Five winners and three losers from the Cowboys wild win over the Raiders

The Dallas Cowboys won one of the craziest games of the year when they pulled off a 20-17 victory over the Oakland Raiders. Let’s take a look at the winners and losers.

Winners

Jeff Heath - He made the biggest play of the game when he forced Derek Carr to fumble at the goal line and turn the ball over with a touchback. Carr could have won the game and looked like he was about to until Heath jarred the ball lose. Heath also made a pass break up in the end zone on the play before the fumble, and finished with six tackles.

Jason Garrett, the gambler - The fake punt on a fourth and 11 deep in his own territory? Gambling on fourth down late in the game and getting it by the thinnest of margins? Garrett certainly was throwing caution to the wind in an effort to stay alive in the playoff chase. One could have believed he was going to go for it on fourth down at the goal line instead of taking the field goal to go up 20-17.

Chris Jones - Jones is just a badass. He’s a Pro Bowl punter, also a guy who can hit, he can also throw for a first down on a fake punt. Now, he takes off for 24 yards on a play that jump-started the Cowboys offense.

The refs - At least from a Cowboys perspective, the refs were awesome. They called offensive pass interference on an Oakland touchdown, they called back an Oakland kickoff return that went for a touchdown, and they gave Dallas the first down on the crucial fourth-down attempt. Not to mention many other penalties they called on Oakland.

Cowboys playoff hopes - Dallas lives another day. And now Ezekiel Elliott comes back. Can the miracle really happen? We get another week to see.

Losers

Chidobe Awuzie - It was the first rough game for Awuzie as Michael Crabtree beat him twice for touchdown in man-to-man coverage. Awuzie did some nice things in the game like cause a fumble, stop an Oakland receiver short of a first down, but he was schooled in the end zone by Crabtree. Still, Awuzie looks like he’s going to be a quality player.

Derek Carr containment - Carr had 47 rushing yards in the game on scrambles including a run of 32 yards for a huge third-down pickup, and he almost scored the winning touchdown on a scramble. The Cowboys need a good plan next week, because if Carr can scramble like this, guess what Russel Wilson will do.

Fan’s heart-health - As a fan, I feel like that ending took five years off my life. The interminable wait for the fourth down call, the dropped interception by Anthony Brown, the long pass interference call on fourth and 10, the Carr fumble that took them forever to confirm. Cardiac arrest was seconds away.