ARLINGTON, Texas — Rookies Dak Prescott and Ezekiel Elliott keep winning for the Dallas Cowboys, even with Kirk Cousins setting records for Washington.
Prescott accounted for two touchdowns, Elliott ran for a pair of scores and the Cowboys extended their franchise regular-season record with a 10th straight victory, beating Washington 31-26 on Thursday.
Prescott tied Don Meredith’s club quarterback record from 50 years ago with his fifth rushing TD and the NFL-leading Cowboys (10-1) won despite 449 yards passing and three touchdowns from Cousins, the first Washington quarterback with two 400-yard games in a season.
“You know you’re talking to someone who knows how hard this is to win 10 games in a row, and I do,” said Jerry Jones, the Cowboys’ owner and general manager. “I know how we’re getting it done, and we’re getting it done by hard work and Dak’s a great example.”
Washington (6-4-1) got swept by its NFC East rival, and the defending division champions fell 31/2 games behind Dallas with five games left. It was a seventh loss in eight tries on Thanksgiving against the Cowboys, who had never won more than eight straight in the regular season.
“We’ve been in third place for a while, so we have to understand where we are and what it’s going to take to get an opportunity to come back here in the future,” Washington Coach Jay Gruden said. “The last five games of the year are critical.”
Elliott, the NFL’s rushing leader, had the fourth score on five straight second-half touchdown drives between the two teams with a 1-yard run for a 31-19 lead midway through the fourth quarter. The 21-year-old had 97 yards to give him 1,199 for the season.
After getting 43 yards on the first Dallas possession, Elliott had just 13 yards before a 21-yarder to start Dallas’ last TD drive. It was the second straight week he finished with 97 yards after some difficulty in the first half.
“Over time, you keep running the football, you’re going to wear them down,” Dallas Coach Jason Garrett said. “He made some big runs late that were critical. It really broke their back.”
The Cowboys had an eight-game streak with at least 400 yards snapped, finishing with 353. But Dallas answered with touchdowns each time Washington got within a score on Cousins’ passes of 5 yards to Jordan Reed and 67 yards to DeSean Jackson, who had 118 yards receiving.
After Cousins’ second scoring toss to Reed, an 8-yarder with 1:53 remaining, Dustin Hopkins’ onside kick went out of bounds. The Cowboys ran out the clock.
“The way Dallas was able to come back and put points on the board in those situations is part of the reason why they are such a good football team,” said Cousins, who was 41 of 53 and finished 8 yards shy of his career high.
“As an offense, whenever we got the football it was pretty much the same. Move the football, put points on the board, make good decisions and manage it well.”
Cousins took the Washington career lead with his third 400-yard game and became the first Washington quarterback with consecutive 350-yard games since Jay Schroeder in 1986. He had 375 last week against Green Bay.
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