ARLINGTON, Texas — Ezekiel Elliott ran for a pair of scores, fellow rookie Dak Prescott accounted for two touchdowns, and the Dallas Cowboys defeated the Washington Redskins 31-26 on Thursday for their 10th straight win this season.
Dynamic Rookies Lead Cowboys Again
Prescott completed 17 of 24 passes for 195 yards and ran for another score in the fourth quarter with 39 yards, while running back Elliott carried the ball 20 times for 97 yards for Dallas (10-1) which extended its franchise regular-season record with another win.
“We have high expectations for ourselves on offense,” Prescott said. “We obviously want to score on every possession and they gave us some scoring chances late.
“No matter if we’re up or down, we’re going to go out there and score and I think we’ve shown that the last couple of weeks,” added Prescott, who found Terrance Williams for a touchdown in the second quarter.
Prescott was impressive again in the fourth quarter on Thursday after missing just one of his passes to help the Cowboys end a two-game Thanksgiving losing streak.
According to ESPN Stats & Info, the Dallas Cowboys young quarterback is 30 of 33 for 325 yards, with 2 touchdown passes and 1 rushing TD in his last 11 fourth quarter and overtime drives.
“Over time, you keep running the football, you’re going to wear them down,” Cowboys coach Jason Garrett said.
“He made some big runs late that were critical. It really broke their back.”
Bryant and Norman Clash
Meanwhile, Cowboys receiver Dez Bryant, who battled throughout the game with Redskins cornerback Josh Norman caught 5 of his 7 targets for 72 yards.
The pair battled throughout the game and were warned numerous times by officials but it didn’t stop there.
After the game Bryant went to search for Norman and that led to the two players having to be separated during a scuffle on the field.
Bryant, who made one of the biggest catches for the Cowboys to help set up a fourth quarter touchdown, called Norman soft after the game and said the Redskins should go get their money back.
“First off, Washington needs to get their money back from Josh Norman,” Bryant told reporters after the game.
“I didn’t make it personal,” Bryant said. “I was just going to come out and do my job and that’s exactly what I did.
“He wanted to bump and me and him got to bumping a little bit and it just made me attack him even more. I honestly feel like the guy is extremely soft.
“He’s a bunch of talk. If he was out and about, I wouldn’t dare on my life let him talk to me like that.
“Those words would never come out of his mouth. I promise. I promise it wouldn’t. We got after that ass and it was a hell of a win. It feels good.”
The Cowboys led 17-6 at halftime, but Washington managed to cut the deficit to 24-19 with 9:22 left in the game.
However, Elliott ran for a one-yard score to open back up the lead and the visitors failed in their late comeback push.
Cousins Has Impressive Day In Defeat
Quarterback Kirk Cousins completed 41 of his 53 passes for 449 yards and three touchdowns for the Redskins (6-4-1).
“We pulled within striking distance a couple of times, but the way Dallas was able to come back and score says a lot of how good of a football team they have and why they’re leading out division,” Cousins told reporters.
“We know as an offense, that the job’s the same and we need to put points on the board and manage it well.
Jordan Reed caught two touchdown passes for 95 yards and DeSean Jackson finished with 118 receiving yards and a score in the defeat for Washington.
Cousins and the Redskins will be off for 10-days before the second of three straight road games in Arizona on Dec. 4.
The upcoming stretch will be vital.
“We’ve been in third place for a while, so we have to understand where we are what it’s going to take to get an opportunity to come back here in the future,” Washington coach Jay Gruden said.
“The last five games of the year are critical.”
Meanwhile, in the other two games on Thanksgiving, Matt Prater kicked a 40-yard field goal as time expired to help the Detroit Lions to a 16-13 win over the Minnesota Vikings, while Ben Roethlisberger and Antonio Brown helped the Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Indianapolis Colts 28-7.
NFL Thanksgiving Scores: Week 12
Thursday, November 24
COWBOYS 31, REDSKINS 26
LIONS 16, VIKINGS 13
STEELERS 28, COLTS 7
