No matter how hard they tried to give it away, the Dallas Cowboys managed to walk out of Acrisure Stadium with another road victory, even though it took nearly two hours longer than planned.
For their part, the Steelers failed to take advantage of the Cowboys’ repeated gaffes — and failed to ride the offensive momentum they seemingly gained a week earlier in Indianapolis.
When it was finally all over Sunday night ... er ... Monday morning, the Cowboys scored on a 4-yard pass from quarterback Dak Prescott to receiver Jalen Tolbert with 20 seconds remaining to hand the Steelers their second loss in a row 20-17.
“When you’re playing a good team and a guy like Dak Prescott, you’re in a tight ballgame and he has the ball last, you got a chance to lose,” coach Mike Tomlin said.
The loss dropped the Steelers to 3-2 and left them tied with the Baltimore Ravens atop the AFC North. The Cowboys, who are winless at home (0-2), won for the third time in a row on the road.
And they did it with a 15-play, 70-yard scoring drive on which Prescott, who finished with 352 yards passing, completed 5 of 7 passes for 48 yards, including the winning touchdown to Tolbert on fourth down.
The Cowboys nearly blew their chance two plays earlier when running back Rico Dowdle, who rushed for 87 yards on 20 carries, fumbled after a big hit by linebacker Elandon Roberts at the Steelers 1. Prescott, though, was able to recover the fumble and keep alive the winning drive.
“That ball’s on the ground in the red area,” Tomlin said. “That was the difference.”
That would have been the Cowboys’ third turnover in the red zone. Prescott lost a fumble at the Steelers 11 when he was sacked by T.J. Watt and Nick Herbig in the first quarter and was intercepted at the Steelers 1 by cornerback Donte Jackson near the end of the half.
The Cowboys also had a 38-yard field goal by kicker Brandon Aubrey blocked by defensive end Isaiahh Loudermilk in the third quarter.
The winning drive came right after the Steelers looked as though they might win the game when quarterback Justin Fields threw a 6-yard shovel pass to tight end Pat Freiermuth to take a 17-13 lead with 4:56 remaining.
The Cowboys outgained the Steelers in the first half 202 yards to 89, but Prescott’s gaffes kept the game from getting out of hand. The Cowboys finished with 455 yards, nearly double the Steelers (226).
“There’s nothing mystical about the outcome,” Tomlin said. “We didn’t do enough over 60 minutes to position ourselves. I thought it was self-inflicted wounds, penalties and things of that nature to get us off schedule. We weren’t connected as we should have been defensively.”
One week after the offense appeared to turn the corner with three consecutive touchdown drives in Indianapolis, the Steelers struggled against the 26th-ranked defense in the league that was missing its best two players — All-Pro linebacker Micah Parsons and defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence.
They converted just 3 of 12 third-down chances and had just one play longer than 20 yards. Fields threw two touchdowns, but he passed for only 131 yards — his second-lowest total of the season — and averaged just 4.9 yards per attempt.
The start of the game was delayed 1 hour, 25 minutes by a severe thunderstorm that moved through Western Pennsylvania, forcing the Steelers to evacuate fans from the seating area. Despite the delay, it appeared as though very few, if any, fans left when the game kicked off at 9:45 p.m. The crowd of 67,380 was the fifth largest in stadium history.
Aubrey gave the Cowboys a 3-0 lead on the opening possession with a 55-yard field goal — his 17th in 18 attempts from beyond 50 yards since last season.
The Steelers tied the game on their first possession with a 41-yard field goal from Chris Boswell, his 12th of the season.
Watt and Herbig combined to snuff a good scoring opportunity when they sacked Prescott and forced a fumble on 3rd-and-6 at the Steelers 11 that Herbig recovered. The half-sack by Watt was his 100th in his 109th career game, becoming the second fastest in NFL history to reach 100 behind Reggie White (96 games).
Aubrey added a 33-yard field goal for a 6-3 lead after Prescott connected on another big pass play, this one a 27-yard catch and run to the Steelers 13.
The Cowboys squandered a great opportunity near the end of the half after Prescott connected with Tolbert for a 48-yard gain to the Steelers. But, on 2nd-and-4 from the Steelers, Prescott made a horrid decision and was intercepted by cornerback Donte Jackson at the 1.
Prescott finished the half 15 of 20 for 188 yards, but those three completions of at least 27 yards were overshadowed by his two costly turnovers.
The Steelers finally took the lead when Fields threw a 16-yard touchdown to H-back Connor Heyward. However, one of the key plays on the drive was provided by backup quarterback Kyle Allen, who replaced Fields for two plays after Fields took an illegal heavy hit from defensive end Tyrus Wheat.
On 2nd-and-5, Allen connected with Freiermuth for a 19-yard gain to the Cowboys 33 on his only attempt. Four plays later, Heyward’s touchdown gave the Steelers a 10-6 lead.
But the Cowboys came right back with a 16-play, 90-yard drive that lasted 8½ minutes to take a 13-10 lead on Prescott’s 22-yard touchdown to running back Rico Dowdle just three plays into the fourth quarter.
First Published: October 7, 2024, 5:47 a.m.
Updated: October 7, 2024, 7:55 p.m.