The Cowboys had a ton of amazing moments on Sunday.
After taking a week off, the Cowboys came back stronger than ever, defeating the Rams 43–20 in the end. Although this game quickly spun out of control, these five plays were essential to building up such a sizable advantage.
Cowboys initial drive is saved by illegal contact
The Cowboys had a terrible start to this game, which is difficult to comprehend. On the first play after Dak Prescott was sacked, there was a run for four yards. With 11 yards remaining and looking at third down, Prescott was sacked once more.
But there was a flag thrown in the secondary. Early in the play, Quentin Lake had been called for unlawful contact; this call caused some discussion among the broadcast crew. Regardless, though, the penalty automatically led to a first down.
It turned out to be quite important for the Cowboys. They had had about the worst start to the game possible in those first three plays, but the penalty offered them a second opportunity. They didn’t squander that opportunity either, but they started this one almost three and out.
After catching, CeeDee Lamb’s yards erased the bag.
The Cowboys were still in the running. The illegal contact penalty had given them new energy, but Prescott was fired again the very next play, this time by Aaron Donald. After four plays with three sacks, the Cowboys faced second and seventeen.
CeeDee Lamb was hit by Prescott on a short curl route in the center of the field as he dropped back, and the receiver completed the pass. Lamb immediately gave his defender a shake before stepping on it and weaving through the crowd to gain precisely 17 yards and a first down.
It seemed like the offense was going to have a difficult day after the sack on first down, and picking up 17 yards was unachievable. However, Lamb accomplished this in just one play, and a few plays later, Dallas scored a touchdown, opening the floodgates for him and the rest of this offense.
The pick six by DaRon Bland opens things up.
On their second drive, the Cowboys had to settle for a long field goal, which increased their lead to 10 points. Although they knew they could do better, the Dallas defense had faltered on their opening drive before becoming more focused close to the end zone.
The Rams’ next drive began better on the first play when DaRon Bland did what he does best:
With his third pick-six of the year, Bland became the first Cowboy to do so in a year and the first NFL player to do it since 2019. More importantly, though, it soon placed the Cowboys ahead 17-3 and signaled the start of the Rams’ “this is getting ugly” phase.
A blocked punt leads to a security
After the pick six, the Rams were anxious to return to the field and restore order. That never occurred because, on a third and short play, two plays after their first down play ended in a three-yard loss and Matthew Stafford was sacked. The Rams were about to punt just like that.
Sam Williams blocked the punt and saw it ricochet out of the back of the endzone for a safety, which made the situation worse.
The Cowboys were up two more points and on the verge of regaining possession of the ball in the blink of an eye. For the Rams, this was a terrible sequence of events with no end in sight.
KaVontae Turpin’s amazing return creates a simple touchdown
The Cowboys kept applying pressure at that point. After the safety, KaVontae Turpin cut up the field, retrieved the punt, and then displayed his incredible speed.
The Cowboys offense was positioned at the Los Angeles 13-yard line after Turpin’s 63-yard return. Prescott found Lamb wide open in the end zone in exactly two plays, increasing the score to 26-3. They arguably could have scored even without the huge return given how the offense was moving the ball throughout the game, but Turpin made their job much easier.
The Cowboys increased their probability of winning by 15 percentage points and scored 16 points in a row over the course of eight plays. Even though the second quarter had barely begun, the game was almost practically gone at this time. These kinds of plays, which the Cowboys produced in abundance on Sunday, are what win a team a game so early in the day.