How the Cowboys transformed from 3-5 into a legit playoff contender

The Dallas Cowboys are not an easy team to beat right now.

Drew Brees and the New Orleans Saints found that out the hard way Thursday night in a 13-10 loss. Over and over again, the Saints’ offense bashed their head against the wall that was the Cowboys’ defense. Brees finished with 127 passing yards, one touchdown, one interception, and a passer rating of 71.6 — his lowest in a game since 2016.

The Saints’ top-scoring offense hadn’t been held under 21 points all season, but they didn’t have a lead once against a Cowboys team that only managed to score 13. While the Dallas offense had 308 total yards to New Orleans’ 176, several mistakes by the Cowboys kept the game close. Yet they still found a way to win.

With the victory, Dallas now has four consecutive wins — a game behind the Bears for the longest streak in the NFC. And while it wasn’t the prettiest performance on Thursday Night Football, there was plenty to be impressed with too.

The Cowboys are in the driver’s seat of the NFC East. More importantly, if they keep playing the way they are and get back to the playoffs for the first time since 2016, they’ll be a tough out in January.

Shutting down Brees and the Saints is only fully appreciated if you take a second to look at what New Orleans did to every other opponent this season.

The Saints entered with at least 30 points in their last five games. The 176 yards of total offense for the Saints on Thursday was the first time they’ve been under 180 yards since Aaron Brooks led the team to just 126 yards of offense in Week 17 of the 2001 season.

Brees and the Saints looked nothing like the team that has been an offensive juggernaut all year. Cowboys defensive end Demarcus Lawrence warned them what would happen.

“They’re going to have to match our intensity,” Lawrence said earlier this week. “[Expletive], for 60 minutes straight, if you hit a [expletive] in the mouth and then they ain’t doing what they’re regularly doing, putting up 50 points, they start to get a little distressed. Now, you got them where you want them at, and then you [expletive] choke their ass out.”

But the Cowboys have quietly been doing this to every opponent. It’s the only team in the NFL that hasn’t yet allowed 30 points in a game this season — an even more impressive feat when you consider the average team in 2018 is scoring 24 points per game.

No team is putting many points on the board against Dallas, and it’s because every yard has to be earned.

“The one thing about our defense, and what makes us elite, is that we run to the ball like no other team,” Jaylon Smith told FOX’s Kristina Pink after the game. “We love one another. We’re a tribe, we’re a unit. We play together, we feed off each other. The ebbs and flows of the game, it’s all about perseverance.”

With Sean Lee out of the lineup due to a hamstring injury, 29-year-old defensive end Tyrone Crawford is the only starter on the defense over the age of 27. But that youth and inexperience hasn’t led to busted coverages and open rushing lanes. Instead, it’s created a defense that plays with energy and speed, and appears to be getting better as the season goes.

That speed and intensity centers on the linebacking duo of Smith and rookie Leighton Vander Esch. Those two were a big reason the mighty Saints couldn’t drum up more than 200 yards of offense. All night the two made plays at the of scrimmage, no matter where they were on the field.

Watch Vander Esch slice his way through a sea of black jerseys to bring down Mark Ingram at the line of scrimmage.

He kept Alvin Kamara from going anywhere too, with plays like this one where he goes from the middle of the field all the way over to the left sideline to stop Kamara short of the sticks.

The combination of Kamara and Ingram entered the night averaging a combined 127.1 yards per game, but teamed up for just 63 against Dallas.

It’s impossible for a team that counts on guys like Kamara to pick up yards after the catch when they have to face linebackers who can cover the entire field like this. Throw in Vander Esch’s coverage ability, and it’s clear why teams have such a hard time moving the ball and putting up points against this Dallas defense.

Vander Esch led the team with 10 tackles. Smith was right behind him with nine.

There’s also the defensive line. Brees was uncomfortable all night because of the Cowboys pass rush. They sacked him twice, the most he’s been sacked since Week 5, and hit him another five times.

Nothing came easy for the Saints and that should make teams with lesser offenses (basically, the entire NFL) shudder.

It’s tough to be that complimentary about an offense that scored 13 points. But the reality is that the Cowboys controlled the pace of the game against the Saints from start to finish.

By halftime, the Cowboys had over 21 minutes of possession thanks to an efficient and grinding attack. That’s been the winning formula for Dallas all year, and it starts with Ezekiel Elliott.

Elliott added 76 yards to his league-leading rushing total, but also got 60 receiving yards on six short passes — including the Cowboys’ only touchdown, a 16-yard reception at the end of the first quarter that pretty much put the game out of reach for the Saints.

It’s a screen pass, something the Cowboys are doing as well as any team in the NFL right now, despite injuries to their offensive linemen. It works because of Elliott’s vision to weave through the would-be tacklers and a pair of beautiful blocks, one from Joe Looney and another from Zack Martin knocking Saints linebacker Demario Davis out of the way.

Feeding Elliott is a recipe for first downs, but he’s at his best when Dak Prescott can keep a defense honest. He did that Thursday when he completed 24 of his 28 passes and didn’t throw an interception.

Prescott was sacked seven times and fumbled twice — likely the biggest reason the Cowboys finished with just 13 points. But for the fifth game in a row, Prescott completed at least two-thirds of his passes — something he didn’t do once in the first seven games of the year.

That sudden uptick in efficiency coincided with the arrival of Amari Cooper, who was acquired by the Cowboys in October via a trade with the Raiders. Cooper finished with eight receptions for 75 yards, but his impact on the entire Cowboys offense has been noticeable beyond his own statistics.

This was also the first time this season the Cowboys have won a game where they’ve turned the ball over, something they did twice last night.

The Cowboys could’ve made life easier on themselves by scoring more Thursday, but this team doesn’t need to light up a scoreboard. As long as the Cowboys are dictating the pace and the time of possession, the defense can do enough to close the show.

Between the steady growth of the defense, the arrival of Amari Cooper, and the improvement of a banged up offensive line, the Cowboys are probably the real deal now. Probably.

In the 13-10 win against the Saints, the Cowboys had three costly fumbles on offense, and defensive end Randy Gregory accounted for two drive-extending penalties — one of which resulted in New Orleans’ only touchdown.

Is that a red flag that shows the Cowboys are capable of winning big, but prone to shoot themselves in the foot to gift their opponent opportunities? Or is it a testament to the resolve of the Cowboys that even on a night when things go wrong, they can still find a way to come out on top? I’m inclined to believe the latter, but time will tell.

What’s getting hard to deny is that the Cowboys are capable of beating any damn team lined up across from them. No matter how much Tyrone Crawford doesn’t want anyone to notice:

After Week 11, the Cowboys had an 0-5 record against teams that currently have a winning record, and a 5-0 record against teams below .500. Now, the Cowboys are beating contenders.

On Thanksgiving, Dallas’ offense broke out for 31 points and 404 yards, only the third time this season they’ve topped 400 yards, for an essential win over Washington, which was leading the division before that game. This week’s win over the Saints was an even bigger statement. New Orleans had won 10 in a row before this one, including quality wins against the Vikings, Ravens and Rams. Taking down the Saints is about as big of a dragon you can slay during the regular season.

The Saints and Rams have looked like the runaway favorites in the NFC all season, but Thursday showed it’s time to toss the Cowboys name into the ring of contenders.