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USATSI

Garrett Gilbert has suddenly made a long and wildly unimpressive Dallas Cowboys quarterback carousel mushroom into a quarterback controversy, loosely stated, and even if it is for the right to lead a 2-7 team into the second half of a 2020 season torpedoed by injury and a myriad of other glaring factors. It's been an unmitigated disaster following the season-ending injury to Dak Prescott suffered in Week 5, and Andy Dalton has now missed the last two games after suffering a concussion and then having been placed on the COVID-19 list while trying to be cleared from the first injury.

Rookie seventh-round pick Ben DiNucci was a deer in headlights in his first NFL start last week and, as such, was benched in Week 10 for Gilbert, who beat out a re-signed Cooper Rush for the right to face the undefeated Pittsburgh Steelers. And in the face of virtually insurmountable odds, Gilbert looked composed, confident and most importantly able to shock the world on Sunday afternoon, against an animalistic defense drooling for a chance to face an offensive line ravaged by injury and poor play at the edges.

For reference, Dalton and DiNucci were sacked a total of 14 times and hit+pressured quite a bit more in their attempts to lead. Gilbert was having none of that, however, and routinely used his escapability to leave Steelers pass rushers chasing ghosts like Pac-Man after having consumed the large dot. 

He'd end the first half with a higher passer rating than Ben Roethlisberger and more rushing yards than anyone on either team.

Things weren't all good for Gilbert, though. 

Although he didn't make a lot of errors, tossing an interception to safety Minkah Fitzpatrick on third-and-5 from the Steelers five-yard line with just a 19-15 lead simply can't happen, especially considering he threw the ball while wearing two-time All-Pro Cameron Heyward like a wet blanket. The giveaway led to just a field goal for the Steelers, but it shrank the lead to only one point and was ultimately a six-point swing in Pittsburgh's favor, considering the Cowboys would've likely gotten a chip shot field goal after the potential sack to increase their lead to seven points with just under 12 minutes remaining in the fourth quarter. 

In the end, mathematically speaking, it doesn't appear it would've mattered, but that's not entirely true. Football is a game of a hundred butterfly effects, and so stretching the lead to seven instead of seeing it shrink to one creates a ripple effect that could ultimately change the outcome of the game -- by way of forcing the Steelers to change the way they called plays (and their confidence level) going into the final minutes of the game.

All in all, it was still a great showing by a fourth-string quarterback who entered his first NFL start with only 40 career passing yards, but threw for 243 yards and a touchdown -- while being sacked only twice, evading at least two others -- against a defense predicted to embarrass him. They were as opportunistic as they've been all season, yes, but they also found out Gilbert isn't Dalton or DiNucci.

"That's what you live for as a football player," Gilbert told media following the narrow loss to a lead horse in the race for Super Bowl LV. "Unfortunately, those last two drives I just couldn't make enough plays for us to finish that one off."

Gilbert was only one throw from delivering the biggest upset in the 2020 season, and his first career game-winning drive and comeback win, after orchestrating a 61-yard drive that took only 34 of the final 38 seconds off of the clock. Standing at the Pittsburgh 23-yard-line on third-and-4, he'd fire his final shot into the end zone at Lamb -- who caught a touchdown earlier in the game -- but Fitzpatrick finished playing wedding crasher when he broke up the pass and ended the game.

Ever the competitor, Gilbert feels the PBU was more his fault than it was Fitzpatrick making a great play.

"There was a chance for it," Gilbert said of the final play. "I moved up in the pocket a little bit and I just missed him too a little too far inside. I think he had a shot at maybe making a catch there. I've got to give him a better ball."

It's undetermined if Dalton will both cleared to return from both concussion protocol and the COVID-19 list in Week 11, but it's likely he'll suit up, considering the fact he'll have two weeks before the Cowboys meet the Minnesota Vikings at US Bank Stadium. The problem for Dalton and the Cowboys is now clear, because they need to figure out if they'll return the keys to him after consistently hammering home their belief in him and accompanying salary, or if they'll ride with Gilbert, who burst onto the NFL scene and played well in a situation wherein he otherwise should've pre-written his eulogy.

As it stands, publicly, the Cowboys are toeing the line on Dalton.

"That remains to be seen," team exec Stephen Jones told 105.3FM the Fan on Monday. "Andy is our quarterback with Dak out for the year."

It would behoove the Cowboys to take a longer, harder look at the younger Gilbert as a possible QB2 behind Prescott in 2021 -- with continued development on DiNucci -- as opposed to staring at Dalton's direct deposits as a means of deciding. 

It appears, at minimum (based on the small sample size, yes, but look what defense is in the sample) that Gilbert can at least inject some fun into a dead season, while also potentially answering a future question at backup quarterback. If he starts to flounder as the season wanes, then they'll have their answer, but they at least have to let it play out. Otherwise, despite their best efforts to shoot down the idea of tanking, they'll feed right into that narrative. 

Just because the previous Garrett failed in Dallas doesn't mean this one will, or won't, but let's find out.