The Boys Are Back

The Dallas Cowboys talked about this all through the week. How do we respond to the beating we took in Denver? How will we compete in a road game against the Arizona Cardinals on Monday night?
Teams with young players at key positions, even teams that were 13-3 last year, face measuring-stick games. For the Cowboys, the team they had to measure up against was themselves.

After a slow start, the Cowboys played powerfully in the fourth quarter in Glendale, Arizona, and defeated the Cardinals 28-17.

Second-year quarterback Dak Prescott passed for 183 yards and one touchdown and ran for another. Second-year running back Ezekiel Elliott rushed for 80 yards on 22 carries (that number is inflated by a 30-yard burst, but they all count). And DeMarcus Lawrence, the fourth-year defensive end, sacked Carson Palmer a career-high three times as part of a pass rush that dumped the veteran quarterback six times.

“Last week we got hit in the mouth pretty good,” Prescott told ESPN after the game, referring to that 42-17 rubout by the Broncos. “It was important for us to come back this week, prepare the right way, and do the things that we needed to do to get a win.”

The Cowboys (2-1) broke a 14-14 on Prescott’s 37-yard touchdown pass to Brice Butler. After an Arizona field goal narrowed the lead to 21-17, Elliott scored on an 8-yard run with 4:57 left after a 53-yard pass play. The Cowboys forced a punt on the next possession by the Cardinals (1-2) and the game ended with Arizona on the Dallas 2-yard line but too far behind for that to mean anything.

The Cowboys set a goal for themselves and they achieved it. They were hardly perfect, but they hustled and competed, two elements lacking in the Denver loss.

The Boys are back in town.

 
 
Post By: Larry Weisman, a longtime sportswriter for USA TODAY, blogs for Twistity.com. Follow him on Twitter @MrLarryWeisman