Dak Prescott took the field with the Cowboys on Sunday with Ezekiel Elliott sharing his backfield, as usual, and threw it 54 times in an overtime game. It sounds insane, even factoring in the overtime.
Clearly, it’s not, because Prescott, once again, had Amari Cooper.
The days of the Cowboys pretending Prescott and the offense could function smoothly without anyone even resembling a No. 1, ace, go-to receiver are over. Coincidentally, so is the NFC East race.
Dallas' 29-23 win over Philadelphia — on the tip-drill, game-winning touchdown catch by Cooper, his third score of the game — all but wrapped it up. It was the Cowboys' fifth straight win, including two over the Eagles and another, a rematch, over the then-division leader Washington on Thanksgiving. All five came with Cooper on board after the trade with the Raiders.
PLAYOFF PICTURE: Cowboys pushing Bears in NFC
The Cowboys obviously needed someone like him. The price, a first-round pick, was hotly debated, and rightfully so. They clearly would have to pony up one way or another for a receiver of that caliber. The question was whether Cooper was that caliber. They're 5-1 since his arrival, including those five in a row. He has had games of 180 and 217 yards along the way. He has looked like the monster who came out of the blocks in his rookie year in Oakland and made him and Derek Carr seem like the franchise’s anchor offensive duo for the next decade.
Cooper is that caliber.
He’s also this good at being that guy: He told reporters that, on the 75-yard bomb that gave the Cowboys the fourth-quarter lead and answered the game-tying score by the Eagles, he had basically talked Prescott into changing the call for him.
"When I broke the huddle, I was kind of mad, and I was kind of like, 'Dak, come on,'" Cooper told media after the game. "He was just like, ‘'Run it, bro.' And I guess he thought about it again, and he kind of signaled a go route, and I was elated when he did that."
Prescott did not always make the most of his 54 passes, of course, with two ghastly interceptions. If not for an egregiously bad call that negated a late Eagles touchdown, the Cowboys might have lost in regulation, and making the case for Cooper wrenching them back in the right direction would have been tough.
Regardless, the Cowboys can make somewhat surprising playoff plans because of that move. Jerry Jones deserves the heat he gets for his personnel decisions. He deserves the credit for signing off on this one.
As for Elliott? He ran for 113 against the Eagles and gained 192 total from scrimmage. He's averaging 171.6 total yards a game during the streak.
— Eagles can’t run, can’t fly —
An important factor in the Eagles' slide onto the playoff bubble has not really been forgotten — it’s been mildly overlooked at best. But last year, when they won the Super Bowl, they led the NFL in rushing (thanks in no small part to Carson Wentz’s abilities before he tore up his knee). Then, they had Jay Ajayi and LeGarrette Blount peaking along with Wentz.
Now, they have neither: Ajayi's season ended in Week 5 when he tore his ACL. Blount is in Detroit, and Sunday’s loss came one day shy of the one-year date since his torn ACL last season. Against the Cowboys, the Eagles rushed for 34 yards, at 2.4 yards a carry, managed one first down on the ground and, not coincidentally, were just 1-for-9 on third down the entire day. The Eagles' offense has struggled lately in the red zone; their rushing game has been mostly nonexistent no matter where they are on the field.
There’s no real path for them to get better the rest of the way. Wentz has shown glimpses of his pre-injury self at best. The defense has been overworked; the final numbers (576 yards) are deceptive, especially since they got three turnovers, three sacks and tons of pressure, but got very little help from the offense until it was almost too late.
Any kind of a consistent threat, from any of the backs or from Wentz, could keep the Eagles alive. But they’re running (no pun intended) out of time.
— It really was miraculous in Miami —
The finish in Dallas was only the second-craziest final play of Sunday's games. To put that Kenyan Drake lateral game-winning touchdown for the Dolphins against the Patriots in perspective … those kinds of plays more often end like this, from last season's Chiefs-Washington game in Kansas City:
WILD ending to #WASvsKC! pic.twitter.com/Vo7bD9M5R0
— NFL (@NFL) October 3, 2017
(And when it does work, it doesn't guarantee victory, as the Saints found out the hard way in an infamous 2003 occurrence against the Jaguars. Try not to say the name “John Carney” around the Saints faithful.)
To be clear, Rob Gronkowski clanking and clunking in an attempt to catch Drake was not the direct reason the Patriots didn't stop him before he reached the end zone. But it didn't help. Neither did the fact that he was even in on that final play, as many immediately pointed out. Bill Belichick inserted him, as most coaches do in some form, as the last line of defense against a Hail Mary, except that the odds that the Dolphins would try one from 69 yards away, with Ryan Tannehill and his bad shoulder, were not good.
😯
— Sporting News (@sportingnews) December 9, 2018
OH. MY. MIAMI. pic.twitter.com/dcmJm7bbt5
Clearly this is not as simple a decision as it looks, though. On Aaron Rodgers' 2015 Hail Mary to beat the Lions, Detroit had smartly set up for laterals the play before, from 76 yards away. But that notoriously sketchy facemask call gave the Packers an extra play and 15 extra yards.
The Lions still played for a lateral — then-coach Jim Caldwell acknowledged it afterward — and got burned.
— For Patriots-Steelers loser, bye-bye to the bye? —
Last year when the Patriots and Steelers met in December at Heinz Field, the stakes were home-field throughout the AFC playoffs. (The Patriots won, remember, thanks largely to the Jesse James call.) Now? Thanks to some grotesque recent losses — and both teams losing Sunday — a date on wild-card weekend might be the fate of the loser.
Without plowing through too many of the scenarios: The 7-5-1 Steelers, losers of three straight, likely have already played themselves out of a first-round bye and are still shaky in their own division, even with the Ravens losing Sunday. They played the whole game without running back James Connor, nearly the whole second half without quarterback Ben Roethlisberger and most of the game without a playoff-level defense (again) … then blew it on a kick at the end of the game (again).
The Patriots have now lost twice in the last four weeks and, at 9-4, are even with the Texans in the AFC seeding. Yes, they have the head-to-head tiebreaker. Also yes, losing in Pittsburgh would make their path harder. The last time they didn’t have that bye was the 2009 season; they lost on opening weekend at home to the Ravens.
None of which would be a problem, of course, had somebody tackled Kenyan Drake.
— Saints still need home sweet Dome —
The Saints were losing 14-3 to the Bucs midway through the third quarter on a sloppy Sunday in Tampa, and their run of terrible offensive quarters was threatening to extend to seven, dating back to the previous Thursday's loss in Dallas. Then they blocked a punt, turned that into a touchdown, scored on their next three possessions and more or less coasted to a 28-14 win. It clinched a second straight NFC South title … and, thanks to the Bears, sat them back in the driver's seat for the Super Bowl.
It also took some of the heat off of the suddenly disappearing offense. What they had done in a three-game stretch the previous month — 45, 51 and 48 against the Rams, Bengals and Eagles — had gradually slowed to a relative trickle. It wasn't relative, in fact, in the Cowboys game and half of the Bucs game.
The offense might not be broken, or even damaged, or need actual fixing. But considering the last two games took place on the road, it’s a good reminder that, while the 11-2 Saints aren’t perfect at home, they could use home-field in the playoffs more than most. The Cowboys loss suddenly meant they needed help. After the Rams fell in Chicago on Sunday night, though, the Saints now just have to win out, thanks to that head-to-head tiebreaker over LA.
Four of the Saints’ six games of 40 or more points have come in the ‘Dome.
— The problem in Washington is everybody —
The obvious question to Washington coach Jay Gruden was whether his job was in jeopardy after his team all but no-showed at home against a Giants team playing without Odell Beckham Jr., losing 40-16.
"My job is in jeopardy every week," he answered, "so I just have to go about and do the best I can to get these guys ready to go."
They did not look ready, and neither Gruden nor anyone else had an idea why. It fell apart for this team so fast, just four weeks after they held a two-game lead in the NFC East at 6-3. Of their four straight losses since, three have come in the division, and two have come at home — after cornerback Josh Norman had admonished fans for not being supportive enough.
Discussing where they are in the playoff chase is foolish, considering they plan to start a fourth different quarterback in four games, Josh Johnson, next week in Jacksonville.
— Game of the week, on the wrong night —
If only they could play this on regular rest, instead of on a short week. The spotlight would have found them anyway, for certain. Nevertheless, this is what football nation gets: the 10-3 Chargers against the 11-2 Chiefs in Kansas City, for control of the AFC West and most likely home-field advantage throughout the playoffs.
On a Thursday night, though.
Ironically, the schedule convinced both teams to take extra care with key players: They sat Melvin Gordon and Eric Berry, respectively, on Sunday, with this game in mind. That might not necessarily be why both teams barely escaped with their lives Sunday, but they might have given their teams some breathing room. Instead, the Chiefs survived the Ravens at home in overtime, and the Chargers halted a game-tying two-point try by the Bengals to also win, at home.
More twists: Many have been waiting for both teams to pull late-season fades and to underachieve at the worst time, as they have in past years. And with three weeks left, it hasn't happened with either.
From beginning to end, they’ve been the dominant teams in the conference all season. The winner will see a clearer path to the Super Bowl (with the usual opposition always lurking, but still pretty clear).
