Bills def. Cowboys: Recap & analysis
The Bills blew out the Cowboys in a battle of Super Bowl hopefuls.
Jon Machota, Saad Yousuf, Tim Graham, Joe Buscaglia and The Athletic NFL staff
December 18, 2023 at 10:34 AM EST
Rich Barnes / Getty Images
Casual football fans will look at the box score Sunday and be thoroughly confused.
Hell, one of the teams in Highmark Stadium was outright flummoxed.
The Buffalo Bills ran all over the Dallas Cowboys, and Josh Allen didn’t leave the deepest cleat marks this time. James Cook continued his glow-up with an incandescent performance unseen from a Bills player in nearly 14 years to humiliate the Cowboys 31-10.
On a wet track, Cook rushed for 179 yards with a touchdown and added two receptions for 42 yards and a touchdown. Allen, meanwhile, ran for a touchdown and threw for another. That’s a pretty normal sight in a Buffalo box score this year, but he completed seven whole passes for 94 yards and ran for just 24 yards.
The thing is, Allen didn’t perform shabbily. The Bills simply chose not to throw because Cook was that luminous.
“I just let it rip,” Cook said. “My O-linemen, they was opening it up, and I was hitting it and finding that rhythm.”
Some fascinating numbers are not found in the box score.
Read more here.
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How James Cook’s banner day vs. Cowboys cements special place in Bills lore
We’ve all heard it.
Most players speak about staying focused on their own circumstances and ignoring those involving other teams. If there was ever a question about what is actually in a player’s mind behind the cliched veil, Cowboys star pass-rusher Micah Parsons provided the answer after the Dallas Cowboys’ 31-10 drubbing at the hands of the Buffalo Bills on Sunday.
“We gotta be road warriors throughout the playoffs now because of this,” Parsons told reporters in Buffalo. “It doesn’t matter unless we get better on the road.”
The “now because of this” part of his answer is an acceptance of reality. As much as players and coaches want to publicly re-enforce the mantra of “running our own race,” they’re not oblivious. They’re aware of the circumstances. They rooted for the San Francisco 49ers two weeks ago against the Philadelphia Eagles. They wouldn’t mind if the Eagles took the cautious approach Monday night with Jalen Hurts’ illness against the Seattle Seahawks.
Those things used to matter. Now, the Cowboys really can focus on running their own race because the division — let alone the conference — is all but gone. The Eagles lost one of their first 11 games, which included wins over the Cowboys, Miami Dolphins, Kansas City Chiefs and Buffalo Bills. Is that team going to lose two of its last four, with games against the reeling Seahawks, twice against the New York Giants and a home contest against the Arizona Cardinals? And will the Cowboys run the table against the Dolphins on the road and the Lions at home?
Anybody who believes that might as well prepare some cookies for Santa Claus for when he comes down the chimney.
Read more here.
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Cowboys’ focus is clear: Find ways to win on road because playoffs heading that direction
It’s beginning to feel like déjà vu in Orchard Park, but maybe with a twist.
If the Buffalo Bills’ road win over the Kansas City Chiefs last weekend was a statement, Sunday’s complete dismantling of the Dallas Cowboys — another bonafide Super Bowl contender — is an outright declaration to the rest of the NFL. The 31-10 victory sends a message — the Bills have figured things out.
Most importantly, they’ve figured out themselves. They were a question without much of an answer for months on end. And perhaps there was a turning point, but not quite in the way they wanted or expected.
Read more here.
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Why it feels like 2021 again after Bills’ dominant win over Cowboys
Three plays summed up the entire day. About 30 minutes before kickoff, the Dallas Cowboys clinched a playoff berth. They then played nothing like a playoff team.
For the fourth time this season, the Cowboys lost. All four have come on the road. This time, 31-10 at the hands of the Buffalo Bills.
“We did not play well,” Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy said outside of the visitor’s locker room at Highmark Stadium. “We play so well at home and there’s just too big of a gap in our road games. … We got to be much better on the road, regardless of what’s in front of us and all the other conversations. There’s too big of a gap between home and away.”
Six minutes into the game, the first play happened.
Read more here.
GO FURTHER
Cowboys lose another lopsided road game: 3 plays that helped decide the outcome
Stefon Diggs is no doubt thrilled that the Bills won this game, but his fantasy managers have to be frustrated that he once again posted a subpar fantasy point total, as Diggs tallied only 8.8 PPR points today. That marks the fourth time in his last five games that Diggs has posted fewer than nine PPR points.
Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott is one of the leading contenders for fantasy football MVP in the 2023 season, but he’s also had more than his share of scoring woes on the road. Barring a late-game scoring burst, this will be the third time that Prescott has scored a single-digit point total in a road game,
James Cook is up to a career-high 221 yards from scrimmage today (179 rush, 42 rec), the third most by any player in a game this season.
The Dolphins’ De’Von Achane had 233 against the Broncos in Week 3 and the Bears’ D.J. Moore had 230 against the Commanders in Week 5.
Bills running back James Cook has been electric today, as his 24-yard touchdown run gives him 34.1 PPR points on the day. That is currently the fourth-highest single-game PPR point total for a running back in the 2023 season, although Christian McCaffrey is currently only one-tenth of a point behind in his matchup today against Arizona.
James Cook is cooking. Stefon Diggs is making one-handed grabs. Could it be time to take the interim tag off offensive coordinator Joe Brady? The Bills are rolling over the Cowboys in Buffalo.
It has been a dismal day for fantasy managers who started Dallas Cowboys players in the opening round of the playoffs, as no Cowboys player thus far has scored more than 6.3 PPR points (CeeDee Lamb). Dak Prescott has only 4.12 points, Tony Pollard has 3.6, and Jake Ferguson has only 1.7.
The weather was expected to make this an ugly, possibly low-scoring game. It turns out the weather was just fine, the Dallas Cowboys’ play was the only ugly part.
Penalties aided in two Buffalo touchdown drives. Cowboys DE DeMarcus Lawrence was called for a questionable late hit on Bills QB Josh Allen. Instead of Buffalo settling for a field goal, it scored a TD two plays later. DE Sam Williams then aided another Bills drive when he committed and inexcusable roughing the punter penalty that allowed the Bills to stay on the field and score their second TD six plays later.
But the ugliest part has been the run defense. Johnathan Hankins’ presence has certainly been missed. Dallas has already allowed 147 rushing yards. The worst games for the Cowboys’ run defense this season: 1.) 222 by the Cardinals in Week 3, a Cowboys loss. 2.) 170 by the 49ers in Week 5, also a Cowboys loss. 3.) Today vs. the Bills, and the Cowboys are down 21-3.
Dak Prescott has already taken two late hits, including one helmet-to-helmet hit. He hasn’t played at the MVP level he had been for the previous eight games. He has completed only six of 13 passes for 43 yards. What’s even worse for Dallas is that All-Pro right guard Zack Martin suffered a left quad injury that knocked him out of the game.
Stefon Diggs just crossed 1,000 yards receiving this season. He's done so all four years as a Buffalo Bill.
It’s only halftime but Buffalo running back James Cook already has his second consecutive game of 20+ points, as he has 146 scrimmage yards and a receiving touchdown, a total that has led to 22.6 PPR points.
Cook might have even more points were it not for losing goal line carries to other players. Josh Allen benefited from that on Buffalo’s last drive, as his middling passing numbers were portending a subpar fantasy point total, but Allen’s rushing touchdown has moved him to a strong 14.52 points heading into halftime.
Cowboys get on the board with a 32-yard FG by Brandon Aubrey. Aubrey is now 31-for-31 on the season, extending his NFL record for most makes without a miss to begin a career.
No other kicker is perfect on more than one FG attempt this season. ONE.
Ty Johnson (shoulder) appears to be heading back into the game for the Bills.
The Cowboys’ 14-0 deficit matches the largest first-half deficit that Dallas has faced this season (trailed the 49ers 14-0 and 21-7 in the first half of Week 5).
The Cowboys haven’t rallied to win a game it trailed by 14 or more ant any point in the game since Week 5 of 2020 against the Giants (trailed 17-3, won 37-34). Dallas has lost 12 straight such games since.
Bills running back James Cook has posted nine games with 10+ PPR points, but he’s earned most of that production after the first quarter, as he’s posted more than 4.1 PPR points in the first quarter only four times this season.
The good news for his fantasy managers is that two of those strong first quarter performances have occurred in the past two weeks, as Cook had 16.9 PPR points last week and then posted 8.0 PPR points in the first quarter of this week.
Add that to Cook’s second quarter touchdown catch and he already has 17.7 PPR points, which is his fourth-best full-game total and there is still 12:52 left in the second quarter.
That's a big deal. In their two previous games — wins against the Eagles and Seahawks — Bryan Anger punted just once and that came last week against Philadelphia in the third quarter.
On Sunday in Buffalo, the Cowboys punted on their first possession after eight plays and went three-and-out on their second possession.
