The Cowboys enjoyed a ton of offensive success this week, putting up the highest point total of any team in any game all year en route to a 49-29 win over the Bears. Dak Prescott looked sharp and Tony Pollard ran for three touchdowns with Ezekiel Elliott out. Oh, and Micah Parsons scored his first touchdown.

So where are the Cowboys sitting in the advanced analytics now? Spoiler alert: it looks good. With strength of schedule adjustments for DVOA-related metrics sitting at 70% strength, we’re starting to get a good idea of how this team is playing relative to the rest of the league.

The Cowboys remain third in overall efficiency, although their actual grade increased from 24.1% to 27.8%. That’s a sizable jump, and it has a lot to do with how much better the offense performed this week. The defense and special teams remain top three units, which is no surprise with how they’ve been playing.

As predicted in last week’s analytics roundup, the Cowboys are starting to drift to the right on these EPA-based team tiers. That’s a reflection of their offense improving since Prescott’s return. Now, they're only slightly below the league average in offensive EPA/play. In terms of total EPA, the Cowboys are now fifth in the league, just slightly ahead of the 49ers.

To get a better understanding of how much Prescott has boosted this team though, the Cowboys are third in total EPA over the last two weeks. There are obvious sample size issues with looking at something like that, but it does underscore the idea that the Cowboys are one of the NFL’s best with Prescott back under center.

Offense

Any time an offense scores 40+ points in a game, the numbers are going to go up. The Cowboys were surgical on offense, reaching the endzone on each of their first four drives of the game. The Cowboys likely won’t be able to repeat that kind of success, but they only need to get close to it. They’re now just outside the top ten in offensive efficiency.

As good as Prescott was, though, the run game was more impressive. Pollard had a day to remember, and undrafted rookie Malik Davis saw success too. As a result, the Cowboys’ rush DVOA grade more than doubled, moving them up to second place. It will be interesting to see how that changes when Ezekiel Elliott returns to the lineup.

As with last week, we’re only looking at Prescott’s performance since returning for sample size reasons. That means no DVOA or DYAR scores for now, but it’ll change in due time.

Simply put, Prescott has been lights out these past two games. It obviously helps that he was so good against the Bears, but Prescott posted strong results last week too. It’s not enough to justify any arguments about Prescott being an elite quarterback - we need to see more this season first - but it’s good to know that the quarterback has been slinging it so far.

This offensive line continues to be one of the best at opening up running lanes for their backs. They’re in the top ten in rushing yards, adjusted line yards, and run block win rate. Rookie Tyler Smith has been especially dominant in run blocking, and he’s now tied for third among all tackles in run block win rate.

The line had one of their better days in pass protection, too. The only sack on the day was charged to running back Malik Davis. The five linemen combined to give up just four pressures on the day. Connor McGovern had a goose egg in that category for the second straight week. Meanwhile, Tyler Biadasz hasn’t allowed a pressure in three weeks and has yet to give up a sack.

Defense

This just in: Micah Parsons is still incredible. He’s tied for second in the league in both sacks and pressures, and still leads all defenders in pass rush win rate. The Cowboys managed to get to Justin Fields four times, and the team still leads the league in both sacks and pressure rate. They’re very, very good against the pass.

If you’re wondering why the Cowboys run defense only dropped one spot after getting carved up by the Bears, let’s examine it. The Bears were already operating one of the top rushing attacks in the game, so strength of schedule adjustments have something to do with it. But there’s also the fact that nearly 46% of the Bears’ rushing yards in that game came after Parsons’ fumble recovery touchdown, which put Dallas up by three scores. In other words, those were garbage time rush yards, and didn’t really hurt this defense as much as the raw box score would suggest.

DaRon Bland once again held up well in place of Jourdan Lewis. He gave up completions on all four of his targets against the shifty Darnell Mooney, but also had a big pass deflection on what would’ve been a touchdown pass to Dante Pettis. It will be interesting to see how his numbers compare to Lewis’ as the season goes on.

In other news, Israel Mukuamu filled in for Malik Hooker this week and performed admirably. Hooker has been having a phenomenal year so far, and he’ll slide right back into that starting role when he’s healthy, but it’s a testament to the depth of this secondary that Mukuamu came in with little dropoff in quality.