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The Dallas Cowboys started off their season “Sinatra Style” with back-to-back outings against the New York Giants and New York Jets and, well, you can start spreading the news.
On Sunday, America’s Team moved to 2-0 with another impressive performance from the overall team. Like last week there are a few small things that we would love to be more clean and efficient, but overall Sunday was a clinic for the good guys.
In the aftermath of the season opener we kept things positive in terms of our stock report with 12 total names, all in the up direction.
We are following the same protocol for this game. Here are 15 names, 17 kind of, all in the stock up category.
Stock Up: Micah Parsons
Are we not all adequately entertained? We are watching one of the greatest players in Dallas Cowboys franchise history and the fact that this is in no way hyperbole only two games into his third season really says it all about Micah Parsons.
RT if you love Micah Parsons
— Blogging The Boys (@BloggingTheBoys) September 17, 2023
(via @NFL) pic.twitter.com/Jm0TfMKIam
Parsons’ box score performance seriously underwhelms the impact that he causes and this game was another example. If not for being touched on the ground when he forced another turnover he would have had a touchdown on top of his outing.
The phrase “straw that stirs the drink” gets said often when it comes to players and tone-setters. He is not the straw. He is not the drink. He is Micah Parsons, and there is nothing like him.
Stock Up: Jake Ferguson
The tight ends bounced back and did so in a major way. The first AT&T Stadium touchdown of the season belongs to Jake Ferguson!
DAK TO FERG TD
— Blogging The Boys (@BloggingTheBoys) September 17, 2023
(via @dallascowboys) pic.twitter.com/JZqAmRD69m
It was a really small sample size, but the stock truly is up given that last week the position was a bit down with all of the drops.
Stock Up: DeMarcus Lawrence
He remains one of the more under-appreciated players on the team. Nothing gets by him in the run game. Tip of the hat to Mr. Lawrence.
Stock Up: CeeDee Lamb
All told CeeDee Lamb hauled in 11 receptions (off of 13 targets) for 143 yards and hung on for some tough ones in the process.
We have seen him evolve every year of his career with the Cowboys and it appears that he is making the jump to total and complete alpha relative to the NFL. It is fun to watch.
Stock Up: Tyler Biadasz
Over each of the season’s first two weeks he has recovered a fumble, downfield, that a teammate had. Hustle is a valuable quality and Biadasz has plenty of it.
Stock Up: Dak Prescott
Prescott started off the game with 13 straight completions, a career high, and was incredibly efficient in an overall sense.
Dak was 31/38 for 255 yards with two passing touchdowns, although he had one pass that Sauce Gardner absolutely should have picked off, and took the low-hanging fruit every time it presented itself. He did exactly what the team needed and moved the offense down when it was necessary while keeping things in cruise control once the game was in-hand.
Stock Up: Luke Schoonmaker
If your first NFL reception is a touchdown then you get to make the stock up list.
SCHOOOOOON
— Blogging The Boys (@BloggingTheBoys) September 17, 2023
(via @dallascowboys) pic.twitter.com/aHrFEBg0jn
This was the only reception that Schoonmaker had throughout the game, but it goes to show how many options the Cowboys have in the redzone. Consider that the team has a +60 point differential through two games and that no touchdowns have been scored by CeeDee Lamb, Brandin Cooks (who didn’t play on Sunday), Michael Gallup and Jalen Tolbert combined.
Stock Up: T.J. Bass
It did not take long for the depth that the Cowboys had at left guard to become even more tested as Chuma Edoga left the game.
Serious props to T.J. Bass for walking in and keeping things stable against an intense interior pass rush. We are talking about his second NFL game as an undrafted free agent. It should not have looked that easy.
Stock Up: Jalen Tolbert
Similarly, Jalen Tolbert did a great job of filling in for Brandin Cooks.
While the box score does not show a ton of support for Tolbert he was great in the blocking game and, like Cooks did in Week 1, drew a critical penalty with an understanding of route-running. He was called upon and allowed the Cowboys a luxury of resting Cooks.
Stock Up: Brandon Aubrey
FIVE FOR FIVE ON FIELD GOAL ATTEMPTS!
Seriously, what an incredible performance. I’m hardly about to act like the Cowboys have Dan Bailey reincarnated, but we can stop holding our breath here. The Cowboys have found their guy, for 2023 at least.
Stock Up: Zack Martin
Like with Micah Parsons, it is difficult to continually say things about someone with the career accomplishments of Zack Martin, but dare I say that we might be seeing some of the most dominant play that we ever have from the future HOFer? He seems to be on a different level right now.
Stock Up: Rico Dowdle
People are so inclined to try and label things and say that Dowdle is a “change of pace” from Tony Pollard. Instead, let’s say that Dowdle offers another incredible weapon for the Cowboys in the run game when Tony Pollard is off the field. He runs hard and gets tough yards. He has more than earned his place.
Stock Up: Osa Odighizuwa
It is highly possible that Osa Odighizuwa is the most underrated defender on the Dallas Cowboys.
This is basically what was said about him in last week’s stock report, but he showed up again and even got another sack (he has three total on the year now). We talk so much about the versatility of these rushers and how Dan Quinn can use them, and Odighizuwa deserves praise in that regard as well.
Stock Up: Jayron Kearse, Malik Hooker and Trevon Diggs
With 11:51 left to go in the game the Dallas Cowboys did not have any interceptions as a defense. But trailing by 17 points and doing so against an elite pass rush will change that in a hurry.
How big of a hurry, you ask? Over the course of the next nine minutes of game clock the Cowboys had Jayron Kearse, Malik Hooker and Trevon Diggs each get their hands on the ball.
JAYRON KEARSE INT
— Blogging The Boys (@BloggingTheBoys) September 17, 2023
(via @NFL) pic.twitter.com/J64dELwPQN
MALIK HOOKER INT
— Blogging The Boys (@BloggingTheBoys) September 17, 2023
(via @NFL) pic.twitter.com/rnab94uaJQ
TREVON DIGGS INT
— Blogging The Boys (@BloggingTheBoys) September 17, 2023
(via @dallascowboys) pic.twitter.com/yThq472QcW
We have made the decision to split this particular piece of stock between the three of them. No questions at this time.
Stock Up: Mike McCarthy
Early in the offseason Mike McCarthy made a comment about how Kellen Moore wanted to light up the scoreboard while he wanted to run the ball (I’m paraphrasing here) and provide his defense with rest.
We may only be two games into the McCarthy Playcaller Era, but it seems pretty obvious what he was talking about, no? It sounds stupid on the surface to sound opposed to “lighting up the scoreboard” but McCarthy was never against scoring points. He is clearly more focused on the overall picture that involves the entire team.
Some Cowboys fans were upset about the lack of redzone conversion as far as touchdowns go, but the team seemed purposeful in their action. More specifically Mike McCarthy seemed purposeful in how he called the offense once Dallas had a lead. Play conservative with leads, avoid turnovers, and run the clock.
An NFL game involves offense, yes, but defense and special teams as well. As the head coach McCarthy seems intent on marrying the successes of each side of the ball which means that sometimes his offense won’t be running at 100mph.
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