Three takeaways from the Cowboys’ victory over the Carolina Panthers
For the second consecutive week, the Dallas Cowboys made easy work against an inferior NFC opponent, this time the Carolina Panthers. Dallas grabbed a 33-10 win on the road Sunday afternoon, backed by another dominant performance from the Cowboys’ defense.
Dallas (7-3) continues to look like one of the best teams in the conference. With that being said, it’s a win over the Panthers (1-9), who have the worst record in the NFL. Keeping in mind the level of competition, here are three takeaways from the Cowboys’ second straight 20-plus-point win:
Dallas led by just a touchdown at the end of three quarters, and one of the worst teams in the league was punching above their weight class. How? They played a very slow, boring brand of football.
The limitations of Bryce Young and the Panthers’ offense are evident, the lack of time he has in the pocket along with Young’s inexperience and not much pass-catching talent means they have to play a specific way. That way worked in the third quarter, when Carolina scored its lone touchdown and made it a one-possession game. The scoring drive chewed up nine minutes of clock, lasting 17 plays.
Carolina turned the first three quarters into messy football, but Dallas cleaned up in the final 15 minutes. Running back Tony Pollard got going on an eight-play, 75-yard drive at the start of the fourth, running in a 21-yard touchdown. Ten seconds later cornerback DaRon Bland scored another Cowboys touchdown off a pick-six and the game was over less than 70 seconds into the fourth quarter at 30-10.
Not many teams possess the number of playmakers Dallas has on both sides of the ball. Prescott, Lamb and Pollard are all some of the best players at their positions. Micah Parsons tied his career-high single-game sack total of 2.5 and may be the best defensive player in football, and Bland leads the league with six interceptions, four of which went for touchdowns.
The Cowboys can turn a game around like they did Sunday because of those playmakers, an ability only a couple other teams have right now
Cornerback Trevon Diggs burst onto the scene in 2021: He was a first-team All-Pro after leading the league in interceptions (11) and pick-sixes (two). With Trevon Diggs done for the season after tearing his ACL in September, doubts were raiseed about how the Cowboys’ defense would hold up without one of their most valuable pieces. Bland played a big part in keeping the secondary steady, and he’s now having arguably a better year than Diggs’ breakout in 2021.
He’s tied for the lead league in interceptions (six) and his four pick-sixes are tied the most all time in a single season, and Dallas has seven games left to play. Not to mention he entered this week allowing the lowest passer rating to opposing quarterbacks when targeted among all cornerbacks. The 2022 fifth-round pick will at least be in the conversation for Defensive Player of the Year this season. When he and Diggs are both back next season, they’ll undoubtedly be one of, if not the best, cornerback tandems in the NFL.
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