Dallas Cowboys clinch NFC East, then tear up the record books in trouncing Washington

Oh, do the Dallas Cowboys know how to celebrate.

Moments after officially clinching their 21st NFC East division title in franchise history on the strength of a strength-of-victory tiebreaker, the Cowboys took the field against the Washington Football Team and partied like it was 1993.

Or was that 1995?

Either way, it was a record-setting party in the end zone and on the scoreboard.

With the pressure off, the Cowboys unleashed a barrage of frustration and points on Washington in their finest performance of the season. They scored 28 points in the first quarter and a franchise-record 42 points in the first half en route to a 56-14 victory and their fourth straight win in the month of December.

It was the most points scored by the Cowboys since a 52-17 victory against the Buffalo Bills in Super Bowl XXVII in January of 1993, following the 1992 season.

It was the third-most points ever scored by the Cowboys, matching the 56 they put on the Philadelphia Eagles in 1966. The Cowboys scored 59 against both the San Francisco 49ers in 1980 and the Detroit Lions in 1968.

Everybody got in on the act for the Cowboys (11-4), who scored on offense, defense and special teams as they remain one game behind the Green Bay Packers (12-3) in the race for the No. 1 seed in the NFC with two games to go.

And the Cowboys are suddenly, once again, looking like a legitimate contender to reach the Super Bowl for the first time in 26 years, since their last title following the 1995 season.

The defense, which had recorded four interceptions in each of the last three games, set the tone early again and the unit did it in impressive fashion.

Cornerback Trevon Diggs recorded his 11th interception of the season on the second series of the game, tying Everson Walls’ 40-year old franchise record. He is the first player in the NFL since to notch 11 interceptions in a season since Walls did it in 1981.

Quarterback Dak Prescott turned the turnover into nine-play, 71-yard drive that culminated with a 5-yard touchdown pass to running back Ezekiel Elliott that put the Cowboys up 7-0.

With the Cowboys up 14-0, the game officially became a rout when defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence deflected a pass from Washington quarterback Taylor Heinicke and tipped it to himself. He bounced to the left sideline and made one of the more graceful dashes you’ll ever see in returning the ball 40 yards for a touchdown. Cowboys, 21-0.

Lawrence was the 17th Cowboys player to score a touchdown this season, which is a team record for the most players to score a touchdown in a single season.

It was also the fifth interception return for a touchdown this year, the most pick-sixes in a season in franchise history. The last NFL team with five pick-sixes in a season was the 2018 Chicago Bears.

The Cowboys topped themselves in the second quarter when Prescott tossed a 1-yard touchdown pass to reserve tackle Terence Steele, who reported as an eligible tight end on the play, to the delight of his teammates and the fans at AT&T Stadium. Cowboys, 35-7.

Steele became the 18th different Cowboy to score a touchdown this season, and it marked the first game in franchise history that the team had an offensive lineman (Steele) and defensive lineman (Lawrence) find the end zone in the same game.

And with that score, Dak Prescott became the first quarterback in NFL history to throw a touchdown pass to a running back, a receiver, a tight end and an offensive lineman in a regular season game.

In the third quarter, the Cowboys saw a 19th different player score a touchdown when Corey Clement blocked a punt on a 4th & 15 from the Washington 10-yard line and the ball bounced to defensive end Chauncey Gholston as he was heading into the end zone. Cowboys, 49-7.

As impressive as the score was at the point, the more important factor was that Prescott and the Cowboys’ offense seemingly found a way out of their slump. But it also must be noted that this was a Washington team that was playing on just four days rest, thanks to a COVID-19 outbreak that postponed their Week 15 loss to Philadelphia until Tuesday.

Prescott, who had just three touchdowns passes in three interceptions in each of the previous three wins, looked again like the player who opened the season as a viable MVP candidate. He completed 12 of 13 attempts in the first quarter and 15 of his first 16 before finishing the first half with 27 completions on 35 attempts for 327 yards and four touchdown passes.

The Cowboys’ offense, which scored just six touchdowns on its last 18 red zone chances entering Sunday, was 5-for-5 in the first half on drives of 71, 74, 75, 80 and 89 yards.

Elliott had a touchdown run and a touchdown catch. Tight end Dalton Schultz had a 9-yard touchdown reception. And receiver Amari Cooper had a 13-yard score.

It was 49-7 after three quarters and the Cowboys rested Prescott, Elliott and Cooper for the final stanza, but the fireworks were far from over.

On a 3rd & 6 from the Washington 25, receiver Mailk Turner, fifth on the current depth chart, turned a short pass from backup quarterback Cooper Rush into a wild career-long 61-yard scamper that almost resulted in touchdown. Two plays later, Rush connected with Turner on a 9-yard scoring strike. Cowboys, 56-7.

The score broke the 50-point mark against an imploding Washington Football Team (6-9), which appeared broken before halftime when defensive tackles Daron Payne and Jonathan Allen — who were teammates at Alabama in 2015 and 2016 — began throwing punches while on the sideline.

Washington’s heated bench provided a bit of irony in that the team actuallyflew in heated benches with their logo on them to try to duplicate what the Cowboys did in advance of Dallas’ 27-20 victory at Washington two weeks ago.

The difference is that the temperature was only in the upper 40s in the pre-kickoff hours at outdoor FedEx Field in Landover, Md., back on Dec. 12 as opposed to Sunday night’s game, which followed an 80-degree day in Arlington. Plus, the game was played in a climate-controlled domed stadium.

Regardless, the 42-point margin will go down as the sixth-most lopsided victory in Cowboys’ history, and it was the largest differential in the 121-game series between the two teams. (The Cowboys now lead the series 74-45-2.) The last time the Cowboys’ margin of victory was this great was 45 points in a 59-14 defeat of the 49ers on Oct. 12, 1980.

While Sunday’s win came on the same day the Cowboys clinched the NFC East title, their first since 2018, the team actually wrapped up the division while they were warming up for the night game based on a strength-of-victory tiebreaker when the Las Vegas Raiders defeated the Denver Broncos earlier in the day.