"Not as bad as expected" seems like a pretty good one-line recap of this game. Tennessee held its best player out of the game and started a quarterback who was on the Lions practice squad 10 days ago, which was a recipe for an absolute joke of a game. But it was not as bad as expected.
Furthermore, it actually made next week's big Titans-Jaguars game more interesting. Hard to figure that Tennesee's passing game would be dramatically better with some journeyman who just joined the team than a third-rounder who's been the backup all season, but here we are.
QUARTERBACKS:
There was some nervousness starting Dak Prescott, with the prospect of Dallas winning easily without much passing. But I think most who had him probably used him and crossed their fingers, and he was fine. There was a bad interception in there, but the other one was totally his receiver's fault. Prescott himself threw a couple of scores and the offense emphasized the pass, as offenses have been doing against the Titans all year long. Tennessee may not have been playing its best or caring as much, but the defense was about the same -- tough on the run, leaky against the pass.
Joshua Dobbs, unlike Malik Willis to this point, looked like an actual NFL quarterback. Truly, with a better receiving corps, maybe this game would have been even closer. An early drive was killed by a nice throw that clanged off both of Robert Woods' hands. The touchdown that made things close, also to Woods, was a pretty nice throw. Dobbs ran a little. I think there's no doubt whatsoever that Dobbs is starting at Jacksonville next week, and the chances of Tennessee actually winning that game have gone up a little. I'm not saying anyone should be scrambling to add Dobbs in a dynasty league, but he should have a nice career ahead of him of bouncing around as a No. 3 or occasionally No. 2 quarterback.
RUNNING BACKS:
The early touchdown scored by Ezekiel Elliott was a relief to those who started him. On the one hand, there was certainly strong potential for a huge workload with Tony Pollard inactive. On the other hand, he was still facing a really good run defense, and it seemed very possible that Dallas would get him out of the game as soon as it wasn't in doubt. That happened later than expected, which is why Elliott was still out there crashing into a good defensive front in the final minutes of the game. But he averaged just under 2 yards per attempt and wasn't targeted in the passing game. I won't give him too much grief, but he did nothing to dispel the notion that Pollard is much, much better right now.
Malik Davis looked about as good as Elliott, better really. His 10 carries went for 39 yards, and he just seemed to have more juice on each attempt. Early on there was a run where only an ankle tackle by the last defender kept him from celebrating in the end zone. Caught both passes thrown his way too. If you started Davis, which was not recommended, you got just about 8 PPR points, though it was close to being more. Had Dallas not turned it over 3 times and taken a bigger lead, he'd probably have got more work in the second half. Anyway, Dallas probably wouldn't lose as much with a Pollard-Davis tandem as an Elliott-Davis one.
Hassan Haskins didn't work out, though he looked fine. Twelve for 40 as a runner, 2 for 13 as a receiver; about 7 PPR, below the projected 12ish. Didn't get enough looks in the passing game, that was the main problem; not really surprising he didn't have a big game running it, with Dallas able to load up in that area. Few offenses have a bigger gap between their starting running back and their backup than Tennessee. I don't think there's any doubt that Derrick Henry is 100 percent fine and will be leading the way at Jacksonville.
WIDE RECEIVERS:
CeeDee Lamb has been on fire lately. That's 28 catches for 126, 120 and 100 yards, with 2 TDs, in his last three games. If the Eagles win Sunday, which they will, I'd be surprised if we see Lamb, Prescott or either of the Cowboys top running backs step on the field in Week 18. They're going to be a problem for the NFC South winner in the playoffs.
The interesting development was that the recently signed T.Y. Hilton had more targets and catches than either Michael Gallup or Noah Brown despite playing much less. I have a theory: He's a much better player than either of those guys. Now whether that leads to him being used as the No. 2 in the playoffs is less certain, since Dallas has long shown a stubborn loyalty to its longtime guys even when they're not as good as the guys they're playing ahead of (this is a Zeke comment, but there are other examples). But Hilton made a couple of key grabs last night. It's a shame he wasn't on a roster for most of the season (arguably would have helped Indianapolis, although I guess the quarterback has been the biggest problem there).
Robert Woods caught 5 passes for 39 yards and a score, though it seems pretty clear he's washed. Had a bad and costly drop early on, and the touchdown was one any functional wide receiver could have reeled in. Treylon Burks looks far more like a No. 1 receiver, with his 4 catches going for 66 yards, plus a nifty 20-yard run that looked close to going the distance. Tennessee should not have traded A.J. Brown, but at least the player they used the pick on looks like he's going to be a good one.
TIGHT ENDS:
The absence of Tony Pollard is one possible reason for the Cowboys deciding to feature Dalton Schultz. Pollard had caught 14 passes in the last three games. That's the best explanation I can come up with for why Schultz went from a sluggish afterthought despite Dallas putting up big passing numbers the last two weeks to Tony Gonzalez-like usage last night. Let's just look at Schultz's last seven games: four times he caught 2-3 passes for 22, 33, 15 and 43 yards. In the other three, including last night, he caught 17 passes for 174 yards and 4 touchdowns. If you started Schultz and got burned a week or two ago (I did), or benched him last night, well, I feel your pain. I have no doubt he will be absolutely useless in his next game, whether that's Week 18 or the first round of the playoffs. Dallas' other two tight ends had a short catch and a comical bobble for an interception on their 2 targets.
Chigoziem Okonkwo caught 3 of 4 passes thrown his way, a wee bit better than Austin Hooper catching 1 of 6. One would think Okonkwo would get more run in the next game, but one would probably be wrong. But a nice dynasty hold, for when Tennessee cobbles together a functional passing game.
MISCELLANEOUS:
The main takeaways I'm left with are that Dallas looks like the kind of team that can play with, or lose to, just about anyone. I don't have a ton of respect for Mike McCarthy, whose successes probably primarily come from having above-average or often elite quarterback play (Favre-Rodgers-Prescott) rather than any mad-scientist genius he's cooking up on the sidelines or in the film room. If we assume Dallas meets Tampa Bay in the first round of the playoffs, I think the Bucs can certainly win that game (as they did in Week 1). If you have an important game in Week 18, I expect the best Dallas players will be Malik Davis and one of their secondary wide receivers.
Tennessee, meanwhile, inadvertently earned some respect last night. Obviously you're ticked off if you had a championship game and had to scramble to find a replacement for Derrick Henry. I don't blame them for their decision, though, getting Henry hurt last night would have been stupid. But the fact that they were competitive and actually looked decent passing the ball makes their game in Jacksonville more interesting -- they have a good defense, they have Henry. They can win. Either that or Ravens-Bengals will probably be the Sunday night game next week, and should be a good game either way.