Ryan Flournoy’s first catch began with Dallas facing third-and-8 at its own 31-yard line. His reward was 35 yards and a trip to the Philadelphia 34, the sort of field-position swing that makes the rest of a drive considerably less complicated.
A few plays later, CeeDee Lamb caught a 9-yard touchdown pass. The sequence offered a clean explanation for Flournoy’s value in Dallas’ 38-21 victory over Philadelphia: he supplied the connective yardage between the Cowboys’ running work and the receivers who finished possessions in the end zone.
Flournoy caught all four passes thrown his way for 70 yards. He did not score, and he was not asked to carry the passing game. That makes the contribution easy to overlook beside Lamb’s two touchdowns, George Pickens’ 21-yard score and Javonte Williams’ 155 rushing yards.
It also makes the contribution easier to understand. Dallas needed completions that changed the shape of possessions, and Flournoy provided them without requiring a large share of the offense.
The opening catch was especially useful because Dallas had already established the drive with two Tyler Goodson runs for 13 yards. Prescott then missed Pickens before finding Flournoy on third down. The completion moved the Cowboys across midfield and into Philadelphia territory.
Williams followed with runs of 5 and 12 yards, then Goodson added gains of 3 and 5 before Lamb finished the possession on third-and-2.
Flournoy did not create the touchdown by himself. He did create the room for the offense to keep using its preferred menu. Dallas could run Williams, who carried 25 times, while Prescott did not have to treat every passing attempt as a bid for a spectacular play.
The Cowboys finished with 204 rushing yards and 212 through the air, a distribution that worked because several completions moved the chains or moved the field before the scoring throw arrived.
His second catch came in the second quarter, and its importance was tucked inside a drive that already had some weight. Dallas had converted fourth-and-1 at the Eagles’ 44 when Prescott threw to Flournoy for 6 yards on second-and-9 at the Philadelphia 27. Pickens scored on the next offensive play, taking a 21-yard pass to the end zone.
That six-yard completion did not make Flournoy the architect of Pickens’ touchdown. It left Dallas closer, with the offense still in position to let the next play settle the matter. Pickens supplied the finish; Flournoy helped keep the possession from becoming a field-goal attempt born of a stalled series.
The third catch arrived with 1:14 remaining in the first half, when Flournoy gained 13 yards to the Dallas 26. Dallas then drove 78 yards in eight plays and ended the half with Brandon Aubrey’s 27-yard field goal. Pickens contributed a 21-yard catch on that possession, and Lamb added gains of 14 and 30.
