Cowboys 'Mess With Texans,' Beat Lowly Houston with Clutch Dak Prescott Drive

Cowboys QB Dak Prescott warned in advance of this visit from the lowly Texans, "If we're not ... giving those guys the respect, (we'll) be very upset the next day.'' He was right.

ARLINGTON - The Dallas Cowboys, privately recognizing full-well that Sunday's AT&T Stadium visitors the Houston Texans represent the dregs of the NFL, said and did all the right things leading up to Week 14.

COO Stephen Jones said that Houston's "got really good football players and it blows my mind people think we’re going to roll the ball out there and we’re going to come away with a win. This is going to be highly competitive.''

Coach Mike McCarthy said, "Don't take the cheese.''

QB Dak Prescott said, "If we're not ... giving those guys the respect, (we'll) be very upset the next day.''

"Upset''? Almost.

The Cowboys topped Houston 27-23 but only after a last-minute drive of 98 yards ending in an Ezekiel Elliott TD plunge ... a drive as flawless as the previous 59 minutes or so were flawed.

Did the Cowboys, now 10-3, take the presence of the lowly Texans seriously? Maybe not until the finish, thus dropping the visitors to 1-11-1.

Want offensive "40-Burgers''? Prescott’s Cowboys have in recent weeks beat the Bears by scoring 49, the Vikings by scoring 40 and the Colts by scoring 54. To the Texans' credit - or Dallas' discredit - that didn't happen here.

The Cowboys, who came in at No. 1 at +127, were favored by a whopping 17 points, most for an NFL game this season. ... but winning by four will have to do.

The beauty of the Cowboys, on most Sundays, is that if the offense springs a leak, the defense tends to patch it up. Trevon Diggs did so with an entertaining second-half fumble-recovery return ...

Trevon Diggs almost had the greatest fumble return TD of all time pic.twitter.com/bkWUekzZ2n

— Zirksee🍽️ (@Zirksee) December 11, 2022

But Dallas couldn't take advantage, failing on a fourth-and-goal plunge.

#Texans LARGE goal-line stand … #Cowboys fail on 4th down … pic.twitter.com/epsQO2nXnC

— fishsports ✭ (@fishsports) December 11, 2022

That only delayed the semi-inevitable, though, as Dak (24 of 39 for 284 yards and two interceptions) got it done in the clutch, using pass-catchers Dalton Schultz and Noah Brown on the winning drive after Tony Pollard scored two early TDs.

The game-winner, by the way, is No. 18 for Prescott, second in franchise history behind Tony Romo (24) and tied for the seventh-most in the NFL since 2016.

"Cheese'' matters. But so does "clutch.''

There is a tendency to think of the Cowboys as perennially pretty good and to think of Houston as ... not that. The Texans - outside of this game - do seem eons away from decent. But don't be fooled and don't take it for granted: now that Dallas has 10 wins, this is the first It will be the first time the franchise has won 10-plus in consecutive seasons since 1995-96.

In other words ... Good win. Expected win.

But still ... Don't eat the cheese.

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