The Dallas Cowboys defeated the Detroit Lions 35-27 in Detroit on Sunday afternoon. The Cowboys sit in first place in the NFC East at 6-4 and one game ahead of the Philadelphia Eagles with 6 games remaining for each team. The Cowboys will take on the New England Patriots (9-1) in Foxboro on Sunday while the Eagles will host the Seattle Seahawks (8-2).

Quick Notes

La’el Collins (knee, back) and Joe Thomas (illness) did not practice on Wednesday. Demarcus Lawrence (neck), Amari Cooper (knee) were both listed as a full participant.

Connor Williams was back at practice Wednesday just a week after undergoing arthroscopic knee surgery. “I feel 100 percent. I feel great,” Williams said after practice. Jeff Heath expects to be back Sunday after missing Sundays game with a shoulder injury.

After back to back quiet games for Ezekiel Elliott, he was asked several questions about his frustration level. Zeke said “you guys make me feel awkward, like I’m supposed to be pissed because I had 40 yards and we won a football game.”

Stock Up

Tony Pollard

Tony Pollard carried the ball two times for 12 yards and caught 4 passes for 44 yards and a touchdown on Sunday. Pollard was still only on the field for 13 snaps and that resulted in the six touches but he was still able to show his acceleration and elusiveness. An interesting stat that came out of that game in terms of Pollards snap count.

Pollard snap count tracker
Cowboys wins: 22, 16, 23, 19, 13, 13
Cowboys losses: 2, 5, 7, 3

Now, obviously there is more to each loss than Pollards snap count. However, I do believe that does highlight the coaching staff goes extremely conservative when they face better competition or have any talent missing on offense like they were in the loss to the New York Jets.

Michael Gallup

Michael Gallup caught 9 passes for 148 yards in Sundays win. Gallup has already surpassed the 33 catches for 507 yards and two touchdowns he had as a rookie. In 2019, he already has 42 catches for 678 yards and three touchdowns in 8 games played. His average yards per catch has also increased from 15.4 to 16.1.

Stock Down

Darian Thompson

Darian Thompson was able to fill in nicely earlier in the season when Xavier Woods missed time. However, while filling in for an injured Heath Sunday, he was caught out of position and late on a couple big plays the Lions were able to convert.

Tackling

The biggest mystery of this Cowboys season has been what has happened to the defense. Multiple guys have taken steps back and the tackling as whole has been a huge issue. Bo Scarbrough, Jeff Driskel, J.D McKissic and Marvin Jones Jr. all were able to escape Cowboys defenders on different occasions. I don’t think its lack of effort when it comes to the poor tackling, but the team has struggled to wrap up.