So much for the Broncos delivering a blueprint to the rest of the league on how to stop the Cowboys offense. The Cowboys had 431 yards and scored 43 points. They scored touchdowns on five of their first eight possessions before Dak Prescott and many of the starters departed the 43-3 blowout.
Broncos coach Vic Fangio patted himself on the back last week for his defensive game plan that held the Cowboys to 290 yards and 16 points. The Cowboys reacted as one would expect, and it didn’t work for the Falcons on Sunday.
“They tried that early,” Prescott said of the Falcons. “As I said last week, the reason I wanted it is because we didn’t play a good game. If they think that is the recipe for success against us, then good luck to them. We know what we’re capable of, and I think last week was something we needed in a sense of just refocusing, recentering and realizing this is the NFL and it’s tough. You’ve got to earn it each and every day of practice and you’ve got to come out on Sunday’s and earn it again.”
In truth, last week probably had more to do with Prescott’s lack of practice time after his right calf injury kept him out a game as well as CeeDee Lamb’s ankle injury and Amari Cooper’s hamstring injury.
Whatever, the Cowboys weren’t the same team this week as they were last week.
Prescott went 24-of-31 for 296 yards and two touchdowns. Lamb caught six passes for 94 yards and two touchdowns, and Cooper had four receptions for 51 yards.
“Resilient team. A team that is very aware of what we’re capable of,” Prescott said. “I don’t want to say. . . . Last week just wasn’t us, and everybody in that locker room knows that. It left a bad taste in our mouth. I think it was taste that we needed to understand how tough this game is, but tonight just shows that when we focus in, take it one play at a time, our minds are where our feet are, we’re capable of doing some great things. So we just got to continue to focus on that and take it play by play, game by game, and we’ll continue to get better and hopefully have a lot more performances like this.”