DaRon Bland on Thursday added to his NFL-leading interception total with a nifty pick, although that did not really make up for the big plays against the Dallas Cowboys cornerback before they rallied to avoid their first home loss this season by beating the Seattle Seahawks 41-35.
Bland did not return this one for a touchdown — he already has the NFL record with five picks returned for scores — but his eighth interception of the season late in the third quarter ended a streak of three consecutive touchdown drives for the Seahawks.
“Nah, it ain’t nothing special,” Bland said about that pick. “I didn’t have a great first half. Try to make it up in the second half, that’s all it was.”
Photo: AP
The Cowboys failed to convert that into a go-ahead score, but Dak Prescott’s 12-yard TD to Jake Ferguson and ensuing two-point conversion with 4 minutes, 37 left propelled them to victory.
Seattle (6-6) entered the game without an offensive touchdown on their previous 20 possessions.
That streak ended in a hurry against Dallas (9-3) and Bland.
Photo: AFP
D.K. Metcalf beat the corner for a 73-yard catch-and-run touchdown on the Seahawks’ opening drive for a 7-3 lead.
Metcalf later had a 34-yard catch against Bland to the Cowboys’ 23, although Jason Myers missed a 42-yard field-goal attempt after a delay-of-game penalty backed the Seahawks up 5 yards.
“This is an excellent offensive perimeter group that came in here,” Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy said. “We’ve got a lot of respect for what we saw in the game plan process. They went after us, we went after them and at the end we got it done in the fourth quarter. They definitely went after the one-on-ones outside and hit some plays.”
The Seahawks led 21-20 at halftime on Metcalf’s 1 yard TD catch in the final seconds. They were there after a 29 yard pass interference call against Bland in the end zone on a play that was initially ruled a touchdown before a replay review determined no catch and the ball was placed on the 1 yard line for the penalty.
On their touchdown drive before that, Jaxon Smith-Njigba spun away from Bland for an 11 yard gain on third-and-five near midfield.
That was 118 yards on just those three big plays and a 29-yard penalty against Bland by halftime.
“The talent that we have at receiver, we’re not afraid to go against, you know, anybody,” Smith-Njigba said. “They have great, good players over there. We’ve got good players. So, kudos to him, he made a good pick. We made our plays too and wish we had a couple of more.”
Bland got his interception with 2 minutes, 56 seconds left in the third quarter, outleaping Tyler Lockett at the Seahawks’ 38.
The Cowboys failed on a fourth-down conversion before Seattle drove for their last score.
“We admire that because we know certainly in the NFL you’re going to get beat, especially at corner. You have to have a mentality to take that proverbial butt-kicking that you can get it accomplished,” Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said. “And then you gotta have the desire and just the will to have that play in you after you had a rough night and boy he had it.”
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