Dallas Cowboys at Los Angeles Rams stock report: DeMarcus Lawrence and Dorance Armstrong lead the way

It was just a month ago that this season was on the rocks for the Dallas Cowboys. They were terrible during a Sunday night loss against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers but to their credit found a way to buckle down and figure out a whole bunch of stuff.

The next time we see this team again will come on a Sunday night (in an epic showdown against the Philadelphia Eagles) but between those two primetime windows the Dallas Cowboys did a lot of work and a lot of winning. In fact they only did winning.

We discussed everything from Sunday’s win against the Rams in our Dallas Cowboys Postgame Show on the Blogging The Boys podcast network. Make sure to subscribe to our podcast network so you don’t miss any of our shows! Apple devices can subscribe here and Spotify users can subscribe here. Also a reminder that The Postgame is presented by Righteous Felon Craft Jerky and that you can get 20% off orders through October 16th by using the code BTB20! Shop here.

It was the Los Angeles Rams who served as the latest victim of the Cowboys and their all-world defense. Dallas has now vanquished not only last year’s Super Bow loser but also the team who won it all, and on Sunday made sure to put an exclamation point on the performance.

As we always do, we have taken a look at what unfolded on Sunday and put together a stock report. There are eight total stock ups and two total stock downs because things cannot always be perfect.

Let us begin.

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Stock Up: DeMarcus Lawrence

The Dallas Cowboys have made watching defense fun again and so when they start a game on that side of the ball it gives us all an early opportunity to see greatness at work.

This just so happened to be the case on Sunday against the Rams and the group delivered. After two plays the Rams were trying to move the chains and that was when DeMarcus Lawrence and Dorance Armstrong decided to meet at quarterback Matthew Stafford. The ball popped loose, Tank picked it up, and the Dallas Cowboys were on the board.

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Stock Up: Dorance Armstrong

The Dallas Cowboys made a bet on Dorance Armstrong in the offseason and all he has done to this point is prove them right.

On the possession after he and DeMarcus Lawrence helped poke the ball out of Matthew Stafford’s hands (you know, the one Tank scooped up and scored) Dorance was back at it.

This time the contribution came on special teams as opposed to defense. Hello blocked punt!

The Cowboys wound up scoring “only” three points here but they were largely due to Armstrong’s stellar play. He is on fire these days.

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Stock Up: Tony Pollard

Those who clamor for more Tony Pollard do so for good reason. He is the most explosive player on this team’s offense. He proved it with a huge 57-yard touchdown run that helped the team respond to Cooper Kupp’s 75-yarder moments before.

You will recall that Pollard had quite the outing during last season’s Week 2 game on the road against the Los Angeles Chargers. It seems he is quite fond of SoFi Stadium!

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Stock Up: Michael Gallup

We always knew that it would take time for Michael Gallup to become his full self considering he has been recovering from a torn ACL, but he had a vintage Michael Gallup moment early in the second half.

This was a critical third-down conversion as it kept the drive alive for the Cowboys and one that they ultimately got points out of. Those are the hidden things that you don’t see in the box score that just notes this as a single catch.

Welcome back, MG.

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Stock Up: Micah Parsons

As the second half of the game began it was revealed that Micah Parsons was dealing with a groin injury. We have grown to expect elite things from Parsons week after week. so the ordinary appears boring. Parsons had a crucial third-down sack on Matthew Stafford in the third quarter that was another example of his greatness.

This came on 3rd and 11 so odds of the Rams converting were already fairly low, but still it was an incredible job by Parsons to make certain that his team would get the ball back.

As if that weren’t epic enough Parsons made sure to also have his own strip-sack-fumble that just so happened to end the game.

He is different.

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Stock Up: Cooper Rush

There isn’t a lot to say but it feels weird to leave Rush out given the phenomenon that all of this is.

It is clear that the Cowboys offense has limitations with him under center and that is totally fine and in no way any sort of slight. He is doing everything asked of him and doing those things at a high level which is a huge reason for this team’s success over the last month.

Five career starts. Five career wins.

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Stock Up: Malik Hooker

If you get the interception that basically seals the game then your stock goes up. Those are the rules.

Seriously, though, while this interception belongs to Malik Hooker in the box score (not looking to take away credit here) it sort of belongs to the entire defense. They were relentless near the end of the game and were harassing Matthew Stafford play after play.

The dam finally broke.

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Stock Up: The Dallas Cowboys Coaching Staff

Our last stock up belongs to the Cowboys coaching staff as a whole because it is possible to give them all credit.

Kellen Moore has grown up while watering down this offense. Meanwhile Dan Quinn continues to impress us week after week with his phenomenal defensive talent. Even John Fassel got in on the action with his unit getting a blocked punt on the afternoon.

Mike McCarthy tends to get the least amount of credit of the foursome but he is overseeing and managing it all in a flawless way. He is now 9-7 in games played without Dak Prescott under center which is some sort of coaching that we are not used to around here.

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Stock Down: CeeDee Lamb

There were not a lot of opportunities for CeeDee Lamb in this game, but a critical one came his way early in the fourth quarter when the Cowboys were trying to put the game away.

On 3rd and 4, after the Rams had just missed a field goal, Cooper Rush found Lamb for what looked like an easy conversion. Unfortunately Lamb was bumped by a Rams cornerback as he was falling out of bounds and dropped the ball.

This may sound harsh to some, but those things simply cannot happen. If you are going to be WR1 then you don’t necessarily have to have 100-yard games every week. But you do have to make the critical catches with the game on the line.

We have seen Lamb show what he can do, like he did on third and long later in the game, but this was a tougher afternoon. You can’t have 100% stock ups every week. There has got to be room to grow.

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Stock Down: Matt Overton

The first touchdown of the game for the Dallas Cowboys saw them “miss” their extra point in large part thanks to Matt Overton, who was playing his first game with the team to be fair, not being on the same page as snapper Bryan Anger.

Points are precious.