouth football. They battered the Rams for a season-high 263 yards rushing on 45 carries, with running backs Ezekiel Elliott and Tony Pollard both eclipsing the 100-yard barrier.
Elliott rushed 24 times for 117 yards and two touchdowns, and Pollard, added a career-high 131 yards rushing on just 12 carries. In fact, when Pollard dazzled the crowd with a 44-yard touchdown scamper in the fourth quarter, that run alone covered more yards than the Rams’ highly-acclaimed running back, Todd Gurley, accumulated for the entire game.
Gurley was held to just 20 yards on 11 carries. And 14 of the Rams’ points came in the fourth quarter when the final outcome was never in doubt, and when the Cowboys bench-warmers were on the field for mop-up duty.
In scoring a season-high 44 points, the Cowboys tallied 21 points in the second quarter, led 28-7 at the half and 31-7 after three quarters, and had a pair of scoring drives that consumed 90 and 97 yards, respectively.
Also, the defense sacked Rams quarterback Jared Goff twice, and linebacker Sean Lee had a high-wire interception – his first interception in two years — that set up a 3-yard TD burst by Elliott just before halftime. That was remarkable within itself considering Lee didn’t practice last week because he was dealing with thigh and pectoral injuries.
“It’s one of those plays where you’d like to help your team and make an impact,” Lee said. “I knew defensively we needed to step up and I needed to step up.
“We didn’t play like we wanted the last three games. I knew if we wanted to start getting wins, we needed to play right. My high school coach was actually at the game, so I wanted to give him a little flashback highlight of what I did in high school.”
Certainly, the Cowboys gave their fans a flashback to what they accomplished earlier this year when they opened the season by winning their first three games. But this time things were completely different, because the Rams are a defending Super Bowl runners-up who came into the game after thumping Seattle last week, 28-12.
Overall, this is the first triumph of the season by the Cowboys over a team with a winning record. And they did it in emphatic fashion as they scored four touchdowns on four consecutive possessions spanning the first and second quarters.
“Obviously they are a great team, they have a great coaching staff and they do a hell of a job,” Garrett said of the Rams. “I have a great respect for them.
“But this game wasn’t going to be about them. It was going to be about us and how we prepare and how we play. We knew the challenges were going to be there for us in all phases, and we needed to play at a high level and we did that (Sunday).”
Even new place-kicker Kai Forbath, who replaced Brett Maher last week, was on point. In his first game with the Cowboys, Forbath made all three of his field goals from 42, 50 and 42 yards.
Meanwhile, 17-year veteran tight end Jason Witten made a miraculous one-handed catch for a 19-yard touchdown.
“It was a great play,” Prescott said of Witten’s athletic reception. “Not a great ball necessarily by me, but the defender undercut it.
“Jason did a great job of hauling it in and getting in the end zone. He showed up and did what Jason Witten does.”
And the Cowboys showed up and did what their loyal fans expect them to do on a weekly basis.
“I talked about it all week, that we just needed to win one of these things and we could build from there,” Prescott said. “But it obviously starts with getting a win, but (Sunday) we played complimentary football, which is something we hadn’t done.
“We talked about it this week, about helping each other out, having each other’s backs and that’s what you saw. The defense made plays and we came and capitalized on it and vice versa.”
