The Cowboys were able to hold down the fort without QB Dak Prescott, who suffered a fractured right thumb (in his throwing arm) in the final minutes of an opening day loss to the Buccaneers. 

Backup Cooper Rush wasn’t incredible but did enough to fire off four straight wins against the Bengals, Giants, Commanders and Rams before finally stumbling in a loss to the undefeated Eagles. It seems Prescott’s return is just in time after Rush threw his first, second, and third interception of the season against Philly on Sunday.

The state of the NFC East

Just as nobody expected, the NFC East is chaos. The Eagles are 6-0, the Giants are 5-1, and even at 4-2, Dallas sits back in third place. Every game from now on is important, and a matchup against the Lions could be anything from super easy to super difficult.

Before last week’s shutout, the 1-4 Lions had scored at least 24 points in every game this season. The problem is, defensively, they’ve given up that much and more. The Seahawks put up 48 points and the Eagles 38. If there was any time for Prescott to get back into a groove, it’s in this one. 

After three games with 100 or more receiving yards, star WR Ceedee Lamb still hasn’t gotten there yet this year (though he came close with 97 yards in Week 4). He could see the biggest leap in production with a more proven QB running the offense.

That’s if, of course, Prescott’s thumb is as healed as the Cowboys are leading on. We’ll find out on Sunday.

Cowboys Stat Munchies

• The Cowboys rank third-worst in the league completion rate, seeing just 74.9% of their throws caught. Hopefully, Prescott is the fix here.

• Dallas has thrown for just five touchdowns this season, tied for the seventh-lowest in the NFL. See a pattern here? 

• Lions receivers have caught 11 touchdown passes, tied for sixth-most in the league. With Amon-Ra St. Brown set to return after an ankle sprain, Dallas has a target to watch out for.