HOUSTON — One week after a 10-hour flight home from Rio de Janeiro following a 34-31 loss to the Baltimore Ravens, the Dallas Cowboys left Houston on a much shorter, 45-minute flight after a 34-30 victory over the winless Texans. Coach Brian Schottenheimer said the Rio result did not define the team and added he wanted this game, noting the Cowboys played on the road after the long trip.
Trailing 30-27 with 2:25 remaining, quarterback Dak Prescott and receiver CeeDee Lamb engineered an 11-play, 74-yard drive that ended with a 12-yard touchdown pass to Lamb with 40 seconds to play for the go-ahead score. The drive included a converted fourth down and was credited by Prescott to Schottenheimer’s play call.
Lamb finished with 17 catches for 189 yards. After failing to score a touchdown in the first half, Dallas scored touchdowns on its first three second-half possessions. The kickoff after the TD ran time off the clock, the defense kept everything in front of them, and Houston quarterback C.J. Stroud’s final Hail Mary fell incomplete.
Defensively, Dallas recorded three sacks after totaling two in the first three games. Linebacker Rashan Gary had his first sack in 12 games, dating to last season with the Green Bay Packers, and defensive end Quinnen Williams recorded his first sack of the season, dropping Stroud for an 11-yard loss in the fourth quarter. The unit still yielded eight pass plays of at least 20 yards.
Schottenheimer defended an end-of-half decision to have kicker Brandon Aubrey attempt a 65-yard field goal despite Houston having no timeouts; Aubrey’s kick hooked left and the Texans settled for a field goal to lead 16-6 at halftime. Prescott, who said ‘That can’t happen’ when asked about the prospect of a 1-3 start, called himself ‘the most optimistic guy there is’ during the game.
The win prevented a 1-3 start for the Cowboys and avoided the historical pitfall that, since 2000, no Dallas team that opened a season with one victory in the first month has finished above .500. It was only the third time in Prescott’s more than 10 seasons as starter that the team overcame a double-digit deficit, and it snapped a streak of 32 consecutive road losses when trailing by double digits in the second half, the longest active streak in the league.
