Sunday Night Football this week featured a hard-nosed divisional game between bitter NFC East rivals in the Dallas Cowboys and Philadelphia Eagles.
The much-anticipated showdown between hotshot rookies in quarterbacks Carson Wentz and Dak Prescott was a ratings party waiting to happen. The game did not disappoint as the Dallas Cowboys comeback kids mounted a huge comeback to send the game into overtime.
The game started off with that feel that this will not be the typical run-of-the-mill game. With the initial kickoff, Dallas’ Lucky Whitehead fumbled and true to his name luckily had the ball fall right back in his hands.
The Cowboys had terrible field position the entire game and that deserves a prop to the Eagles special teams as well as the Cowboys shooting themselves in the foot with penalties.
The penalties would become Dallas’ Achilles heel the entire game. It would seem for every big play. The Cowboys would earn a penalty negating that, and they would be starting over from an even worse field position.
Dak Prescott had some rookie mistakes and it’s hard to forget that he really is a rookie. He threw a pick and missed wide open receivers but he stayed poised and calm and never let the pressure of the game get to him, unlike Wentz.
Once Dallas’ defense started pressuring Wentz, he started to get rattled, and his dink-and-dunk were not as effective as it had been earlier in the game.
As the Dallas defense began to make some noise and some significant stops, forcing three and outs on the Eagles, the offense began to find their chemistry including chemistry with Dez Bryant.
Bryant made some spectacular plays but at times was not the elite wide receiver he could be. When it counted, however, Dez was the Dez that could catch.
The Cowboys came back in the fourth quarter to tie the game, and after a few back and forths, the game went into overtime.
In overtime, Dallas received the ball first. They drove down the field, and even coach Jason Garrett found his courage and went for it on fourth down. The Cowboys converted and went down the field.
The final play of the game, Prescott challenged his inner Tony Romo and extended the play to find Jason Witten, left wide open, in the end zone. Dallas extended their win streak to five consecutive games and improved to 6-1 and now has a commanding two-game lead in the NFC East.
This was one of those games that had fans on the edge of their seats. During the first half, fans smacked their heads thinking the same old Dallas Cowboys, and by the end of the game, fans were smiling and celebrating the comeback kids.
Week 9, the Cowboys have already stated Prescott will be the starting quarterback for the Cowboys as they take on the Browns. Hopefully, this isn’t a trap game for the Cowboys and they don’t have to mount another fourth quarter comeback.