The Dallas Cowboys overcame an uneven performance on a very long evening in Pittsburgh. They nudged their record above .500 by beating the Steelers, 20-17, in dramatic fashion after Sunday night had given way to the wee hours of Monday morning at Acrisure Stadium.
Quarterback Dak Prescott threw a four-yard, fourth-and-goal touchdown pass to wide receiver Jalen Tolbert with 20 seconds remaining.
The Cowboys held on from there to win their second straight game and improve to 3-2, putting them a game behind the first-place Washington Commanders in the NFC East.
“We talk about it: staying neutral, being resilient, understanding there’s going to be ups and downs, ebbs and flows,” Prescott told NBC afterward.
“But we just know who we are. And we just stay with it, and we come out with wins. And this was a great example.”
The game was delayed by about 1 hour 25 minutes at the outset by storms and ended around 1 a.m. ET Monday.
Prescott threw for 352 yards in a 29-for-42 passing performance. He also had a 22-yard touchdown pass to running back Rico Dowdle earlier in the fourth quarter. That offset Prescott’s three turnovers. He threw two interceptions and lost a fumble on a sack.
The Cowboys twice squandered scoring opportunities deep in Pittsburgh territory with turnovers. There was one sideline exchange between wide receiver CeeDee Lamb and Prescott, after Prescott threw an interception trying to get a pass to Lamb in the end zone.
Lamb’s words to Prescott were caught by the NBC cameras, although it was not clear whether the episode was anything more than routine for an NFL sideline.
The Cowboys were playing shorthanded on defense because of injuries to their two star pass rushers, Micah Parsons and DeMarcus Lawrence. Even so, they were able to hold the Steelers to 226 yards of total offense.
The Steelers lost their second straight game following a 3-0 start. Standout pass rusher T.J. Watt had 1.5 sacks and moved past 100 sacks in his NFL career.
Justin Fields made his fifth straight start at quarterback, with Russell Wilson again on the game-day inactive list because of his calf injury.
But with Wilson getting closer to being available to play, it will be interesting to see whether Coach Mike Tomlin feels that he has a starting-quarterback decision to make this week.
Fields threw touchdown passes to tight ends Connor Heyward and Pat Freiermuth in a 15-for-27, 131-yard passing performance.
Fields left the game briefly in the second half to be evaluated for a possible head injury after absorbing a jarring hit by the Cowboys’ Tyrus Wheat, who was penalized for roughing the passer. Backup Kyle Allen took over for two plays. Fields was cleared and returned to the game.
His six-yard touchdown pass to Freiermuth on a forward flip put the Steelers in front, 17-13, with 4:56 to play. But the Cowboys went on their 15-play, 70-yard touchdown drive from there.
They got a first down at the Pittsburgh 4-yard line on an 18-yard pass from Prescott to fullback Hunter Luepke. Prescott scrambled for three yards to the 1.
Dowdle was stopped on a second-down carry from there and fumbled, with the ball recovered by Prescott at the 4. Prescott threw incomplete on third down, setting up the fourth-down throw to Tolbert.
“We had a play call that we love, we’re very confident in regardless of the defense,” Prescott said.
“The offensive line did a great job. Tolbert came over to the left. I just had to make the throw.”
