“Best supplementary football so far”

FRISCO, Texas – There weren't many opportunities left for the Dallas Cowboys to lose their match against the Pittsburgh Steelers, a new opportunity seemed to keep popping up throughout the game and even before (hello, Mother Nature). They overcame all sorts of adversity, including self-inflicted ones, to climb to 3-2 this season and establish the first winning streak of their 2024 season.

But it's also true that, as suggested, there's a lot to clean up before their Week 6 clash against the visiting Detroit Lions – namely the penalties and turnovers that plagued them in the Steel City – against the tide of 11 Penalties and three turnovers to escape with a narrow three-point victory.

This was thanks in large part to a stellar performance from a severely undermanned defense that kept Justin Fields in check, a carousel offensive line and a rushing attack that punched well above their weight class, a third-year receiver who had a legacy game and an All-Pro quarterback who simply refused to accept failure when he helped him get there.

“I think yesterday was our best game as a football team, our best complementary football game,” head coach Mike McCarthy said Monday. “If the offense has the ball longer than the defense, that’s a good thing. We had over 70 plays (offensively).”

The Cowboys did win time of possession, which is crucial in itself, but that also led to them creating an offensive split that McCarthy found very pleasing. While Prescott threw the ball 42 times, the Cowboys' rushing attack put in motion a career day for Rico Dowdle.

The offense finished with 31 rushing attempts, with McCarthy previously noting that his weekly goal is “around 30” for the ground attack.

And so all things are in perfect balance, or at least close to balance.

Thanos knew it. He always knew it.

“We had a number of trips to the plate where the ball was distributed properly,” McCarthy said. “Those were the things that are very important every week, let alone playing in Pittsburgh. Achieving that and running the football is a big part of beating three like that and winning the game? This is a huge credit to the fight and resilience of our football team.

Sometimes the complement is the biggest compliment.

Two things can be true at the same time, as was the case with the Cowboys' primetime victory over the Steelers.

The first is that they still have a lot of work to do to avoid constantly shooting themselves in both feet as they approach and enter the red zone. Second, it's hard to win in the NFL, so no one should expect an excuse for the Week 5 win if he wasn't nominated for the Prom Queen award by the media pundits.

Get the win, get better and get ready for next week.