The Cowboys had the world’s gaze solely upon them Thursday night and made sure not to make it in vain.

While most betting money was placed against them, Dallas beat the a 10-1 machine of a team in taking down the Saints 13-10. The Saints had been steamrolling their opponents all season, including two 40-plus-point performances this year, as well as a 50-point showing in Cincinnati earlier this month.

Thursday night, the Saints didn’t sniff anywhere near that level of offensive success.

Here’s what we learned Thursday.

The Cowboys defense might be really good and Dallas has a brand new season because of it.

Prior to this four-game win streak the Cowboys were two games under .500 and had struggled to put together any semblance of consistent positive results.

Dallas had failed to win consecutive games before this recent run, and had no victories over teams with winning records.

The defense has picked up the intensity of late and it’s beginning to show. The emergence of Leighton Vander Esch, steady contributions from defensive linemen not named Demarcus Lawrence and consistency from the defensive back unit as a whole has helped. All  were on full display Thursday night.

Jourdan Lewis, who some thought needed to be traded earlier this season, played a pivotal role and helped seal the game with a late fourth-quarter pick. He played excellent coverage against All-Pro running back Alvin Kamara.

Antwan Woods helped stymie an explosive Saints rushing attack by getting off  blocks and stuffing things at the point of attack and Vander Esch, fresh off a defensive Rookie of the Month award was nothing short of everywhere.

If not for some self-inflicted penalty wounds and a missed offensive pass interference call, they may have held  the Saints to single-digits.

The ascension of the defense from  solid to a top 5 unit has changed the outlook on the season too. From just scraping to get to .500 the Cowboys now can look to chase down the Chicago Bears for the third seed in the NFC while really looking to put a chokehold on this division in this final month of the season.

These are ideas which seemed ludicrous a month ago. Incredible how things can change in this league.