Thursday Night Football Recap: Dak, Cowboys Rally to Beat Seahawks
In one of the best games of the 2023 season — and certainly tops among Thursday Night Football contests — the Cowboys rallied from an eight-point deficit in the fourth quarter to beat Seattle.
Down 35-27 early in the fourth quarter, Dallas cut the deficit to five points on a Brandon Aubrey 38-yard field goal. Then, after stuffing Seattle on 4th-and-1 near midfield, the Cowboys marched 54 yards to take the lead when Dak Prescott threw a 12-yard TD pass to tight end Jake Ferguson. The Cowboys converted the two-point conversion, then added Aubrey’s fourth field goal to take a six-point lead with less than two minutes remaining.
Seattle had one final chance, but Micah Parsons came free off the edge and hit Geno Smith on 4th-and-2 from midfield. Smith’s pass fell incomplete.
Smith and the Seattle offense was up for the challenge against Parsons and the Cowboys fast and aggressive defense. The quarterback finished the night with 334 yards passing and three touchdowns — all three scores to D.K. Metcalf, who caught six passes overall for 134 yards. The duo’s highlight came midway through the opening quarter when they hooked up on a 73-yard catch and run.
Dallas then took a 10-point lead after touchdown passes from Prescott to CeeDee Lamb and Brandin Cooks, which spanned the first and second quarters. Lamb, whose production “slumped” the last couple of weeks, nearly matched Metcalf’s big night with 12 catches for 116 yards.
Trailing 17-7, Seattle responded with two second-quarter TD drives, the last one with four seconds remaining in the half to take a 21-20 lead into the locker room. The two teams traded touchdowns in the third, and Seattle scored on Metcalf’s final TD catch, early in the fourth.
Then Prescott got down to business.
November's NFC Offensive Player of the Month finished with 299 yards passing and three TD passes. As was the case in recent games, each Prescott scoring pass found a different Dallas target. Prescott did not throw a pick, his third straight game without one.
Seattle’s Smith threw one interception to — guess who? — Dallas’ DaRon Bland, who surprised millions by NOT returning pick for a touchdown. It was the corner’s league-leading eight interception of the year.
Despite the offensive fireworks, the game was far from a flawless one. The refs flagged the two teams for a combined nineteen penalties for 257 yards. At one point in the second half, the Seahawks had picked up five first downs on penalties alone.
A damaging loss for Seattle (6-6), which seemed to be a certain playoff team a month ago. Next up, the Seahawks travel to Levi’s Stadium for the second matchup in three weeks with their division rival, the 49ers.
With the win Dallas (9-3) stays two games behind Philadelphia. Mike McCarthy and his players will all be San Francisco fans on Sunday when they strap in for the big Eagles-49ers showdown.