Dak Prescott completed 23 of 33 passes for 303 yards and four touchdowns, three of which went to Michael Gallup, and the Dallas Cowboys rolled to a 47-16 win over the visiting Washington Redskins on Sunday afternoon.
However, Dallas (8-8) missed the postseason for the seventh time in the past 10 years. The Cowboys needed to win, and for the Philadelphia Eagles to lose, to win the NFC East, but the Eagles beat the New York Giants to take the division title.
Ezekiel Elliott tallied two touchdowns, one rushing and one receiving, as the Cowboys posted their highest point total of the season. Elliott finished with 122 rushing yards, while Gallup had five catches for 98 yards.
Case Keenum completed 18 of 37 passes for 206 yards, one touchdown and one interception for Washington (3-13). Adrian Peterson had 13 carries for 78 yards for the Redskins, who lost their final four games.
The Redskins made it a one-score game early in the third quarter when Dustin Hopkins hit a 42-yard field goal to trim Washington's deficit to 20-13.
The Cowboys responded with a seven-play, 75-yard scoring drive that ended with a 4-yard touchdown pass from Prescott to Gallup. That increased the Cowboys' lead to 27-13 midway through the third quarter.
Both teams traded field goals later in the quarter as the Cowboys went ahead 30-16.
Prescott connected with Gallup again, this time for a 32-yard score, to make it 37-16 in the final minute of the third quarter.
Gallup notched his third touchdown reception of the game and his sixth of the season when he caught a 45-yard pass from Prescott with 12:46 remaining in the fourth quarter. The 23-year-old from Colorado State entered the game with five career touchdown catches in 29 games.
Kai Forbath capped the scoring with a 40-yard field goal with 2:40 remaining.
Dallas built a 20-10 halftime lead.
Neither team scored a touchdown in the first quarter, but the Cowboys pulled ahead 6-0 on a pair of field goals by Forbath.
The Redskins trimmed the deficit to 6-3 on Hopkins' 31-yarder early in the second quarter.
Elliott then scored back-to-back touchdowns to increase the Cowboys' first-half lead to 20-3. He caught a 13-yard pass from Prescott for a touchdown with 11:01 remaining, and he found the end zone again on a 33-yard rush with 3:50 to go.
Washington pulled within 10 when Keenum hit Steven Sims Jr. for a 6-yard score with 34 seconds left in the half.
--Field Level Media