Teams that fall behind 21-0 in the NFL have less than a 5% chance of winning. For 30 minutes, the Dallas Cowboys were firmly in that 95%, until Dak Prescott decided to rewrite the script. He led the team to one of the best comebacks of the season via a 24-21 victory over the Philadelphia Eagles. But the quarterback cannot stop thinking about that horrendous first half.

“We didn’t just shoot ourselves in the foot. We blew our foot off,” the quarterback said in the post-game presser.

Unfortunately, he isn’t exaggerating how bad the first half was. Turnovers, flags, bad decisions, worse timing…Dallas kept tripping over its own feet. Eagles marched right down the field on the opening drive, seven plays, barely a nudge needed. Jalen Hurts completed six of seven passes and capped it with a 16-yard connection to A.J. Brown.

Then, the defense actually gave the Cowboys a breather with a stop, but special teams erased it immediately. On a fourth-and-11 punt, Marist Liufau ran into Braden Mann, a personal foul that handed the Eagles a free first down at their own 39.

And the offense wasn’t any better. The Cowboys avoided disaster when CeeDee Lamb was ruled down before a fumble, but the good luck didn’t last. On the next snap, KaVontae Turpin fumbled the ball and Zack Baun pounced. Just like that, it was 14–0, and it still felt like the Cowboys hadn’t even started playing.

Midway through the second quarter, the Cowboys finally reached inside the one, only to sabotage the progress again. A false start pushed them back. Prescott forced one in the end zone, and Reed Blankenship picked it off. It was 21-0 to the Eagles at the time.

But Brian Schottenheimer did exactly what had to be done to force a second-half comeback.

Brian Schottenheimer’s halftime message to the locker room

That second-half comeback can be attributed to something Brian Schottenheimer reminded all of us, and probably the locker room, after that first half.

“You’ve heard me say it a thousand times. You can’t win the game in the first quarter, second, third, but you can win the game in the fourth quarter. I told them, ‘Believe. Believe in each other and believe in the fact that we’ll find a way to do it,’” the head coach said.

And you could see that belief take hold as soon as the team came out of the tunnel. The defense, which looked lost for most of the first half, suddenly tightened the screws. Series after series, it felt like an entirely different unit than the one we’ve seen so far this season.

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The Cowboys punched in a late score to trim the deficit to 21–7, and from there the defense simply took over. They forced the Eagles into eight straight empty possessions. After falling behind 21–0, Cowboys didn’t allow another point. Eagles managed just 107 yards the rest of the way and never crossed the Cowboys’ 38-yard line.

If this version of the defense ever shows up consistently, paired with a Dak Prescott-led offense, this team suddenly looks like it can play with anybody in the conference. Prescott entered the night needing 160 yards to pass Tony Romo for the franchise record in career passing yards.

He broke the mark early in the third quarter with a completion to George Pickens. He wrapped the night with 354 yards, throwing the ball to seven different receivers. Pickens and CeeDee Lamb each pulled down 40-plus-yard plays. For a team that looked lifeless for 30 minutes, the final two quarters were easily the best half of football the Cowboys have played all season.