In the Sunday night game for Week 1 of the NFL season, the Dallas Cowboys and Los Angeles Rams faced off in a christening of the new SoFi Stadium in Inglewood. Taking home their first victory of the year by a 20-17 score, the Rams were able to hold off the Cowboys, thanks to a questionable offensive pass interference call that would have put Dallas in field goal range with the clock ticking down.
Both the Cowboys and the Rams have a lot that they can take away from this game – see what three big takeaways can be pulled from this past Sunday’s affair.
Spreading the ball around includes Ezekiel Elliott
When the Cowboys brought in Mike McCarthy to be their new head coach, the onus was put on the offense to improve. With their selection of Oklahoma wide receiver CeeDee Lamb in the recent NFL draft, the offense has a lot of mouths that need to be fed.
Amari Cooper, Michael Gallup, and Lamb are the WRs that all factor into the game plan, plus tight end Blake Jarwin and running back Ezekiel Elliott. With Jarwin (torn ACL) now out, those projected targets will likely be redistributed to the other four players in particular.
The biggest surprise was seeing how Zeke was thrust into the passing game, just another way for offensive coordinator Kellen Moore to feed the former Buckeye. Having finished with the fourth-most targets in the passing game on the team (4), Zeke hauled in three of those for 31 yards and a touchdown, including a nifty 19-yard catch and run that started the scoring in the second quarter.
While the offense will continue to run through Zeke, his role in the passing game will open up more opportunities for the offense to utilize him.
Rams do not seem to miss Todd Gurley one bit
The uncertainty following the Rams and their rushing attack seems to have been put to bed. The trio of Cam Akers, Darrell Henderson, and Malcolm Brown all had contributions, although Brown stole the show.
Having seemingly vultured two TDs from Akers, Brown seems to have moved up the pecking order in the backfield, even if coach Sean McVay doesn’t mention that. With the FSU rookie Akers getting his feet wet in the NFL, and Henderson looking to be the power runner for this team, Brown was an effective change of pace option, scoring from one and two yards out, respectively.
For Brown to be commanding the goal-line touches might be jumping to an untrue conclusion, but it also could be McVay tipping his hand for who he feels deserves those carries to start the season – regardless of the depth chart order, it looks like the Rams do not miss Todd Gurley at all.
Dak Prescott seems to be able to justify huge contract demands
Dak Prescott wants to get paid – and he will, eventually, the question just remains if that money will come from the Cowboys or from another team. But after Prescott’s performance against an average to above-average defense, Dallas should finally pony up and meet his asking price.
$40+ million seems too rich for a QB that is towards the back-half of the 10 best in the league, but Prescott’s familiarity with Moore, combined with the trust that McCarthy seems to already have in him, and this offense has the makings of being hard to stop. The offensive line more than held its own against a very stout front D-Line for LA, and even though Aaron Donald naturally got his, the pass rush was mostly able to rack up coverage sacks more than anything.
While only throwing for one TD, Prescott’s line of 25/39 for 266 yards is a healthy one, and he outshined Jared Goff in California. He was also able to use his legs, as Prescott took of three times for 30 yards, including a long of 12 yards, against three sacks.
Cooper had 14 targets, Lamb had 6, Gallup 5, and both Elliott and Schultz had 4 apiece, so Prescott spread the ball out really nicely, helping keep the defense on its heels all night.
The Cowboys may not have won McCarthy’s debut in blue and white, but there were more than enough positive takeaways from this game that could be made. And while the Rams will be looking to dig themselves out of the hole from last year, their 1-0 start to the year against a solid NFC East opponent is a big step to start the year.
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