Resilient Cowboys Continue to Prove They Can Win Any Way They Have To

They can win big. They can win small. They can win ugly. They can win any damn way they have to.

The Dallas Cowboys played horrible football on Thursday night against Minnesota. The only things worse than the way the Cowboys played were those absolutely putrid commercials for the new Apprentice show.

Dak Prescott finally looked like a rookie. Ezekiel Elliott looked mortal. That historic offensive line looked beaten. That Dallas defense made the ultimate checkdown king, Sam Bradford, at times look like Joe Montana.

The Thursday night games can be great equalizers. They can turn a mess of a team like Minnesota into a more formidable one, and a more formidable team like Dallas into a mess.

This is all true, but allow me to tell you a little secret.

The Cowboys' winning a sloppy, at times unwatchable, game like this, as they did 17-15, is good for the team. In fact, it's the best thing that could have happened to Dallas as it extended its winning streak to 11.

Hall of Famer Michael Irvin suggested something like this recently on the NFL Network, when he said losing a game would be good for Dallas, allowing the team to focus better down the stretch. Losing, to me, is never good, but struggle is.

Andy Clayton-King/Associated Press

Some of these games for the Cowboys were starting to get a little too easy. They were starting to smack teams around with increasing ease. It was looking too simple. Then the Vikings came along and taught the Cowboys a lesson.

No, it's not going to be easy. There are going to be stumbling blocks along the way. You will get physically and mentally beaten at times, and how you respond is the key. And what this young Dallas team did was respond. It wasn't pretty. It was an awful game to watch, actually. Paint drying watched this game and fell asleep.

But it was also instructive. It gave us a look at the innards of this team. What does this team do when it can't dominate a bad team? When nothing goes right? When Prescott fumbles? When he passes for a season-low 139 pass yards? When Zeke holds? When Jason Witten doesn't get a catch, the first time that's happened in 130 consecutive contests?

We know the answer: They find a way.

Did the Cowboys get lucky? Of course they did. Bradford is awful. It was hard to tell what was worse: Bradford being scared to throw the football beyond five yards or Vikings punter Jeff Locke's inability to punt the football that far. They got lucky when with about two minutes left in the game and holding that slim eight-point lead, the snap that went between Prescott's hands was recovered by Elliott.

Hell, the Cowboys even almost blew the end of the game. They allowed Bradford to pop outside the pocket and make some plays (doing it without timeouts) before leading the Vikings to a touchdown with 25 seconds left. Then Bradford went full Bradford on the two-point conversion and sailed the football high.

But again came the luck and winning ugly. On that failed two-point conversion, Bradford was hit in the helmet by defensive lineman Cedric Thornton. Because the officiating in the NFL this season is among the worst its ever been, there was no call.

Lucky? Yes, but every top team along the way gets lucky. That's part of football, and what Dallas did was make its own luck. There was one terrific example of this.

Jim Mone/Associated Press

First, Jason Garrett's challenge on a Vikings punt return that overturned the call to a fumble, and then Dez Bryant's eight-yard score one play later. It was a pivotal moment in the game and goes to that "making they're own luck" thing.

Garrett deserves to be Coach of the Year at this point. He isn't just allowing Dallas' ship to be run by a computer. He's making some smart and tactical decisions.

This was an atypical Cowboys win. If anything, they won on special teams, the ultimate sign of a complete squad.

They can win big. They can win small. Now we've seen them win in a really ugly way.

These are the real Cowboys—they can win any damn way they have to.