Historical notes from Dallas Cowboys win on Sunday night against Pittsburgh Steelers

There was a lot of talk about history prior to last Sunday night’s game between the Dallas Cowboys and Pittsburgh Steelers. To be fair, how could there not be?

The most common Super Bowl matchup in history is between Dallas and Pittsburgh. Unfortunately the bad guys have the lead there, but Dallas extended their all-time lead in the series with their victory. But the event was treated with such reverence that, in case you missed it, NBC had a packaged video that they played right before kickoff (which was delayed almost 90 minutes, adding to the hysteria of it all) that featured Celine Dion. Really!

There were certainly moments of gold throughout the contest. It is hard to deny that there were flashes of light. I imagine if you asked Mike McCarthy that there were things he would never do again (like challenge a fumble that the opposing team recovered) that somehow always seemed right.

History can be instructive and helpful and, to the point NBC and Celine Dion made, nostalgic. For the purposes of this exercise we are leaning on the earlier ideas as we try to sort some of what the Cowboys did in Pittsburgh and where they now stand into where it all sits in the Dallas Cowboys record books and encyclopedias.

Here are the historical notes from Sunday’s win in Pittsburgh.

Rico Dowdle reached 87 yards rushing which is a surprising accomplishment
You likely feel that Sunday’s outing from Rico Dowdle was the best one that a Dallas Cowboys running back has offered so far this season. That seems pretty agreed-upon.

What if I told you that the 87 yards that he ran for was something that no Cowboys runner had accomplished in over a year? Seriously. The last time that a Cowboys running back hit at least 87 yards rushing was in last season’s blowout loss to the Arizona Cardinals which came in Week 3.

All told the Cowboys only have seven games played since the 2022 season in which a running back hit 87 yards. This is a random and arbitrary number and the point isn’t to assign significance to it. But it is interesting nonetheless.

It is very difficult to win when committing three turnovers in a single game
As a whole the Cowboys committed three turnovers in this game. They all belonged to Dak Prescott (more on him in a moment), but for this point we are talking about from a team-wide perspective.

This game marked only the fourth victory in the Mike McCarthy era in which the team committed at least three turnovers. Two of them came almost back-to-back late in the 2022 season and the other was the famous watermelon kick game.

In this same time period all NFL teams are 60-287 when committing at least three turnovers just to exemplify how difficult it is to win. The other team has to fail significantly so as not to take advantage of the extra opportunities.

Shout out to the Steelers, I guess.

Speaking of, it is really hard to win when your quarterback specifically turns the ball over a lot
As mentioned, all three turnovers in this game were charged to Dak Prescott.

This game marked the 11th instance in Prescott’s career in which he had at least two interceptions and a fumble. In these kinds of games specifically the Cowboys are now 5-6, and weirdly have won four of their last five!

All of those go back to our McCarthy era point and are somewhat representative (reaching here) about how the team is able to respond and rally in moments of crisis. You certainly do not ever want to see your quarterback turn the ball over at least three times, but that everyone else could lift him and provide an opportunity to make amends is notable.

CeeDee Lamb is off to a better start through five games than he was last year
Much has been made about the start to the season that CeeDee Lamb is having. It certainly does not feel like what we got used to over the course of last year.

What if I told you that Lamb is essentially out-performing his 2023 self to this point, though? That is basically the case.

Lamb has fewer receptions on more targets so that is why we cannot unequivocally say that he is off to a better start, but he has 20 more yards and an extra score and is also averaging more yards per reception to this point. He notably leads the league in yards after the catch over expected (+77) and yards after the catch over expected (+82) against man coverage this season, according to NFL Pro.

It is important to note that a year ago the Cowboys were also coming off of a Sunday night game, but it was the embarrassing loss against the San Francisco 49ers as opposed to the win against the Steelers. That game served as the flashpoint for the Cowboys’ season as a whole and for the offense at large, specifically Prescott and Lamb.

Perhaps he is due to turn it around any day now.

Starting 3-0 on the road is a very good sign
A decade ago it felt so impressive that the 2014 Cowboys were such great and true road warriors (including winning in London!). They followed that up with a similar mark two years later in 2016. We are only three road games in, but this year’s team is drawing comparisons to them.

In case you were unaware the Cowboys have won all three of their road games this season (they are winless through two at home) which is not an easy thing to do. They are the 15th team in franchise history to win the first three road games of their season. All of the previous 14 reached the postseason.

Obviously this is an incredibly small set of time, but that literally every other team made the playoffs is an interesting coincidence to say the least. Mike McCarthy has a team in this space for the first time in his tenure as the Cowboys head coach which is interesting given how his teams have been so dominant at home in the era. Maybe we truly are in the upside down.

The next road game for the Cowboys will tell us a lot as it is at the 49ers after next week’s bye. If they go to their own personal house of horrors and win, that will surely say something.