ARLINGTON, Texas – The Cowboys padded their franchise-best winning streak, pushing it up to 10 straight after a 31-26 win over the Redskins Thursday.
The annual Thanksgiving Day game provided many highlights from start to finish, and a little after the fact as well.
On Friday, the staff writers gave their gut feeling for Sunday's game. Check out the instant reactions from the staff of DallasCowboys.com.
David Helman:It never plays out exactly how I think it will, but that win more or less fell in line with my expectations. We knew the Redskins were going to pile up yards. We knew the Cowboys would need to be consistent on offense to keep up. Dak Prescott was cool and collected, and he added his best rushing night of the season to Zeke Elliott's solid contributions to help the Cowboys to 31 points. The real story of the night is the defense, though. How wild is it that the Cowboys allowed 500 yards, didn't sack Kirk Cousins and didn't force a turnover – but they limited Washington to just 26 points. The fact that the Redskins had just six points at halftime is amazing. It doesn't always follow convention, but the Cowboys just find ways to get it done.
Nick Eatman: So 30 points definitely was enough to win this one, but not by much. I guess this was somewhat of a shootout game, especially in the second half. I did have the Cowboys winning by five points, but I was just a bit off from my 36-31 prediction. I was totally off in my side picks – although Jason Witten could've had a touchdown if Dak didn't decide to run it for a score. But no big play from Dunbar or Durant. Overall, I was just impressed with the Cowboys continuing to find answers even when things get a little dicey. I said earlier, I'm not going to pick against this team until it shows me a reason to. Once again, the Cowboys showed us they can fight – even after the game – when it needs to. This is the NFL's best team and it just proved it once again with a hard-fought victory over a team that was also riding high before Thursday.
[embeddedad0]Rob Phillips: Like my colleagues, I expected a high-scoring game in the 30s. The Cowboys just got there and the Redskins would have, too, if not for two missed field goals. My reasoning was simple: Dak Prescott and Kirk Cousins are playing as well as any quarterbacks in the league, and Ezekiel Elliott continues to play at an MVP level. Like Week 2, when the Cowboys held the Redskins to six points on three straight red zone trips, the defense kept them out of the end zone in the first half. Cousins had his share of explosive passing plays, something the Cowboys have limited this season, but when this team needs a touchdown, Prescott continues to deliver. The offense's seven-play, 75-yard touchdown drive after the Redskins cut the lead to 17-12 kept the momentum, and ultimately the score, in the Cowboys' favor.
Bryan Broaddus: Thought that Terrance Williams would have been more of a factor in this game. He only received two targets but one of those was the only touchdown pass of the day for Dak Prescott. Where Williams has been good at throughout his career is with his sideline awareness and his ability to operate in small spaces which he was able to do in working in the front corner of the end zone. His second pass should have been caught down the field but it appeared he was late with his hands.
For the initial gut feeling predictions of the staff writers posted on Friday,** click here**.
