Going into Thursday night’s game, it seemed as if Ezekiel Elliott had already missed the last six Cowboys games. But this game, in AT&T Stadium against Washington, was only the fourth of his six-game suspension. They had lost the first three and scored 22 points total, six in the combined second halves.
This time, they scored 21. In the fourth quarter alone.
And as the yards, time of possession, points and margin swelled, on the way to a 38-14 shellacking of Washington, the notion about the Cowboys’ feeble Zeke-free offense changed before the nation’s eyes.
Hang on a second: they can survive. There is life on the ground without Zeke. Dak Prescott isn’t a stiff, with no heart and no smarts. Dez Bryant isn’t washed up.
They weren’t just catching a series of breaks against a curiously listless, seemingly unprepared opponent, as it seemed throughout Washington’s mistake-prone first half. The biggest play for the Cowboys in the first half, in fact — the Ryan Switzer punt-return touchdown — came when Prescott was in the locker room getting his injured right hand treated.
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It was not building up to be a tale of the offense coming back to life.
Then, after halftime, that’s all the Cowboys built.
It was the 84-yard, 5 1/2-minute drive dominated by Alfred Morris exacting vengeance on the team that let him go two seasons ago. It was the Bryant touchdown catch that looked like the old days, out-jumping and outfighting his man in the end zone. It was the 75-yard, 6 1/2 minute drive that followed that, also dominated by Morris on the ground, also punctuated by Bryant, drawing a pass-interference flag in the end zone.
It was the Cowboys gaining a pedestrian 275 total yards, but 172 of them in the second half.
It was Prescott’s teammates making it easy for him — the way Elliott was accustomed to doing and counted on doing, and the way most believed couldn’t be done without him, which made Prescott worthless, supposedly “exposing” him.
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It appeared as if he needed a quarter or so to get used to throwing with that swollen hand. Once he did, he made the throws he made a year ago when his poise and leadership weren’t widely in doubt.
Again, it looked for more than two quarters like the football gods giving the Cowboys offense a hand. From then on, though, it was simply the Cowboys figuring out that Elliott’s absence didn’t kill their season.
They still have two games left without him, but suddenly, those don’t look or feel like an eternity. Why can’t Morris run for 100 more, control the clock and tempo, get the line and everyone else in a flow that has a defense on its heels the way Washington’s was the whole second half? Why can’t Prescott complement that with a connection with Bryant here, Jason Witten there, Terrance Williams over there?
The Cowboys are 6-6 and still lingering on the fringe of playoff contention. Had they just repeated the woes of the previous three games, they would have been out of it — like Washington is now.
They’re not done, though. They found a way to tread water, to find their groove, to go beyond surviving with Elliott, to thriving.
The Cowboys offense did more than win. They remembered who they were, and why — and that they’re more than Elliott, and not invisible without him.
