Ezekiel Elliott rushed for 137 yards and the go-ahead touchdown in the fourth quarter, Dak Prescott scored on a sneak after his dazzling head-over-heels run and the Dallas Cowboys hung on for a 24-22 wild-card win over the Seattle Seahawks on Saturday night in Arlington, Texas.
It was the first postseason win for Elliott and Prescott after losing a divisional game in their playoff debut as first-year stars two years ago.
“It’s really just a chance to keep going on, simple as that,” Prescott said. “Me and this whole team, we want to win it all. You can’t do that without taking care of the first one. A lot of excitement, but my goal is bigger than just one playoff win.”
The young Dallas defense stifled the NFL’s No. 1 rushing offense and mostly kept quarterback Russell Wilson under control. The Seahawks had finished the regular season with six wins in seven games to secure Wilson’s sixth playoff trip in seven years despite a roster overhaul and 0-2 start.
Following an injury to kicker to Sebastian Janikowski, the Seahawks had no good options on an onside kick with 1:18 remaining. Punter Michael Dickson’s drop kick was caught by Cole Beasley at the Dallas 31, sealing the first playoff win for the Cowboys since beating the Detroit Lions in the wild-card round following the 2014 season.
The AT&T Stadium crowd had been hushed in the first quarter when Cowboys wide receiver Allen Hurns exited the game following a gruesome injury to his left ankle, then gave Hurns a loud cheer as he raised his arm as he was being carted off the field. Hurns was said to be undergoing surgery for a broken left ankle Saturday night.
"Not a good situation for Allen. It's a serious injury that he has," Garrett said. "The guys on our team care so much about each other."
Now the Cowboys will go on the road to New Orleans or Los Angeles in the divisional round next weekend -- taking on either the league’s all-time leader in yards passing in Drew Brees of the Saints or this year’s fifth-best passing offense in Jared Goff and the Rams.
A group now led by playmaking linebackers Leighton Vander Esch and Jaylon Smith, rather than 2016 All-Pro Sean Lee, has been up to the challenge all season.
“We’ve got to take the same mindset next week ... and not get too far ahead of ourselves,” Vander Esch said. “We can be confident, but there’s a difference between being confident and being overly, maybe I should say cocky, if you want to use that word. We do a pretty good job of bringing ourselves back down.”
With 105.3 The Fan and AP