Lions vs. Cowboys: Full Report Card Grades for Dallas

Imagine thinking the Dallas Cowboys would be the winners of the NFC East and hold the first seed going into the playoffs. If you thought this once Tony Romo went down with a back injury in the Seattle Seahawks preseason game, then that is quite impressive. What the Cowboys have done in 2016 is something magnificent.And Monday's 42-21 performance was just another example of that. Getting a read on this game was a little difficult. After all, the Detroit Lions have played good football throughout the majority of the year, and they came to town in need of a win.The Cowboys didn't have anything to play for. Everything they wanted was already in the bag for them, but that didn't stop the Cowboys from putting on a show against the Lions.The first half was concerning, to be completely honest. Despite 21 points from the Cowboys, the defense had no answer for Matthew Stafford and company. Here's how the first six drives of the game looked like: touchdown, touchdown, touchdown, touchdown, punt, touchdown. To put this into perspective, the Cowboys were on pace for 624 yards at the completion of the first quarter.Into the half at 21, Rod Marinelli's defense needed to make the necessary adjustments or else they were going to be blown out on national television, showing ways where other playoff-bound teams can take advantage of.In the Lions' first drive of the second half, they failed to move the football down the field. Dallas was able to get pressure on Stafford and in turn forced the Lions signal-caller to throw some ill-advised passes. The Cowboys picked up an interception after Stafford scrambled out of the pocket and threw a weak pass downfield.Dallas was able to take advantage of the short field and cash in on an Ezekiel Elliott touchdown, his second of the game and his 15th of the season. After the Cowboys scored with ease on three plays, the Lions needed to score to keep pace. However, the Lions managed just 11 yards on six plays.Detroit punted the ball away only for the Cowboys to go on a seven-play, 95-yard drive that ended in a touchdown pass to Jason Witten that was thrown by Dez Bryant. Rather than pitching it to Elliott, Dak Prescott pitched it to Bryant. Bryant took the reverse and then came up looking for the easy throw into the end-zone.In response to the touchdown drive, the Lions got into field-goal range. However, Matt Prater, who has been extremely efficient this year, shanked a 47-yard field goal, giving the Cowboys good field possession to go for the final punch and put the game away. The game was in the bag after a seven-play, 63-yard drive that was capped off by a 19-yard touchdown reception by Bryant.The Lions failed to move the ball from there, and the Cowboys were able to clamp down and keep the Lions scoreless in the second half to improve to 13-2.Read on for full grades and analysis from the Cowboys' 13th win of the season.Begin Slideshow
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