Dallas Cowboys claim 11th straight win over Minnesota Vikings

The Vikings have been close, having a lead or being tied in the fourth quarters of the past five games, but have only defeated the Cardinals during a nightmare stretch that started after their bye week.

The would-be penalty occurred on the attempted two-point conversion that would have forced the game into overtime, but the pass from Bradford instead sailed into the stands. It wasn’t that Dallas displayed dominance over the Vikings and ran them off the field.

Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott throws a pass during the first half of the team’s NFL football game against Minnesota Vikings on Thursday, Dec. 1, 2016, in Minneapolis. Bryant finished with 4 catches for 84 yards receiving and 1 touchdown.

Vikings special teams co-ordinator Mike Priefer was in charge of the team with coach Mike Zimmer absent due to emergency eye surgery. While the final drive highlighted Sam Bradford’s heroics, it was the defense, led by a relentless DeMarcus Lawrence and a lucky-for-no-penalty Cedric Thornton pass rush, that pressured Bradford into a disgusting pass on the two-point conversion attempt.

On the very next play Tyron Smith committed a false start that put them in a first and 15 hole.

This was easily the worst performance by the Dallas Cowboys offense this season. Adam Thielen took the punt at the 11 and then fumbled the ball.

“So, I really think when you play these Thursday games, you have to view the weekend after it as an opportunity to get refreshed, look at this as a mini-bye and get yourself recharged, get everybody physically as well as they can get, and then get going again”.

On the play, Sam Bradford attempted to find tight end Kyle Rudolph in the end zone, but sent the ball sailing over his head. All CFDs (stocks, indexes, futures) and Forex prices are not provided by exchanges but rather by market makers, and so prices may not be accurate and may differ from the actual market price, meaning prices are indicative and not appropriate for trading purposes. Whitehead was hit from behind by Griffen, and Eric Kendricks scooped up the fumble.

Even with the offense stalled the defense did a great job of not allowing the Vikings to convert the offensive miscues into points, giving the offense time to get on track, which they finally did late in the second quarter.

Jason Garrett, Cowboys coach on the 10-day break after playing three games in 12 days.

The Vikings opened 5-0 this season, but the defeat against Dallas was Minnesota’s sixth setback in the past seven games. Plus, there’s built-in subjectivity to many penalties – judgment calls such as whether a blocker “materially” restricts a pass rusher to justify a holding call or, in the case of the hit on Bradford, whether a defender “forcibly” makes contact to the quarterback’s head. The Vikings had 126 yards of offense in the half and 37 on their final three drives.

It has been a patient recovery for Peterson since tearing the meniscus in his right knee during the third quarter of the Vikings’ 17-14 win over the Green Bay Packers in week two.

Dallas just needed a couple of big plays to take over.

There are too many missed and botched calls happening with increasing frequency.

The loss was crushing for the Bills, who entered December with hopes of ending the league’s longest playoff drought. CB Morris Claiborne (groin) missed his fifth consecutive game. Dallas’ defense was also without fifth-leading tackler LB Justin Durant (hamstring) and S J.J. Wilcox (thigh). It was his 12th touchdown rushing this season, tying him with Tony Dorsett for most by a rookie in Cowboys history. Minnesota K Kai Forbath has converted all four of his field-goal attempts since replacing Blair Walsh.

Dak Prescott struggled badly in this game.