Instant Reactions: Cowboys new look defense dominates Raiders on MNF

Fresh off a bye week, a new look defense, and a healthy offense, the Dallas Cowboys went into Sin City and defeated the Las Vegas Raiders 33-16 from Allegiant Stadium.

Dallas’ defense with the addition of Quinnen Williams got after Geno Smith, while the offense looked like the unit that we saw from Week’s 4 to 7.

The Cowboys improved to 4-5-1 and will host the Philadelphia Eagles next Sunday at 3:25 from AT&T Stadium.

Instant Reactions:

Ali Jawad

Sure it’s the Raiders, but this is the same Cowboys team that has let other below .500 teams get the best of them.

Not the case here tonight as the new look defense showed up while the offense was back to its explosive ways.

The defense led by All-Pro Quinnen Williams in his debut finished with four tackles, a TFL, 1.5 sacks, seven pressures, and five QB hits. Dallas’ defense overall came away with four sacks and an interception by Markquese Bell which the Cowboys turned into seven points towards the end of the second quarter, and safety by rookie defensive end Donovan Ezeiruaku in the final period.

Overall, Dallas held Las Vegas to 237 yards, 4.2 yards, and incredibly, held the Raiders to just 27 yards on the ground.

Offensively, Dak Prescott finished with four touchdowns, CeeDee Lamb and George Pickens combined for 210 yards and two touchdowns, while Jake Ferguson recorded his seventh touchdown of the season.

More importantly, the Cowboys played their hearts out for Marshawn Kneeland in a game that saw the team honor their beloved teammate who passed away during the bye week.

Clarence Hill

In a game that was supposed to be about honoring the death defensive end Marshawn Kneeland in attitude and spirit, the Cowboys began the 33-16 blowout of the Las Vegas Raiders with a little controversy and drama by benching star receivers CeeDee Lamb and George Pickens for the opening series for disciplinary reasons.

They missed some things, per a source.

Not showing up from meetings, practice or a curfew was not on the bingo card when it came to things the Cowboys wanted to do honor Kneeland, who took his own life with a single gun shot wound less than two weeks ago.

Kneeland was the epitome of giving 100-percent, all-out effort to everything he did.

The Cowboys have endured an painful and emotional time since his death, which was during the bye week.

They hoped to bounce back against the Raiders and honor Kneeland with their play.

While things didn’t start so great, the Cowboys (4-5-1) got well mentally and physically against the Raiders with unleashing 24 straight unanswered points to turn a 6-2 deficit to 24-6 in the second quarter. It was 31-9 in third quarter and suddenly football for the Cowboys was fun again.

Pickens and Lamb, who set the initial negative tone to force coach Brian Schottenheimer to discipline them as an example to the team, got things started and in that order.

Quarterback Dak Prescott began what was a near perfect performance by feeding Pickens and when the Raiders adjusted, he found Lamb wide open in the back of the end zone for an 18-yard score.

Schottenheimer gave them both a hug on the bench afterwards and the party was on.

Prescott finished with four touchdown passes, including a 37-yard catch and run to Pickens that ended with him getting a celebration flag after jumping on the base of the goal post.

So much for discipline.

Sometimes you got to let Pickens be Pickens and he was downright uncoverable against the Raiders, catching 9 passes for 144 yards and the touchdown.

The good news is the Cowboys defense, which ranks 31st in the league and had been on pace to be one of the worst in franchise history, showed signs of life against the hapless Raiders, who lost their fourth straight game to drop to 2-8 season.

Struggling teams have actually gotten healthy against the Cowboys defense in prior games. See the Arizona Cardinals, who were unstoppable in a 27-17 victory the last time Dallas took the field but has been blown out in their next two game by the scores of 44-22 and 41-22 to the Seattle Seahawks and San Francisco 49ers, respectively.

The Cowboys defense, fueled by the addition of defensive tackle Quinnen Williams, wasn’t the get-right unit for the quarterback Geno Smith and the Raiders offense.

Williams, acquired in a trade with the New York Jets during the bye week, had 1.5 of the team’s four sacks. He had multiple tackles for losses for a Cowboys defense that recorded an interception by Markquese Bell and a safety by rookie defensive end Donovan Ezeiruaku.

The unit was also buoyed by the season debuts linebacker DeMarvion Overshown and cornerback Shavon Revel, who both had been sidelined since the offseason rehabbing knee injuries, the returns of safeties Donovan Wilson and Malik Hooker from injuries and the addition of linebacker Logan Wilson, also acquired in a bye week trade.

Bigger tests await before knowing if the Cowboys can still salvage their season and playoff hopes.

They face the Philadelphia Eagles, Kansas City Chiefs and Detroit Lions in an 11-day span over the next three weeks.

They will never truly get over the loss of Kneeland.

But for one night, all is well again.