NFL roundup: Cowboys get past Washington 31-26

Published 8:49 pm Thursday, November 24, 2016

ARLINGTON, Texas — Rookies Dak Prescott and Ezekiel Elliott keep winning for the Dallas Cowboys, even with Kirk Cousins setting records for the Washington Redskins.

Prescott accounted for two touchdowns, Elliott ran for a pair of scores and the Cowboys extended their franchise regular-season record with a 10th straight victory, beating the Redskins 31-26 on Thursday.

Prescott tied Don Meredith’s club quarterback record from 50 years ago with his fifth rushing TD and the NFL-leading Cowboys (10-1) won despite 449 yards passing and three touchdowns from Cousins, the first Redskins quarterback with two 400-yard games in a season.

“Over and over and over again, at critical moments, he came up with a big play, whether it was a third down, down in the red zone, again and again and again he just played winning football for us,” Dallas coach Jason Garrett said about Prescott. “He did the things that winning quarterbacks do.”

The Redskins (6-4-1) got swept by their NFC East rival, and the defending division champions fell 31⁄2 games behind Dallas with five games left. It was their seventh loss in eight tries on Thanksgiving against Cowboys, who had never won more than eight straight in the regular season.

“We’ve been in third place for a while, so we have to understand where we are what it’s going to take to get an opportunity to come back here in the future,” Washington coach Jay Gruden said. “The last five games of the year are critical.”

Elliott, the NFL rushing leader, had the fourth score on five straight second-half touchdown drives between the two teams with a 1-yard run for a 31-19 lead midway through the fourth quarter. The 21-year-old had 97 yards to give him 1,199 for the season.

After getting 43 yards on the first Dallas possession, Elliott had just 13 yards before a 21-yarder to start Dallas’ last TD drive. It was the second straight week he finished with 97 yards after some difficulty in the first half.

“Over time, you keep running the football, you’re going to wear them down,” Garrett said. “He made some big runs late that were critical. It really broke their back.”

The Cowboys had an eight-game streak with at least 400 yards snapped, finishing with 353. But Dallas answered with touchdowns each time the Redskins got within a score on Cousins’ passes of 5 yards to Jordan Reed and 67 yards to DeSean Jackson, who had 118 yards receiving.

After Cousins’ second scoring toss to Reed, an 8-yarder with 1:53 remaining, Dustin Hopkins’ onside kick went out of bounds. The Cowboys ran out the clock.

Reed had 10 catches for 95 yards after missing most of the first half when he injured his left shoulder leaping for a pass over his head in the end zone.

Cousins, who was 41 of 53 and finished 8 yards shy of his career high, took the Washington career lead with his third 400-yard game and became the first Redskins quarterback with consecutive 350-yard games since Jay Schroeder in 1986. He had 375 last week against Green Bay.

Prescott was 17 of 24 for 195 yards and one touchdown, a toe-tapper to Terrance Williams. He had eight carries for 39 yards, including a career-long 18-yarder. Dez Bryant led Dallas with 72 yards on five catches.

Lions 16, Vikings 13

DETROIT — Matt Prater kicked a 40-yard field goal as time expired after Darius Slay returned an interception 13 yards with 30 seconds left, lifting the Detroit Lions to a win over the Minnesota Vikings on Thursday and into sole possession of first place in the NFC North.

The Lions (7-4) have won six of seven, including two against Minnesota this month, despite trailing in the fourth quarter of every game this season.

They extended their NFL record of having their first 11 games decided by seven or fewer points.

The Vikings (6-5) have lost five of six, plummeting out of first place after surging to the top of the division by winning their first five games.

Minnesota could have played for overtime on its last drive, but coach Mike Zimmer allowed Sam Bradford to throw and Slay made him regret it.

The standout cornerback stepped in front of Adam Thielen to pick off the pass and returned it to set up Prater for his fourth game-winning field goal late in games this season.

Prater made a game-tying 58-yard field goal at the end of regulation earlier this month at Minnesota and the Lions won in overtime.

If both teams finish the regular season tied atop the division, Detroit would win the tiebreaker.

Steelers 28, Colts 7

INDIANAPOLIS — Ben Roethlisberger and Antonio Brown hooked up for three touchdowns Thursday night and the Pittsburgh Steelers’ defense shut down the Indianapolis Colts.

The Steelers (6-5) helped their playoff chances with a second straight win and snapped a four-game losing streak on Thanksgiving.

Colts quarterback Andrew Luck sat out with a concussion, and his absence showed as Indy’s first winning streak of the season ended at two games. While his replacement, Scott Tolzien, hung tough most of the night, the performance wasn’t good enough to extend the Colts’ 10-game winning streak on Thursdays.

The Steelers built a 21-7 lead by scoring touchdowns on each of their first three possessions — a 5-yard TD run from Le’Veon Bell, and touchdown catches by Brown of 25 and 33 yards.

Indy’s only score came on a 5-yard TD pass from Tolzien to Donte Moncrief early in the second quarter, a play set up by the first completion of Pat McAfee’s career on a fake punt.

The Colts had two chances to cut the deficit but Tolzien was stopped twice on third-down runs at the 1-yard line, and the Steelers forced incompletions on both fourth-down plays.

Pittsburgh sealed it with — what else? — a 22-yard TD pass from Roethlisberger to Brown with 5:30 left.

Roethlisberger was 14 of 20 for 221 yards, Brown caught five passes for 91 yards and Bell ran 23 times for 120 yards.

Tolzien finished 22 of 36 for 205 yards with one TD and two interceptions.