Dak Prescott's heroics bail out Cowboys in OT win over Patriots
The Dallas Cowboys did everything they could to not win in Week 6. And then they went and won it thanks to Dak Prescott, an explosive offense and some late heroics.
Dak Prescott hit CeeDee Lamb for a 35-yard TD pass in overtime to give Dallas a 35-29 win at Gillette Stadium. Prescott played a terrific game, throwing for 445 yards, overcoming his team's own slew of errors throughout the game.
The Cowboys now have won five straight. New England fell to 2-4. Lamb led the way for Dallas with nine grabs for 149 yards and two scores, the majority of it coming after halftime.
The Cowboys racked up 567 yards of offense and 32 first downs. The Patriots were up and down offensively and opted to punt on 4th-and-3 in OT from their own 47-yard line. That gave the ball back to Prescott, who led the 80-yard game-winning drive on his OT possession.
Overtime was preceded by a wild sequence at the end of regulation.
Patriots QB Mac Jones hit Kendrick Bourne on a 75-yard touchdown with just over two minutes left in the fourth quarter to give the Patriots a 29-26 lead. That came one play after Trevon Diggs' pick-six of Jones — his seventh INT of the season — had given the Cowboys a 26-21 lead.
The Cowboys then stormed back to tie it as kicker Greg Zuerlein — who had missed a 51-yard try with 2:47 left — hit a 49-yarder with 20 seconds remaining.
After the Patriots punted on their first possession of OT, Prescott led them down the field for the winning drive in what's looking like the start of a special season.
Dallas dominated the stat sheet but left tracts of yards and scores of points on the field. They finished the game with 12 penalties for 115 yards, and those penalties also negated would-be offensive gains and defensive stops totaling a net lost 101 yards from scrimmage.
Prescott might have led the game-winning drive in regulation, but Cowboys offensive lineman Connor Williams was flagged for a 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty.
The Cowboys also gave away two scoring chances in the red zone. The first came on a Prescott interception in the end zone in the second quarter with the Patriots clinging to a 14-10 lead. The second one, after Dallas cut the lead to 14-10, was a Prescott fumble in the end zone on 4th-and-goal from the Patriots' 1-yard line.
The real controversy came the play before that as Prescott appeared to score on a QB sneak but was ruled short, despite video evidence appearing to show Prescott and the ball over the goal line.
But the Patriots made their fair share of errors, too — a Jakobi Meyers TD was called back on a holding penalty, Jones was strip sacked on a blown pass protection, and they suffered a blocked punt, New England's second one allowed of the season.
New England's defense was ravaged with injuries throughout the game but was able to hold the Cowboys to a field goal early in the fourth quarter to keep it a one-possession game, with Dallas leading, 20-14.
Jones and Damien Harris helped lead the Patriots back with a 75-yard TD drive to take the lead, 21-20, with just over six minutes left. Rhamondre Stevenson replaced a banged-up Harris and punched the ball in for a 1-yard score.
The Cowboys drove down the field and faced a 4th and a short 2 from the New England 33-yard line. Head coach Mike McCarthy opted for the field goal — and Zuerlein pushed it way left.
That's when Cowboys cornerback Trevon Diggs struck. He caught a deflected pass off Bourne's hands and ran it back 42 yards for the tide-shifting score. The two-point conversion try was stopped, and it was 26-21, Dallas. With seven interceptions in his first six games, Diggs joins Rod Woodson as the only two men to have that many interceptions in their first six games of an NFL season.
But Diggs was burned shortly after that, as Jones hit a streaking Bourne for a 75-yard score one play later after the kickoff. Cowboys safety Damontae Kazee — the last line of defense on the play — also made a risky play trying to make an interception.
No matter. Despite all the Cowboys' flubs throughout the game, the Patriots couldn't convert. That was a golden invitation for Prescott and Lamb to go win it.
