Although both teams were in a must-win situation, it is clear that the Dallas Cowboys were seemingly the only ones that got the memo after manhandling the Los Angeles Rams in Week 15.
While things may have gotten off to an inauspicious start for the Cowboys due to a botched call on the coin flip by quarterback Dak Prescott, it soon became evident that it would not matter in the slightest after beating the Rams down in nearly all facets of the game.
Any momentum that Los Angeles had built on offense during the previous two weeks was practically nonexistent. Meanwhile, the defense was thoroughly exposed after being dominated at the line of scrimmage.
The Rams run game, led by Todd Gurley, has been must-improved in recent weeks after a tough start to the season. Gurley couldn’t find any holes against the Cowboys defense though, admitting they were able to shut him down, via Gary Klein of the L.A. Times:
“They came in and shut us down pretty quick,” Gurley said.
Gurley scored two touchdowns in the game but was limited to 20 yards on 11 carries in addition to three receptions for 18 yards. Rams head coach Sean McVay added that the Cowboys defense had done a spectacular job of not allowing them to find their footing:
“We weren’t able to get into any sort of rhythm and get things going in the run game,” McVay said.
McVay has made sure to put an emphasis on getting Gurley going in recent weeks and it certainly paid huge dividends. Unfortunately, that was hardly the case this time around as the Cowboys made stopping him one of their top priorities.
Dallas even responded with a consistent rushing attack of their own thanks to the backfield pairing of Ezekiel Elliott and Tony Pollard. Both running backs wound up combining for 248 yards and three touchdowns on 36 carries in the 44-21 win.
Despite their playoff hopes being crushed with the loss, McVay is seemingly doing what he can to take an optimistic approach over the last two games of the 2019 NFL season. Getting back into the win column will be much easier said than done as Los Angeles wraps up its road trip by visiting the San Francisco 49ers on a short week.
