Stephon Gilmore's gang smothers wind-swept Cowboys

FOXBOROUGH -- It was clearly the worst play of Sunday evening against the Dallas Cowboys for this ravenous New England Patriots defense, a 59-yard Dak Prescott-to-Randall Cobb hookup.

With any luck, it might have been its third forced turnover of yet another stifling performance in the 13-9 win. Spotting Cobb at least 5 yards, the heart-and-soul of the Patriots' D, Devin McCourty ran Cobb down from behind and punched the ball loose.

Luck was on the Cowboys' side on that one. New England's aggressive 11 owned nearly every second the rest of the way.

Thanks to the whipping wind, torrential rain and Dallas’ coach Jason Garrett’s fourth-quarter apprehensions, the Cowboys didn’t even sniff the end zone.

Yes, an elite NFL offense, rated No. 1 in yardage, No. 1 in passing yardage and No. 4 in points per game, was rendered basically useless by the Pats.

Ezekiel Elliott found little to no room, held to 86 yards on 21 tries with a long of 12. Stephon Gilmore simply eviscerated Amari Cooper (0 catches, much grousing). And Dak Prescott, he of the potential MVP Prescotts, failed miserably again and again on third down (Dallas was 2 for 13), whether he wore gloves or not. With a 64.2 passer rating, Prescott threw for just 212 yards on 19 of 33 attempts, again just 5 for 12 for 34 yards (2.8 yards per attempt) on third down.

Slap a weather-aided asterisk on this one?

Forget it.

“It's just a good defense, that's very well-coached,” said Prescott, clearly a bit weary and shell-shocked from the frenzied mess that engulfed his crew, “very disciplined, don't make many mistakes.”