Cowboys rally past Rams in NFL exhibition at Aloha Stadium

In an NFL exhibition game most of the stars skipped, it was left to those football players of the future to put on a show for the 40,000-something fans at Aloha Stadium who stayed until the end.

Dallas rallied for a 14-10 win over the Los Angeles Rams, but that hardly mattered in the grand scheme of things, as each head coach got a good look at those trying to make the team when the season begins for real next month. As you might expect, there were more penalties than points, as it seemed like there was a yellow flag after every snap. Just for the record, there were 29 yellow flags accepted, with the coaches challenging that pass interference should have been called three times. The replay official agreed with the coaches on one of those.

There was also a lot of hard hitting and solid execution for just the second time to put on the uniforms and good fun for those who braved the traffic to attend the first NFL exhibition game since the ‘70s. Dallas quarterback Dak Prescott led the Cowboys to a touchdown the only time he was on the field and the defense played well enough to keep the Rams out of the end zone the entire second half.

Down 10-7 to start the third quarter, Dallas retook the lead for good late in the period on an 8-yard touchdown pass from backup quarterback Cooper Rush to wideout Devin Smith, who made a difficult catch in the corner of the end zone with a defender right with him. The PAT by Brett Maher was good to make it 14-10 Dallas with 1:56 left in the third.

The six-play, 72-yard drive was helped along by two critical personal foul penalties committed by the Rams on Rush. One led to an ejection of Rams linebacker Landis Durham.

Dallas took an early 7-0 lead thanks to the impressive 97-yard drive under the direction of Prescott. The 12-play journey took 6:28 off the clock and ended on a 14-yard scamper by Cowboys running back Tony Pollard. Dallas converted three first downs on the drive and overcame a penalty on a key pass completion that was called back because of an illegal man downfield.

Prescott completed all five of his passes for 64 yards, including a long of 31 to Michael Gallup to convert one of the third downs. He was sacked early in the drive, drawing some gasps from the Aloha Stadium crowd that was pretty evenly split between the Rams and Cowboys. The score by Pollard came at the 5:06 mark of the first quarter and Maher added the PAT to make it 7-0 Dallas.

But the Rams had some plans of their own, as they drew even later in the quarter under the guidance of backup Blake Bortles. The former Jacksonville quarterback had his moments, completing seven of 11 passes for 62 yards and a game-tying score.

The Dallas defense forced a kick on the ensuing drive by the Rams, but a muffed punt was recovered by Los Angeles at the Dallas 37. Five plays later, the Rams were in the end zone on a 7-yard scoring pass from Bortles to JoJo Natson. Greg Zuerlein knocked through the PAT to make it 7-7 with 2:02 left in the first. Zuerlein added a 29-yard field goal with 3:40 left in the second quarter to give the Rams a 10-7 advantage. He also missed a 56-yarder wide left just before the half as Los Angeles led by three at intermission.