No one parties like the Dallas Cowboys. Was Thanksgiving the start of a Super party?

Mike McCarthy is no longer surprised about what comes with his job as coach of the Dallas Cowboys.

From the outside scrutiny to the television networks dictating game times, from the cameras following the team’s every move, to the directives of owner Jerry Jones, who never met a microphone he didn’t like.

But when it came to the Thanksgiving Day kettle party at AT&T Stadium on Thursday against the Washington Commanders, McCarthy “let go and let Jerry.”

And let quarterback Dak Prescott and the rest of the Cowboys do their thing.

It started with country music legend Dolly Party singing at halftime in a Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders outfit to benefit the Salvation Army before the game morphed into a line dance into the Red Kettles in the end zone and then a turkey feast on the sideline with six minutes to go in a 45-10 blowout victory.

“Well, you know when Jerry Jones is in the locker room before the game speaking on it and he was all for it,” McCarthy said of the team placing turkey legs in the red kettles. “So, I just told them that game better be well out of hand before we start pulling turkey nuggets out of a kettle can.

“That was a little different pregame for me. Great win, great home win. And really, I can’t thank the fans enough. I thought they brought it. I love it when those times are going. Just what a great atmosphere. I mean just the whole day obviously. And what’s most important, Thanksgiving.”

The Cowboys (8-3) have won 13 straight at home, four of their last five overall.

And they can give thanks to a struggling Commanders team that fell to 4-8 for allowing the pre-planned confident/arrogant celebration go on without a hitch.

It was the idea of tight end Jake Ferguson, but it was Prescott’s job to get it approved.

Prescott passed for 331 yards and four touchdown passes. He connected with Rico Dowdle and Brandin Cooks in the first half and CeeDee Lamb and KaVontae Turpin in the fourth quarter to blow the game open.

After the Turpin touchdown, Prescott pulled out a turkey leg and started eating it.

“We talked about as probably a two, three-day long process of whether it be a 15-yard penalty and whether coach would accept it,” Prescott said. “I actually go talk to coach before every game and sure enough I caught him as he was talking to Jerry and so I mentioned it. Of course, Jerry liked it, so yeah.

“At that point my direction was just make sure we’re up and the game was in hand and so the touchdown to CeeDee and the following two-point conversion, if you watch I’m kind of like, ‘is it time? Can we do it?’ I’m like, ‘no we’ll get another one’. Sure enough, right after I threw the one to Turp (KaVontae Turpin) I was like yeah, let’s go for it. And so, and it was good.”

And when you add in the 63-yard interception return for a touchdown by cornerback Daron Bland, who set a new NFL record with his fifth pick-six of the season, causing an eruption in the end zone and huge post-game celebration that was so good that Jones called it one the most enjoyable experiences he’s ever had as owner of the Cowboys.

And that includes the three Super Bowl titles in the 1990s.

“I don’t know that I’ve had a day like this. And I’ll include them all, I’ll put Super Bowls in there, I don’t know if I’ve ever had a better day with the Cowboys than today. It was surreal.”

Lamb slammed the ball into the red kettle after a two-point conversion. Turpin jumped into the red kettle and putted out a turkey leg and Bland jumped into the red kettle.

Again, it was so good and so surreal that McCarthy refused to be a party pooper.

He said the players deserved to enjoy the moment.

“It’s part of being a Dallas Cowboy,” McCarthy said. “This game is so great. What these men do, they’re special to be an NFL football player. I mean obviously what they go through physically, mentally and emotionally. You know victories; it’s good to celebrate them.

“You need to smell the roses as you walk through the garden, as our guys did because when you’re on the other side of it, it’s hard. It’s such a competitive league. I do think this is a special and unique place.”

Prescott said the planned celebration spoke to the confidence that that team has in themselves and they way they are playing.

The party came as a result of the hard work they put in and the expectations of success.

“It goes again to the prep. The preparation that we put into this thing,” Prescott said. “We feel good about what we’ve got. We feel good about the players that we have It’s confidence you know what I mean? As simple as that. We understand we’re going to be in there. It’s not like we had them in just that end zone. They were in every bucket.

But have a plan, plan to be there. And I think that says a lot too though when you plan whether it be a touchdown celebration or a kettle celebration. It’s a mindset and I think that’s important for us to have those expectations of getting in the end zone and understanding that we’ll get back in there.”

As the Cowboys were celebrating, the big question is how long the party will last and whether it will end with a super party for the first time since the franchise last won a Super Bowl title in 1995 and end a 28-year drought.

The Cowboys won’t get their real answer until the playoffs.

But tests to their party plans will come fast and furious over the next five games.

The Cowboys have gotten fat so far in 2023 against bad teams like the Commanders. Seven of their eight wins have come by 20 or more points and none have come against against a team with a record over .500.

But that will change starting with next Thursday’s game against the Seattle Seahawks (6-5). They then face the Philadelphia Eagles (9-1), Buffalo Bills (6-5), Miami Dolphins (7-3) and Detroit Lions (8-3) in December and January run to the end of the season.

Jones said the Cowboys are ready for what’s ahead because they have a special thing going. More importantly, he said they are a team that can win the Super Bowl.

He said Prescott is a primary reason as well as the surreal chemistry and fun that was displayed in the party on the field and in the post-game locker room on Thursday.

“We’ve got a team that can win games against those teams and ultimately when we get in the playoffs,” Jones said. “No matter how we get in there, we’re going to have to win all of the games. So we better have a team that’s capable of winning all the games. If Dak can keep playing like he’s playing. And we keep just what’s in that locker room, that energy in that locker room. I mean that’s fresh stuff in there. That’s some newborn energy so to speak. This dynamic is really rare that I see in here. It’s rare energy ….

“I would not want to try to recreate the energy and the special thing between these players. I wouldn’t try to go and try to have it better. “It’s on par with anything I’ve ever seen. Yes. Yes. It can [win the Super Bowl]. There’s four or five others at least that can win it, too, that are sitting there that some of them we’ve got to play and some of them we’ll go by to get one. But this team is certainly capable of winning the whole thing.”

Party on.