Cowboys tearing up their record book

It was a good day to be a Cowboys fan.

They did things against Minnesota that have either never been done here before or haven’t been done very often.

And they did them in all three phases of the game – offense, defense, and special teams, as well as in their overall domination of the Vikings.

It started right from the opening series of the game with the Cowboys’ defense.

On third down, Micah Parsons stalked a slow-footed Kirk Cousins from behind, causing him to fumble on the hit. It was the first of seven sacks in the game for the Cowboys.

Parsons and Dorrance Armstrong each had a pair of sacks, while DeMarcus Lawrence, Dante Fowler Jr., and Jayron Kearse had the other three.

Dallas now has 42 sacks through 10 games. If they continue at their current clip of 4.2 sacks per game, then they would be on pace to finish with 71.5 sacks this season and shatter the team record of 62 sacks recorded in 1985. That would also fall just a half-sack short of the NFL record of 72, set by the 1985 Chicago Bears.

That is rare company when talking defenses.

On offense, it was a special day for Dak Prescott.

The Cowboys quarterback was damn near perfect, finishing 22 of 25 for 276 yards and two touchdowns.

He made the correct decisions in the passing game all afternoon while throwing accurate passes to open receivers. That includes probably his best pass of the season – a 23-yard missile-like strike that dropped over Tony Pollard’s left shoulder and into his outstretched arms, in perfect stride on a wheel route down the right sideline that ended as a 68-yard touchdown on third down and 14.

With the command and precision he showed, it’s no surprise that he finished with the sixth-best QB rating of his 94-game career. At 139.3 rating, it is his best day under center since earning a 151.8 against Philadelphia in January of this year.

He was special.

On special teams, kicker Brett Maher has delivered peace of mind for the coaching staff this season.

After a tumultuous training camp, the Cowboys signed Maher just before the season started, and he has been exceptional.

That didn’t change on Sunday in Minnesota, where he set a Cowboys record.

Maher, who is credited with 50-, 53-, and 60-yard field goals against the Vikings (he kicked the 60-yarder twice, but an officials timeout wiped out the first one), is the first Cowboys kicker to make three field goals of 50 yards or longer in a game in the history of the franchise.

That’s just 956 games over 63 seasons.

Finally, when it was all said and done, the Cowboys had a 37-point win in Minneapolis, which turns out to be the largest margin of victory in a road win in the Cowboys’ over six decades of football.

Pretty impressive for a team with years of domination at different times in the league’s history.

But no time to celebrate. It’s a short week and another tough matchup for the Cowboys.

The hated NFC East rival New York Giants, boasting a 7-3 record and the NFL’s leading rusher in Saquon Barkley, will be in town on Thursday for the annual Thanksgiving Day game at AT&T Stadium.