Highlights from Thursday Night Football: Dak Prescott and the Cowboys defeat the Seahawks 41-35 in a thrilling game played in the National Football League
In the process, Geno Smith and the Seahawks turned around their offensive misfortune, eluding the Cowboys’ fierce defensive front and using DK Metcalf to carve up Dallas’s secondary for 334 pass yards and three touchdowns, with additional assistance from Zach Charbonnet and Jaxon Smith-Njibga, two solid rookies.
But the Cowboys quarterback continued to solidify his place in the MVP race with another outstanding performance, amassing 299 pass yards and three touchdowns, the last of which was a pass to Jake Ferguson followed by a two-point conversion to Brandin Cooks, giving Dallas the lead for good in the fourth quarter.
Dallas Cowboys
The Cowboys were aware that Thursday was a reputation-making day.
Were they the front-runners, soundly defeating inferior teams, or were they a squad capable of contending in the postseason?
The Cowboys emerged victorious in their most crucial game of the season—five games against teams without a losing record—even though the 41-35 victory over Seattle may not have provided all the answers.
With 7:04 left in the game, a defense that had been on fire for the majority of the game forced a fourth-down stop (DeMarcus Lawrence). Prescott went to work, finishing 4 of 5 passes for 35 yards, including the game-winning touchdown pass to Jake Ferguson from 12 yards out with 4:37 left. He also ran for 9 yards during the drive.
Prescott completed with 299 yards of passing for three touchdowns and no interceptions. This sets up what the Cowboys had hoped for when they departed Philadelphia on November 5th, Nov. 5, after losing to the Eagles 28-23: a chance to force an NFC East game.
The Cowboys, who are 9-3 after winning four straight, still need help. They could use an Eagles loss to the Niners on Sunday, but they still have the opportunity to send a greater statement than just defeating the Seahawks when Philadelphia visits AT&T Stadium in ten days.
In just two words, describe the game:
Penalty fest: Throughout much of the season, the Cowboys did not place much emphasis on penalties; however, through three quarters on Thursday, they had been flagged eight times for 122 yards; prior to Thursday, the season high in yards was 107 (on 13 flags) in a Week 3 loss at the Arizona Cardinals. It was not just a Cowboys issue, either; Clete Blakeman’s crew was equally as egregious against the Seahawks.
Unsettling pattern:
Yes, Bland made history on Thanksgiving against the Washington Redskins by recording his fifth pick-six of the season, but Thursday was just more of the same. According to NFL Next Gen Stats, in the first half, Seattle completed 6 of 7 passes for 138 yards and two touchdowns when Bland was the nearest defender. His previous high in that category this season was 120 yards, which came against Washington last week. Still, perhaps Bland’s crucial third-quarter pick of Smith balanced it all out.
Positive pattern:
Prescott entered Thursday with 18 touchdown passes in his past six games, the most he is had over a six-game span in his career. Tony Romo had two or more in seven straight games over the 2006–07 seasons, and Don Meredith owns the team mark with 12 straight games over the 1965–66 seasons. Prescott has thrown at least two touchdown passes in six straight games, matching a career high. He did the same in 2021.
Seattle Seahawks
The Seahawks’ weekly schedule was thrown off balance when they played back-to-back Thursday night games against the Cowboys. Players and coaches were unable to remember which day it was until their game against the Cowboys, but they all agreed that they had to win this one.
After playing the Cowboys on Thursday night, the Seahawks’ weekly schedule became unbalanced; players and coaches could not even remember which day it was until their game against the Cowboys, but they all agreed that they had to win.
The Seahawks’ offense, which broke out of a rut thanks to a strong night from Smith and Metcalf, was motivated by a sense of urgency versus Dallas, but the defense and the outcome were not.
Now 6-6 and halfway through their most difficult stretch of the schedule, the Seahawks will give themselves a shot in the last month of the regular season if Smith and his offense continue to play as well as they did for the majority of the game—going 9-of-14 on third down, 4-of-5 in the red zone, and amassing 406 total yards.
Prescott and company did whatever they pleased to score on eight of nine possessions, with the exception of the final two kneel-downs, so the defense may have replaced that unit as the main source of concern.