Cowboys beat Steelers day after thoughts: Those are the kind of wins that change seasons

They are more common in the NFL than anyone cares to admit. You have to win some games that you are not supposed to. This is true because, another thing we try to avoid in reality, you will inevitably lose some games that you should win.

No one is going to act like the Super Bowl was won on an early October night in Pittsburgh. This is especially the case when you are fighting a shadow the size of your worldwide brand the way that the Dallas Cowboys are.

Ultimately the Cowboys won on Sunday night and did so against a Pittsburgh Steelers team that refused to take advantage of the opportunities they were being given. Consider that Dallas, thanks to Dak Prescott, turned the ball over three total times. In the Mike McCarthy era it was only the fourth time that they have done so and gone home as the winners.

As we always do we have put together some thoughts about it all now that we have had a day to reflect on it (with not much sleep given the delay nonsense).

These are difference-making wins

As noted, these wins are massive. They are difference-makers. Quite literally, they turn a 10-7 season into an 11-6 one. You have to find a way to grind these out.

Being capable of doing this is the mark of a great team. This isn’t to say that the Cowboys are a great team, but if they want any chance of being regarded as one when we have fallen back and are wearing hoodies on a regular basis, then they have to stack together wins like this.

What’s more is that things have obviously been rather bad for Dallas on the injury front. Consider that Micah Parsons, DeMarcus Lawrence, DaRon Bland and Brandin Cooks were all absent from this game. Toss in Caelen Carson if you’d like. Recall then that Marshawn Kneeland left early and that Tyler Guyton also exited before tension fully rose. Finally, remember how little the front office did to the roster (the one we just acknowledged the several weaknesses to) over the course of the offseason. It was a tough scene to say the least.

Yet somehow, some way, the Cowboys won. What’s more is that they won on a night when their quarterback was probably rather upset with the way he played individually for all but the game’s most critical moments. I’ve seen many equate it, in general spirit, to the infamous win against the Buffalo Bills in 2007 when we were far less jaded than we are these days. You don’t need a reminder that the 2007 squad won 13 games and a big reason for that was stacking together the ones that they were not supposed to have.

This was a massive deal and a huge piece of evidence that the Cowboys can say enough is enough and go out and get a win. We did not know if they had that in them. Clearly, they do.

The defensive performance was incredibly surprising and impressive

Prior to Sunday night you did not need to look far to find disparaging information or statistics about the defense. It is or was not hyperbolic to call them one of the worst defenses in the NFL.

A lot of this could have been (and was) diluted down to effort. Dallas was among the worst tackling teams in the NFL through the first four weeks of the season which suggested that they were fine watching opposing players run past them into the arms of congratulations while they were left feeling sorry for themselves. Enter Mike Zimmer.

Let the record show that I remain skeptical of this overall hire and situation, but you cannot deny that Zim had the ‘boys ready to rock in Pittsburgh. Was there a single missed tackle? If so it was inconsequential. And even if the Cowboys did have an oopsie or two we can be forgiving enough of that given the number of toys that Mike Zimmer did not have to play with that he was originally promised.

It was a masterclass at making lemonade with the proverbial lemons.

Ensuring a .500 record at the bye week is a very underrated thing

The Cowboys have a winning streak going for the first time this season, but if we are honest with ourselves it is unlikely to grow as they have a date with the Detroit Lions on Sunday afternoon. Consider that the Cowboys are home underdogs to Detroit as far as opening odds are concerned.

While the Cowboys are undefeated on the road this year, they are looking for their first win in their building since they beat these very Lions in the penultimate game of the regular season last year. Anything is possible and “any given Sunday” and all of that jazz, but it would not be shocking for Dallas to lose.

This is why getting this win, stealing it to our earlier point, was so critical. With the bye (a very necessary one) following the Lions game the Cowboys are assured of entering it with at worst a .500 record. The San Francisco 49ers will wait for Dallas coming out of that which as we know is a test among tests for this group, but all of that and what lies beyond it would look and feel and honestly be a lot more treacherous if the Cowboys came out of their off week with a 2-4 record.