Six winners and five losers from the Cowboys win over the Chiefs

It wasn’t the shootout everyone was expecting, but the Dallas Cowboys 28-17 win over the Kansas City Chiefs was plenty exciting. As we always do, let’s separate the winners from the losers.

Winners

Cowboys wide receivers - Dez Bryant, Terrance Williams and Cole Beasley made a difference in the game. Bryant made huge plays throughout the game, Williams led the team with 141 yards on nine catches, and Beasley scored twice. They did their part.

Cowboys defense for all but two seconds - The Kansas City offense is a scoring machine. They have a ton of playmakers. Besides the meltdown at the end of the first half, the Cowboys defense consistently frustrated the Chiefs offense. Plus, Jeff Heath finally got the first interception on Alex Smith all year.

Dak Prescott running the ball - A touchdown, a couple of key third downs, including one right before Ezekiel Elliott’s touchdown. When he keeps it good things usually happen.

Sean Lee - When he plays, the Cowboys defense is just a different animal. He had two tackles for loss and a couple of others that stopped drives. He lead the team in tackles, was in on 12 combined tackles, and made sure everybody was in place to deal with Andy Reid’s unusual offense.

Taco Charlton - He got a sack! Maybe the first of many to come?

Cowboys punt coverage - Great plays by Kavon Frazier, Rod Smith and James Hanna.

Losers

Byron Jones - His two penalties before and after the TD at half contributed to 14 points for KC. The first penalty on the kick return gave KC the mentality of trying to make something happen right before the half. Then on the TD play his penalty helped set KC up with decent field position at their own 37 which led to a touchdown right after the half. To add insult to injury, Jones was beat by Travis Kelce for the TD.

Cowboys defense for two seconds - How do you give up the touchdown to Tyreek Hill before the end of the first half? You had seven guys back there and no one aggressively tried to tackle him. Orlando Scandrick’s effort was so weak and Anthony Hitchens blows right by him. The effort was pitiful.

Personal foul/Unsportsmanlike conduct penalties - The Cowboys picked up three in the game, two by Jones and one by Xavier Woods. That’s way too many and are just not smart plays, although the one on Woods sure was questionable.

Injuries - Tyron Smith didn’t finish the game, Chaz Green took over. Did his back flair up? Dez Bryant hurt his ankle, Terrance Williams came up a little lame at the end. Hopefully none of these are long-term.

DeMarcus Lawrence’s sack streak - He had some pressure throughout the game, but his consecutive sack streak of seven games comes to an end.

by Dave Halprin