2022 Week 14 Game Recap: Cowboys 27, Texans 23 (by Ross Jacobs)
Goodness there's a lot to unpack here.
Dallas scored on the first drive of the game and then stuffed Houston for a three-and-out on their first drive. It looked like it was going to be a normal day at the office for the Cowboys but then things started to go wrong. Turpin fumbled a punt return and Houston recovered, setting them up for an easy tying score. Dallas answered to take the lead, stuffed Houston again, but Dak threw an INT off a tipped pass on the next drive which gave Houston yet another short field that they converted into a TD. A pair of field goals, one for each team would see Houston take a 3 point lead into the half.
In the 2nd half Houston continued to barely scrape by, needing every bit of their good fortune to try and hang on. Dak fumbled the ball when his arm got hit around the 10 yard line but somehow Houston wasn't able to jump on the ball despite it rolling around for several seconds, but they quickly rectified that with an INT when Dak's arm got hit again and the ball went straight to a defender. With a 3 point lead and a 1st and goal inside the 10 the game looked all but over for Dallas...except idiotic Lovie Smith benched Dameon Pierce for a fumble on a previous drive and Houston was stuffed on 4 straight downs to give Dallas the ball at their own 2. With 98 yards to go Houston's defense, which had played solidly all day, allowed short pass after short pass and Dallas marched down the field and capped it off with a short Zeke plunge for the go-ahead TD.
Davis Mills got one final chance and planted a big pass to Chris Moore but the line committed two straight false starts to back them up. On the final play Mills avoided a sack and launched a bomb to the endzone from midfield and it was easily intercepted by Dallas as none of the Houston receivers even tried to go for the ball.
So...what did we learn here? What conclusions can we draw?
Is Houston to be feared by the Chiefs this week or any team in the future? Absolutely not. They are a complete joke and it starts with Lovie Smith and his moronic coaching staff. I understand they are dealing with a relatively untalented team and are down both their top WRs, so the gameplan has to be tailored to that, but you cannot bench your best player, the guy you ride and die with because of a stupid fumble, certainly not with a 3 point lead and 1st and goal. That alone should get Lovie fired this morning...ignoring his abysmal record both with Houston and at Illinois...
The Texans players fought hard here, no doubt...they don't deserve this mess. But they were only in this game because of dumb turnover luck. That kind of stuff isn't likely to happen in the future. This game would have been a 20+ point Dallas win 80 times out of 100 but it just so happened they had a few things break their way to keep it close...and horrible decision making is the only thing that cost them this game. Think about that...even with every possible advantage, all the luck going their way, they still found a way to lose by their own actions...that takes talent.
The Chiefs line is only -14 for next week right now. I'd jump on that in a heartbeat. Houston is going to get annihilated.
Dallas narrowly avoids falling 3 games behind Philly which would have effectively ended their quest for the division. It will be easy to knock them for this game, to say they are fakes or pretenders, but that's the completely wrong conclusion. They had absolutely everything go against them here and they still found a way to deny Houston a winning score and drive 98 yards for a TD. That's an amazing feat for any NFL team, and Dallas pulled it off when they needed to most. I am highly impressed by the grit and determination they showed here. I don't know if Dallas can manage to steal the division or win a Superbowl, the injuries are starting to weaken them and Philly is just so strong, but they have as good a chance as anyone.
Fantasy Player Notes:
– Oh man we were so close to another Michael Gallup monster game. Dak underthrew him on the first drive while getting hit otherwise Gallup would have walked in for a 70 yd TD. He also dropped what would have been the winning TD on the goal line when Jonthan Owens hit him hard from behind as he tried to secure the catch. The box score says 2-40-0 but this easily could have been 4-115-2. I know it hasn't really hit yet, but I'm telling you Gallup is the best receiver on this team right now. He's been very close to a monster game for weeks now...one of these days everything is going to line up.
And I'm no longer afraid of OBJ landing here, at least not during the FF season. Reports leaked that he isn't ready to play, not even close. That really shouldn't be a surprise for a 30 year old receiver coming off a very recent ACL tear.
– Where are the CeeDee Lamb truthers? I've defended him in the past when RC says he's a bum because I do think he's a decent receiver overall, but I also believe he's massively overrated by the mainstream. The truth lies somewhere in-between but you know he's going to get a massive contract to either stay in Dallas or go to another team. He's going to be a massive waste of money for whoever pays him. He's the classic case of an overrated diva receiver that will quit working as soon as he gets paid. He's not even that good right now...what makes you think he'll be better with a $70 mil contract? We will get an idea what Dallas thinks of him by whether they draft an early round receiver in the 2023 draft because his rookie contract is up after next year.
– Tony Pollard continues to be the best fantasy asset from this team and their best player in real life and they still aren't giving him the ball enough. NFL coaches never change...
– Houston decided to run this game by splitting time with the two QBs Mills and Jeff Driskel. It was honestly kind of smart since they were down Cooks and Collins. They couldn't just slam Pierce into a stacked box every single play, so they used Driskel to run some option looks and that helped open things up for Pierce a little. Driskel also managed to hit a lucky TD pass to former Packer Amari Rodgers in double coverage but was very shaky every time he passed.
As long as the WRs are out I imagine they will keep using Driskel as their Taysom-lite. He's not as strong, or fast, or as good a passer as Taysom though and this offense sucks out loud so I don't recommend trying to get cute with him for fantasy...also he's not listed as a TE so you don't even have that angle to work.
– Oh and Driskel is the reason that Kyle Allen was inactive. We were wondering why Allen was good enough to start last week but not even eligible this week...it was because they planned this 2 QB system. If Allen is inactive again next week that's a tell that they'll be using Driskel again.
Mills looked solid as usual but only played about half the snaps. He's doing good work with very little help and I still believe the team should stick with him another year, get him some more help and some decent coaches, but I have no idea if Caserio is smart enough to do that. I think he is but I can't swear to it.
– With Cooks and Collins out Chris Moore stepped up with the quietest 10-124-0 game ever. He did most of his damage on 2 big plays, one a perfect fade pass on the right sideline early in the game by Mills. Moore left himself room on the sideline with Kelvin Joseph playing him tight inside and Mills dropped the ball nicely on his outside shoulder. The second big play was on the final drive where Mills found him on a broken play in the middle of the field. None of this seems repeatable. It wasn't like Moore was a dominating force or anything. He just got lucky and made a couple solid plays against weird coverage. He's not worth adding even if Collins is out again.
– Dameon Pierce got his usual massive workload but barely did anything with it because the box is constantly stacked against him. He saved his day with a short TD plunge after Turpin fumbled. Nothing has changed with him. I can't recommend starting him if you have other options because this offense is just so awful.
– The Jordan Akins hope without Collins and Cooks didn't go well. This team just doesn't see him as a weapon to be used because Lovie Smith is clearly an offensive mastermind...
IDP Notes:
– Holy cow Jalen Pitre (12 tackles, 2 pd) what a game! This is the best I've seen Pitre look this year and I can tell you why too. Houston was playing this game deep, a lot of quarters coverage which allowed Pitre to keep everything in front of him and react quickly while moving forward to attack. That seems to be what he does best because he was coming downhill with bad intentions all game, lighting people up, breaking up passes...he nearly killed Dalton Schultz over the middle more than once. I saw him playing more up in the box early in the year, but I like him playing deep over the top much better.
An overlooked issue for Dallas on defense now...with Anthony Brown done for the year that puts Kelvin Joseph in as a starter and he doesn't look ready to me. Joseph was in Moore's hip pocket a good chunk of the game, but he also has awful moments where he either loses the ball or gets in bad position and allows a big play. I think Joseph is going to be a weak spot that opposing offenses attack regularly. Philly is going to eat him for lunch. Losing Brown was a major blow to this defense and might cost them a championship.
Snap Counts of Interest:
68 = Lamb
54 = Gallup
50 = Brown
66 = Schultz
41 = Pollard
35 = Zeke
54 = Dorsett
53 = Moore
36 = Rodgers
47 = Quitoriano
35 = Akins
36 = Pierce
33 = Mills
33 = Driskel
