Kevin Jairaj-Imagn Images Seven winners from the Lions’ dominant win over the Cowboys, and three losers. Coming off the bye week and a “Monday Night Football” win over the Seattle Seahawks, the Detroit Lions are back in action. They headed down to Texas to play the Dallas Cowboys, another opponent they have struggled with the past decade. The Lions last win against the Cowboys was in 2013, and their last win in Dallas in 2011. Detroit came into this game with a goal, and it wasn’t just to beat the Cowboys, but to embarrass them in their stadium. Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson pulled every play out of his bag of tricks to try and get an offensive lineman to score. While that was unsuccessful, the Lions were, as they finally beat the Cowboys in Dallas and overcame another demon. Check out my winners and losers in the 47-9 dominant win against the Cowboys. Winners David Montgomery After signing a two-year extension over the weekend, running back David Montgomery had himself a game to showcase why he was worth every penny. He had multiple plays where countless Cowboys players tried to tackle him themselves and couldn’t. It was a team effort to tackle Montgomery, which is crazy to see an entire team try and bring down just one player. .@Lions RB @MontgomerDavid has rushed for a TD for the eighth-straight game.This establishes a new franchise record.#OnePride pic.twitter.com/8M5JcMTxjb— Detroit Lions PR (@LionsPR) October 13, 2024 Montgomery took over the game early on with a touchdown to give the Lions a 7-3 lead and the team never looked back. Montgomery finished the game with 12 carries for 80 yards and two touchdowns. While the team has a 1A and 1B in him and Jahmyr Gibbs, I would say Montgomery is the team's top option at running back. Brian Branch If safety Brian Branch wasn’t known around the NFL, he made himself known in this game. Branch made three huge plays in this game, and the first was a big interception to eliminate a chance for the Cowboys to answer with an early touchdown. Branch left his coverage and went back into the end zone and picked off Dak Prescott, stopping Dallas from even scoring in the end zone. Unreal play by Brian Branch. He has the flat in cover zero but sees Dak throw the corner and comes off for the INT. pic.twitter.com/O3ackuYXVA— Chase Daniel (@ChaseDaniel) October 13, 2024 Branch continued to make plays as the game progressed. In the second half, he forced a fumble to stop any chance Dallas had to try and come back in this game. He wasn’t done there either, he would pick off Prescott again in the fourth quarter and nearly returned it for a touchdown, just a few yards away. Branch would finish the game with six tackles, two interceptions, two pass deflections, and a forced fumble. Branch is also coming back from an illness and a concussion, so it’s nice to see him back and healthy. Frank Ragnow What a warrior center Frank Ragnow is. After partially tearing his pec against the Arizona Cardinals, Ragnow returned to play against Dallas. Normally, a partially torn pec doesn’t recover enough to play in just two weeks. Ragnow can’t be at full strength, but the fact he is out there good enough to play, and still playing well is something else. On the first Montgomery touchdown run, you can see Ragnow absolutely pancake Cowboys defensive tackle Mazi Smith down to the ground. Smith is a strong defensive tackle, and it’s not going to be easy to block him, but to pancake him with a partially torn pec is even more impressive. Ragnow is looking just fine and can continue to help the Lions ground game be effective. Knuckles for 6⃣ #DETvsDAL | FOX pic.twitter.com/4SPVFS5WX4— Detroit Lions (@Lions) October 13, 2024 Run defense Another week, another stellar performance by the Lions defense in stopping the run. The Cowboys finished with just 36 yards on 13 carries, averaged 2.8 yards per carry. Dallas struggled to run the ball early on, and when the Lions got the big lead early on, the Cowboys had to abandon the run game and move the ball through the air. When Dallas tried to mix in their run to catch the Lions off-guard, it didn’t work and they still couldn’t have an impact on the game. Jameson Williams Outside of a dropped pass that was wide open, wide receiver Jameson Williams played a great game. He was used in different spots, running the football, going deep, and running medium routes. He finished the game with three catches for 76 yards and a touchdown, along with a carry for 11 yards. Jameson Williams limited himself to one celebration after this touchdown, which I’m sure Amon-Ra St. Brown had something to do with.St. Brown after the Seattle game: “I’m like, ‘Bro, you’re going to score again. Just get one off.’” pic.twitter.com/mfPj2yOLUA— Richard Silva (@rich_silva18) October 13, 2024 Williams has continued to elevate his game this season and give the Lions a true WR2. Funny enough, he is playing like WR1, as he leads the team in yards and is tied with Amon-Ra St. Brown in touchdowns. Williams having a full offseason with this team has continued to show what an impact that has made. Jake Bates For the first time this season, the Lions needed to rely on their kicker a bit to get some points in the rare drives where the offense couldn’t find the endzone. Jake Bates answered the call, going 4-for-4 with his longest being from 48 yards out. He made all of his extra points as well and showed that he can step up and make the kicks if the team feels the need. Tim Patrick The Lions have found their WR3 in Tim Patrick. Patrick was the first wide receiver called up from the practice squad and slowly has gotten more and more involved in the offense. Against the Cowboys, Patrick made multiple big catches, and even overcame defensive pass interference that wasn’t called (and looked awfully familiar from the missed call in 2015). He finished with three catches for 68 yards, and now opposing defenses will have to worry about him along with the other multiple playmakers on this offense. ....Tim Patrick down there somewhere#DETvsDAL | FOX pic.twitter.com/YRU0qpssEV— Detroit Lions (@Lions) October 13, 2024 Losers Lions pass rush future The Lions and their fans were on cloud nine when Detroit was up 34-6, but then the unthinkable happened. Defensive end Aidan Hutchinson sacked Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott and while he was bringing Prescott down, he suffered what is being described as a “gruesome” lower leg injury. If Hutchinson is out for the season, it is a gut-wrenching loss for the defense and the team as a whole. He is a pillar and was on pace for breaking the NFL sack record. The pass rush already lost starting defensive end Marcus Davenport for the season and now losing Hutchinson means the backups have to step up. I could see Lions general manager Brad Holmes making calls for defensive ends, as losing Hutchinson is a big loss for this team and will change their entire identity on defense. Either way, the future of this unit is in rough shape unless they can make some moves. Refs Out of the eight penalties for 63 yards, I can’t say more than two were correct. What was the biggest issue in this game with the officials wasn't just the poor calls against Detroit, it was the non-calls for the same type of plays on the Cowboys players. These refs did all they could to keep the Cowboys in the game, but even they couldn’t stop the Lions offense in the end. Kickoff coverage team The one unit that didn’t have a good day in the win was the kickoff coverage team for special teams. Dallas wide receiver KaVontae Turpin had four returns for 194 yards, with one going 79 yards. Dallas tried multiple fake reverse handoffs to fool Detroit, and the one time it worked, it was for those 79 yards. Detroit learned its lesson because after that, they didn’t fall for it. The Lions will have to clean that part of their game up though, because if Dallas was able to get a touchdown off a kickoff, the momentum could have changed somewhat in the game.