EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. – Don't let the obvious end result cloud the means on a glorious uncommonly hot and windless Sunday afternoon here in the Northeast.
Believe me, and you will if you had watched along with reportedly 81,738 folks at MetLife Stadium, the majority figuring the winless Jets were about to gift Aaron Glenn his first NFL head coaching win while thousands of others were hoping against hope the Cowboys would not be their victims.
But let's investigate why, oh, why Cowboys 37, New York Jets 22 – the outcome really not as close as the 15-point difference suggests – might be sending tremors through at least the NFC East.
Like, why are these Cowboys 2-2-1, one loss behind the now 4-1 first place Philadelphia Eagles in the loss column and just that tie shy of the second place 3-2 Washington Commanders?
Why did this offense, already having put up 40 points in two of its previous three games, total 416 total yards and hang five touchdowns on a Jets defense previously giving up just three touchdowns a game?
Why was Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott able to rack up four touchdown passes and raise his stellar QB rating to 101.1 in five games?
Why was running back Javonte Williams able to run for 135 of the Cowboys' 180 total yards rushing, while doing so scoring his fifth rushing touchdown of the season and adding another this day receiving?
Good gosh, why was second year receiver Ryan Flournoy, making his first start of the season and second of his career since starters CeeDee Lamb and Kavontae Turpin were out with injuries, able to shock the Jets with four catches for 114 yards, including setting up a touchdown with a 46-yard reception?
And why was George Pickens able to humble Sauce Gardner with a 43-yard touchdown reception while the Jets cornerback was playing grabby-atchy trailing in coverage? Not to mention tight end Jake Ferguson's two TD receptions now giving him three in the past two games.
Well, I'm gonna go ahead and tell you the essential components behind the why of this team's Sunday success, Cowboys head coach Brian Schottenheimer calling this quite "unique," saying he can't recall ever having something like this take place:
- Nate Thomas, left tackle, starting his first NFL game.
- Hakeem Adeniji, left guard, starting his first game for the Cowboys, with a little help from Trevor Keegan chipping in.
- Brock Hoffman, starting his third game at center this season, just the fifth there in his three-year career.
- J. Bass, right guard, starting his second of the season, and just the sixth of his young NFL career.
Backups, mind you, along with the lone remaining offensive line starter of the bunch, Terence Steel, right tackle.
Come on, all these aforementioned stats with the Cowboys missing four-fifths of their offensive line starters? Who the heck does that? And wins? Unheard of.
Now, also give big atta-boys to those three tight ends, Ferguson, Luke Schoonmaker and Brevyn Spann-Ford, along with fullback Hunter Luepke. And there is no officially kept NFL game-day stats to qualify what the naked eye – mine – could see.
Something I warned about right here on Friday, further sounding alarms going into this road game since Lamb and Turpin also were unable to play, joining the four missing offensive line starters: Tyler Guyton, Pro Bowler Tyler Smith, Cooper Beebe and first-round draft choice Tyler Booker.
"That is a testament to those players," Schottenheimer said. "Next man up mentality."
Hey coach, "next men up," please.
With 'em or without 'em, the Cowboys ran for more than 100 yards in their fifth consecutive game. They hadn't done that since 15 straight in 2016, Ezekiel Elliott's rookie season. And Williams' fifth rushing touchdown alone is one less than the Cowboys totaled all last year, and they already have surpassed that with seven, still 12 games to go.
Dak was sacked but once for zero yards, and it's debatable that was really a sack since he was rolling out and decided not to throw the football, and not because of Jets pressure. New York only recorded three QB hits, three tackles for losses, and feared defensive tackle Quinnin Williams finished with but three tackles.
This performance rarer than even I like my ribeye.
"It's the time you spend throughout the year," Dak said of those backups turned starters, motivating those guys with his tale of how he became the Cowboys' starting quarterback, given a chance through injuries to Tony Romo and Kellen Moore.
"Just go out there and trust it, just let it go. I had confidence in those guys."
Dak related this postgame vignette to amplify at least one of these performances, being told by Thomas, who hadn't played a down of football since 2023 at Louisianna until taking 17 snaps the previous game, subbing in a series for Steele and then taking over for Guyton we he suffered his concussion.
"Came up to me and said, 'I can do better,'" Dak said.
Couldn't have done much better than teaming up with Hoffman on Williams' 66-yard run to the Jets 1, clearing out a huge path, then Williams having the sense to get out of bounds with 19 seconds remaining in the half. Had he not, the Cowboys, with the clock running and out of timeouts, might not have gotten this whole line 66 yards downfield in time to spike the ball before the half ended.
And these guys had to do something special giving Dak enough time (4 seconds) to unload that 43-yad touchdown pass to Pickens, which gives the wideout five scores in five games, already just one less than Lamb had last year and two behind Jalen Tolbert's team-leading seven in 2024. Or the 46-yarder to Flournoy (3 seconds) that two plays later set up Williams' 5-yard touchdown run.
And if I thought those Cowboys assistants with offensive line coaching expertise had paved the way for the Cowboys to score 40 points to tie the Packers, this was an even more impressive job – Klayton Adams, Conor Riley and Ramon Chinyoung. They had their backups ready to perform as a unit, which is hard to coordinate in a short period of time. Don't forget the tight ends blocking, too, a good job by tight ends coach Lunda Wells.
Think about how cohesively this Cowboys offensive line performed, this particular fivesome playing all together for the first time.
"It's credit to these coaches, it's credit to the players, it's credit to the organization and everybody," Prescott said. "There are not many teams in the league that can put four guys who don't start into the game and feel confident about going and winning the game, especially on the road."
There had been thoughts out there the Cowboys couldn't continue to score more than the needed 30 points a game to be able to win with the way the defense had been playing. Well, five games in, the Cowboys are averaging 30.2 points a game, only throwing in a 14-point clunker against the Bears.
And, of course, as the accolades always go to the quarterback, a bunch of Cowboys fans gathered above the tunnel serenading Dak as he was running underneath to the locker room with "MVP! MVP! MVP!"
Did you hear that, Dak?
He smiled, saying, "I mean, my ears work. I heard it but didn't hear it. … I'm the beneficiary of all those guys in the locker room."
Every darn one of them.
Even the backups.
