Cowboys vs. Bears: The good, the bad, and the ugly from Week 8

This Week 8 matchup against the Chicago Bears had trap game written all over it for the Dallas Cowboys. Fortunately, Dallas was firing on all cylinders coming out of the gate and built an early lead, never really looking back for the most part. But, the Cowboys 49-29 victory wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows.

The Chicago Bears had more fight in them than many expected. To their credit, they never rolled over and continued to battle until the final seconds ticked off the clock. Because of that, the Cowboys had to continue battling it out as well, doing some good, bad, and ugly along the way.

THE GOOD: Tony Pollard

Zeke who? The debate as to who should handle the majority of the work load in the Cowboys backfield will no doubt reach new heights after the performance Tony Pollard put on Sunday afternoon against the Chicago Bears. The Bears defense simply had no answer for No. 20, leading to Pollard’s 147-yard, three touchdown afternoon. The Cowboys brass are now faced with an interesting dilemma. Will this impressive performance be enough to make Pollard the RB1 moving forward?

THE BAD: Cowboys’ run defense

Well, the addition of DT Jonathan Hankins didn’t pay off right away for the Dallas Cowboys run defense. The Chicago Bears top-ranked ground game continued to have success in Week 8, dropping a total of 240 rushing yards on the Cowboys Sunday. Because of that, this game ended up being a lot closer than it should have been. Hopefully, with more time to settle in and get acclimated, Hankins’ presence in the middle of the Cowboys defensive front ends up paying off like we were all hoping it would when they traded for him.

THE UGLY: DeMarcus Lawrence

DeMarcus Lawrence sadly became a victim of being a little overzealous at times against the Chicago Bears in Week 8. There were a handful of plays in both the passing and running game where he unfortunately took too much of an inside track when trying to make a play and ended up losing outside containment as a result. The good thing about D-Law is he’ll use this situation as an opportunity to learn from and be better at moving forward. In fact, he’s already admitted as much.