Cooks cooking, Jourdan Lewis’ olympic dive among Cowboys key Week 17 moments

Saturday’s thriller at AT&T provided no shortage of plays that have been relentlessly discussed and will still be talked about for quite some time. But the Cowboys’ 20-19 win was about far more than just a bizarre tackle-eligible snafu in the closing seconds.

One can’t recap the Week 17 nailbiter without also including several other key moments; like the phantom tripping call against Peyton Hendershot, the 92-yard bomb to CeeDee Lamb, several overly-aggressive play calls by Detroit head coach Dan Campbell, and multiple big stops from Dan Quinn’s Cowboys defense.

Dive a little deeper, and there are still more plays that help tell the full story.

In this edition of 4 Downs, we look at how a Mike McCarthy decision, a clutch takeaway from an especially-motivated veteran, a field-flipping highlight (and the ensuing defensive response), and a routine sideline catch (that was anything but) were just as critical to the Cowboys’ dramatic win as any last-minute two-point try… and re-try and re-re-try.

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1st Down: Q1, 10:50 - Cowboys decline penalty to force early Detroit FG

Detroit put its top-five offense on the field first, and they got off to a hot start against a Dallas defense that has cooled considerably since the beginning of the season. The Lions moved the ball 52 yards in just seven plays but then suddenly stalled. Jared Goff threw passes on first and second down that fell incomplete; Cowboys cornerback Jourdan Lewis shut down a third-down catch by Jahmyr Gibbs for no gain.

But an illegal block penalty called against the Lions presented the Cowboys sideline with a dilemma: push Detroit back 10 yards and give them a chance at converting a very long third down, or let it remain 4th-and-10.

Mike McCarthy opted to force a decision from Dan Campbell; the Lions decided to take the points. The 41-yard field goal gave Detroit an early lead, but it felt like a win for the Dallas defense just to hold the Lions to three points after a strong opening offensive effort. What could have been a back-and-forth fireworks show turned instead into a heavyweight slugfest where every single point would be hard to come by… and would eventually be the difference.

2nd Down: Q2, 14:10 - Lewis interception ends Lions threat

Lewis played like a man possessed in front of a huge contingent of family and friends who had traveled from Detroit. His six tackles and a pair of defended passes on the night were huge, but it was his first interception of 2023 that may have been the most clutch.

The Cowboys held a 7-3 lead following CeeDee Lamb’s 92-yard score. They went three-and-out on their next possession, punting the ball away to start the second quarter. Goff and the Lions looked to strike quickly, starting their subsequent drive with a 20-yard completion to Amon-Ra St. Brown.

But then Goff got careless, spinning away from Osa Odighizuwa’s immediate pursuit on second down and heaving a desperation ball back across his body on an attempted screen pass. David Montgomery was in position to make a catch, but Lewis saw it coming and made a brilliant break, covering five yards in a blink. He flashed in front of Montgomery and made the acrobatic pick while falling to the turf.

The Cowboys offense was unable to cash in on the turnover, but only because of an unlucky bounce of the ball as Lamb tried to extend it over the goal line a few plays later. But the ninth interception of Lewis’s career- and his first since last October, also against the Lions- made it three straight Detroit possessions without points. They ultimately wouldn’t find the end zone until the second half.

3rd Down: Q4, 14:21 - Lions flip field with 63-yard pass play, but Dallas D responds

A Lions touchdown in the third quarter gave the lead back to Detroit. Then a Brandon Aubrey field goal knotted things up at 10. On the second snap of the fourth, the Lions nearly broke the scoring dam wide open.

Goff took a deep drop and hung in just long enough to launch a moon shot before he got a faceful of Micah Parsons. Wide receiver Jameson Williams, having blown past DaRon Bland with an inside move, hauled it in at the Dallas 34, and made it to the 14 before Bland finally dragged him down. The 63-yard bomb flipped the field in an instant and suddenly had the Cowboys D on the ropes.

Dan Quinn’s unit recovered, however, and once again kept the damage minimal by forcing Detroit to settle for a 30-yard field goal a few plays later. But the Goff-to-Williams deep ball served as a reminder of the Lions’ offensive potency and seemed to refocus the Dallas defense… at least until the Lions’ final possession.

4th Down: Q4, 10:25 - Dak connects with Cooks for clutch 3rd-down conversion

Dallas’s offense answered the loss of the lead with a nine-play, 75-yard march that ate up nearly five full minutes of the final quarter. Prescott capped off their most time-consuming drive of the night with a rainbow to the corner of the end zone that Brandin Cooks snatched out of the air for the go-ahead score.

But it was Cooks’s sideline grab just a few plays prior that was the real clutch moment of the drive. Facing 3rd-and-5 from their own side of the midfield star, Dallas was going pass all the way. Pollard’s block bought Prescott an extra second, Jake Ferguson and Jalen Tolbert sufficiently tangled up three Detroit DBs, and Cooks peeled underneath and shot up the sideline.

A perfect pass dropped right into the bucket for Cooks, who added some nifty footwork to stay inbounds on a 21-yard pickup. The veteran would end the night with five catches on eight targets; his second-best numbers in those categories all season, and his fourth touchdown since Thanksgiving.

Cooks was brought in to be a legitimate No. 2 option opposite Lamb. While it may have taken him a while this season to get into sync with Prescott and his stats aren’t as gaudy as they’ve been in years past, he has become a sure-handed playmaker in key moments and will no doubt continue to serve that role in the postseason.

Story originally appeared on Cowboys Wire