The Lions played a combined 118 plays on offense and defense against the Cowboys following the exact script they realistically hoped could lead to the first road win of the season.
It was all right there in front of them until one snap, when Dak Prescott lofted a fade to Ezekiel Elliott 34 yards down the field to set up a game-winning field goal.
The Lions knew Elliott would torch them on the ground. You could sense it in Matt Patricia's fearful descriptions of his dynamic abilities, in the yardage totals they'd surrendered to lesser backs, in all the talk out of Dallas about how this had to be the game the feature back got his workload.