Dallas Cowboys prevail despite Minnesota Vikings strong defense

Thursday’s win was Dallas’ sixth straight road win.

The Cowboys, by stark contrast, have three first-round draft picks in their starting lineup: left tackle Tyron Smith, center Travis Frederick and right guard Zack Martin. In one of their toughest games of the season to date, the Cowboys did their part. “We have a lot of respect for him, the way he goes about his business, and that’s why we were trying to fight so hard for him”. Then they travel to NY to play the Giants (8-3) and Dallas to play the Cowboys (11-1) before finishing the season at home in a big division match-up against the Green Bay Packers (5-6). It wasn’t a game where Elliott exerted his will, but was still a solid performance nonetheless.

The best shot for the offense was when Brian Robison stripped rookie quarterback Dak Prescott and Everson Griffen recovered at the Dallas 19 late in the third quarter. This is the type of football Dallas has to be able to win if they want to win the Super Bowl. They lost because their punt returner fumbled a ball near his own goal line. Dallas went two games without a turnover before WR Lucky Whitehead’s fumble in the second quarter.

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) – Dez Bryant sashayed through the Dallas locker room with an unmistakable swagger and had nothing but good things to say about his adversary this time around.

While Sam Bradford passed for 247 yards and Minnesota’s only touchdown, the entire Vikings team only rushed for 87 yards, led by Jerick McKinnon, who had 41 rushing yards and Minnesota’s lone receiving touchdown.

We haven’t seen any type of rushing game like this from a Cowboys quarterback in awhile, with Dak racking up 37 yards on 6 carries, including a handsome scramble while trying to run the clock out, despite sliding a yard too early. This game changed that. “And you look back on it, our big plays that we did make that counted that they kept out on the field, well, that was the difference”. When you come into buildings and you’ve got a nine-, ten-, eleven-game winning streaks everyone’s gunning for you especially when you’re in you’re house, night game, national television, stuff like that. Minnesota’s third-ranked defense did their fiery leader proud, holding the explosive Cowboys offense to season lows in points, yards (264) and first downs (13).

The Vikings should have gotten a second crack at the two-point conversion.

Despite that, Bradford said his ribs were doing OK after the game. A few drives later, the Cowboys were forced to punt.

It took the Cowboys just one play to turn the gift into the go-ahead score. Minnesota K Kai Forbath is 6 of 6 on field-goal attempts since replacing Blair Walsh.

Garrett chose to challenge the ruling and it was overturned. And I thought the Cowboys met the challenge, rose to the challenge, and found a way to win the game.

What also showed up on this prime-time stage was the keen sense of preparation and sound game-day process that Zimmer has helped create in Minnesota.

The Dallas Cowboys are now 11-1 and get 10 days to prepare for the New York Giants on Sunday night, December 11. And suddenly, with four games left in their season, they are on the verge of securing home field advantage throughout the playoffs.