PITTSBURGH — Dak Prescott drifted to his left, then drifted some more. On a seemingly endless night, what was another couple of seconds going to hurt?
With a flick of the wrist as T.J. Watt and the rest of the Pittsburgh defense closed in, the NFL's highest-paid player delivered a money throw to Jalen Tolbert with 20 seconds to go that lifted the Dallas Cowboys to a 20-17 victory early Monday.
Prescott had spent the previous three-plus hours mixing brilliant plays and baffling ones in equal measure, throwing a pair of picks and fumbling once to almost single-handedly keep the sluggish Steelers in the game.
Yet when Dallas (3-2) got the ball back down four with 4:56 remaining, Prescott calmly led the Cowboys 70 yards in 15 plays, even alertly pouncing on a fumble by teammate Rico Dowdle when the ball came squirting free as Dowdle tried to leap into the end zone. The heads-up play gave Dallas two more shots, and after an incompletion, Prescott finished off his 352-yard performance by lifting the injury-ravaged Cowboys to a second straight victory.
“We talk about it, staying neutral, being resilient, understanding there’s going to be ups and downs, ebbs and flows,” Prescott said. “We just know who we are. (If) we just stay with it, we can come out with a win. This was a great example.”
Pittsburgh (3-2) dropped its second consecutive game following a 3-0 start, this one a lethargic performance — particularly on offense — on a night the opening kickoff was delayed nearly 90 minutes due to severe weather.
The sky eventually cleared. The Steelers spent much of the night in a fog, particularly on offense, managing just 226 yards against a defense missing injured stars Micah Parsons and DeMarcus Lawrence.
“I think the reoccurring thing is just shooting ourselves in the foot,” Steelers quarterback Justin Fields said. "Penalties, false starts, it’s just coming down to execution.”
Pittsburgh got the ball back after Tolbert's go-ahead score, but a lateral-fest went nowhere and the Cowboys poured onto the field in victory in a game that finished a minute shy of 1 a.m.
Dowdle provided the league's worst rushing attack with a boost by running for 87 yards. He also added a sliding 22-yard touchdown reception on the third play of the fourth quarter to cap a 16-play, 90-yard drive that put Dallas 13-10.
It looked like that might be enough until Prescott heaved a deep ball into double coverage looking for the knockout blow with about 10 minutes to play. Instead, it ended up in the arms of Pittsburgh's Joey Porter Jr. and the Steelers slogged their way 63 yards in 12 plays, the last a 6-yard shovel pass from Fields to tight end Pat Freiermuth that gave the Steelers the lead.
Fields threw for 131 yards two scores and added 27 yards rushing but struggled with his accuracy, completing just 15 of 27 passes. With the calf that's sidelined veteran Russell Wilson for five weeks finally healing, Fields' uneven performance gave head coach Mike Tomlin some wiggle room to consider putting Wilson — who won the starting job during training camp — back into the lineup next week in Las Vegas.
“We just missed shots and shot ourselves in the foot again,” Fields said.
The Cowboys let multiple chances to create some early breathing room slip away thanks to miscues by Prescott, who fumbled while getting sacked by T.J. Watt and Nick Herbig to end one drive deep in Pittsburgh territory in the first quarter. The half-sack boosted Watt's career total to 100, making the All-Pro the second-fastest player to reach that plateau in NFL history (109 games).
Prescott flubbed another opportunity in the second quarter when he threw late to Cee Dee Lamb in the end zone, giving Pittsburgh cornerback Donte Jackson time to step in front of the pass for an interception and keep the Steelers within striking distance.
It went that way much of the night, with Dallas' miscues — the Cowboys were also penalized 11 times for 87 yards — letting Pittsburgh hang around.
Yet just as he did in his first trip to Pittsburgh as a rookie eight years ago, Prescott engineered another late winning drive to give the Cowboys some momentum after consecutive losses to New Orleans and Baltimore left them shaken.
Behind a battered offensive line on a night Dallas' defense more than held its own without its two cornerstones, Prescott provided a reminder of why he's such an important part of the team's foundation, buying enough time to nudge his team's season in the right direction.
“We have a play call that we love, we’re very confident in, regardless of the defense,” Prescott said. “Offensive line did a great job, Tolbert came open to the left, just had to make the throw.”
INJURIES
Cowboys: DE Marshawn Kneeland, starting in place of DeMarcus Lawrence, left in the first quarter with a knee injury and did not return.
Steelers: Herbig hobbled off the field in the third quarter with a right hamstring injury that appeared serious. ... OLB DeMarvin Leal went down in the fourth quarter with a stinger, leaving Jeremiah Moon as the only other outside linebacker.
UP NEXT
Cowboys: Host Detroit on Sunday.
Steelers: At Las Vegas on Sunday.