Thoughts/observations about today's blowout loss

[baltcowboy]

-All teams, even successful ones lay an egg throughout the season. We also saw the Bills lose to Jax today. In the NFL, any team can win on a given sunday.

-Thought Dak was extremely rusty coming off of a 3 week rest period. His passes were off the entire day. Kind of reminded me of Aaron Rodgers several years ago coming off a bye against the Giants in the playoffs. Point is, very hard to miss significant time and not miss a beat. I think it was important to get some rhythm late in the game, as it could linger and carry over. Dak and the offense will be fine.

-The receivers didn't help out their QB with many drops throughout the game on money downs.

-Zeke missing time hurt the offense, but they weren't going to have much success on the ground as Denver was stacking the box. If they were able to hit a few big passing plays, that could of changed.

-Steele really struggled playing LT, looked very similar to last season, which isn't good. Many will say he struggled badly in camp playing on the left side as well. The loss of Tyron impacted today's game.

-No issue going on 4th down in the 1st qtr, they should of had an easy completion on the second one but Dak's pass was off the mark.

-Thought Osa played well early on, but Parsons was the only one on defense that stood out.

-Surprising the defensive line couldn't generate much of a pass rush against mainly backup lineman.

-Run defense was awful, really struggled tackling throughout the day.

-Diggs had another very poor performance, Patrick had a field day against him and the rest of the secondary.

-Punt block and touching the football is a teaching moment, not to have ever again. It really wouldn't matter as the Cowboys just couldn't get anything going in any area throughout the game.

Tough loss, but at least it was outside the conference, which it hurts less. Right the ship next week and hopefully get some injured players back.

Good post. I felt so confident that we would win the game, I went to the stadium to watch the Ravens and the Vikings. We probably would have lost anyway but with how shaky the line was and we were already stopped on 4th down. We probably should have kicked the field goal to be up 3-0. Oh well that is our stinker for the year. Now is time to watch Stephen A. to do his Texas two step and Skip Bayless kiss Tom Brady’s buttocks and trash Dak.

 

[Cowboyny]

Good post. I felt so confident that we would win the game, I went to the stadium to watch the Ravens and the Vikings. We probably would have lost anyway but with how shaky the line was and we were already stopped on 4th down. We probably should have kicked the field goal to be up 3-0. Oh well that is our stinker for the year. Now is time to watch Stephen A. to do his Texas two step and Skip Bayless kiss Tom Brady’s buttocks and trash Dak.

With Dak being so off, we had zero chance to win, unless the defense pitched a shutout, which they were just as bad. Strange week, many good teams lost. It's a long season, correct their mistakes and play better next week.

 

[Cowboyny]

100%.......interestingly I'm not even mad about it. No season is complete w/o bit a of slump and/or adversity. Smart teams use to test their fortitude and toughness. Just me, this is one of those games where burn the tapes and move on to next game.

It's all a long season, an out of conference loss isn't as damaging. Most important, we need Dak to right the ship and fix our run defense as teams will continue to attack us on the ground until they prove they can stop it.

 

[baltcowboy]

With Dak being so off, we had zero chance to win, unless the defense pitched a shutout, which they were just as bad. Strange week, many good teams lost. It's a long season, correct their mistakes and play better next week.

Don’t get me wrong. I would love to have the number 1 seed but you just want to be playing well at the end of the season. We are young enough to make the Super Bowl without the Bye. Let’s just get everyone healthy. I am concerned with the reports on Tyron. I hear it’s a bone spur from Dr. Jerrah but then the media says it’s a high ankle strain. They should have put him on the three week IR.

 

[Hawkeye0202]

It's all a long season, an out of conference loss isn't as damaging. Most important, we need Dak to right the ship and fix our run defense as teams will continue to attack us on the ground until they prove they can stop it.

I have zero concerns about Dak but how/where do you fix the run defense. ( can't blame ole Jaylon, he's gone ......ducking (LOL) )

 

[Cowboyny]

Don’t get me wrong. I would love to have the number 1 seed but you just want to be playing well at the end of the season. We are young enough to make the Super Bowl without the Bye. Let’s just get everyone healthy. I am concerned with the reports on Tyron. I hear it’s a bone spur from Dr. Jerrah but then the media says it’s a high ankle strain. They should have put him on the three week IR.

Steele was awful yesterday, gave up 11 pressures, yes 11 against a rookie. Heard Tyron is getting a recurring high ankle sprain, that the doctor thinks rest is the only thing that will help it. I wonder if they look at other in house options at the position this week.

 

[Hawkeye0202]

Steele was awful yesterday, gave up 11 pressures, yes 11 against a rookie. Heard Tyron is getting a recurring high ankle sprain, that the doctor thinks rest is the only thing that will help it. I wonder if they look at other in house options at the position this week.

Here's my problem.......with how he struggled Sunday, I'm guessing the coaches saw some of the same issues in practice but .....

 

[Cowboyny]

Here's my problem.......with how he struggled Sunday, I'm guessing the coaches saw some of the same issues in practice but .....

Hard to say, as we don't get to watch practice. Gregory even struggled against backup lineman this week, who is to say, Steele could of been good against him in practice. Point of all this, Steele clearly cannot be allowed to start here again. They have other in house options if Tyron can't go that should be better.

 

[baltcowboy]

Steele was awful yesterday, gave up 11 pressures, yes 11 against a rookie. Heard Tyron is getting a recurring high ankle sprain, that the doctor thinks rest is the only thing that will help it. I wonder if they look at other in house options at the position this week.

I don’t think they will panic. I bet they score 30+ next weekend.

 

[Brooksey]

Been saying for a while that defense is below average
We need DTs in a bad way. Denver ran on us all with back up OL
Diggs absolutely needs to be disciplined. If he can’t do it, sit him to teach him a lesson but he needs to understand that defense is a team game
The biggest issue (other than DL) is horrible tackling

Tackles looked ok on the re-watch this morning..Hamilton is a beast and Watkins played well.
Gholston and Armstrong were terrible, our LB play against the run from Parsons, Vander and Neal was poor, Denver blocked us very well with back ups.
Parsons made some nice plays blitzing but he also shot gaps on run plays that cost us big.

 

[Cowboyny]

I don’t think they will panic. I bet they score 30+ next weekend.

As long as it's not a carryover. Many are killing MM for leaving Dak in the game late, but thought it was important to get him going.

 

[Creeper]

There was never any reason to believe this defense was going to be good at any point in this season. Parsons has helped and so has Gregory, but when the other team takes Gregory out of the game there is no pass rush. Look at the defensive line and tell me who stands out? Odighizuwa has been phenomenal for a rookie. But Watkins, Urban and Bohanna has been pretty pedestrian. Hamilton has ben on the PS most of the time and he has been better at DT than those 3 guys.

The entire secondary has been boom or bust, but mostly bust. Diggs had his streak but now he has settled down. He was never a smothering CB. He is an opportunistic CB, but yesterday, Bridgewater was playing out of his mind and his passes were near perfect. At the same time, there are too many guys wide open in the Dallas secondary every week. They have been lucky until yesterday.

First, I would stop moving Gregory inside on passing downs. I have not seen that work consistently enough to continue doing it. Gregory rushing from the outside, with his speed and quickness is more of a threat. I would rush Parsons from the inside.

This defense needs the offense. They go not help from the offense yesterday. The running game was exposed because the Cowboys offense did not put up 35 points. But the defense has not been good against the run. We have seen RBs drag defenders for 5 yards every week. The Cowboys are poor tacklers. and they don't shed blocks well either. That was exposed yesterday.

I do believe that DLaw and Gallimore will help the defense. I have no idea why Gallimore is still out but McCarthy says they are being cautious. Maybe they are been too cautious with all their injuries.

What has surprised me is that Malik Hooker has not made a great impact on this defense. Or maybe he isn't playing much. Either way I thought he would improve the secondary.

 

[visionary]

Tackles looked ok on the re-watch this morning..Hamilton is a beast and Watkins played well.
Gholston and Armstrong were terrible, our LB play against the run from Parsons, Vander and Neal was poor, Denver blocked us very well with back ups.
Parsons made some nice plays blitzing but he also shot gaps on run plays that cost us big.

DTs can’t be “ok” if the other team keeps running up the middle successfully

maybe “rewatch” again?

 

[Brooksey]

DTs can’t be “ok” if the other team keeps running up the middle successfully

maybe “rewatch” again?

No need to. They block it very well, we had disruptions in the bf early with Odigi and Hamilton......Our Lb's have to make play on the double team combo blocks. If our DT's were in our LB's laps your post would make sense.

They were not.

 

[Verdict]

It was a bad day all around. I know everybody loves to point fingers, but honestly from top to bottom this team straight up did not show up today. I'm not super worried about it as I know they are better than what we saw today. We all knew we weren't going to go 16-1 and we were/are going to drop one or two along the way. We ripped off 6 nice wins in a row. A loss was on the horizon. It's the NFL and it happens. The bigger question remains to see how this team will bounce back and respond. I'm guessing they weren't exactly thrilled with themselves in the locker room.

I am not disputing anything you said in your post; however, if the offense has been able to generate a few first downs, it might have found a rhythm and managed the win. The team seemed to become “tight” and shoot itself in the foot as the game wore on. I think you just (mostly) forget this game and move on from a coaching standpoint.

There are a few things that the coaches will probably need to address with the team, but I think this one is largely a move on and get focused game.

 

[visionary]

No need to. They block it very well, we had disruptions in the bf early with Odigi and Hamilton......Our Lb's have to make play on the double team combo blocks. If our DT's were in our LB's laps your post would make sense.

They were not.

All I saw was RBs running wild right in the middle and Bridgewater having all day

but the DTs were great?

got it

 

[cheyennes]

Parsons looked bad versus runing plays, good blitzes did.

 

[Ranched]

No big deal. Dallas wasn't alone.

Bills lose to Jags
Saints lose to Falcons
Raiders lose to Giants

 

[JoeKing]

Steele should not be playing LT. When Dak's blindside is not safe he doesn't play well. When he doesn't play well, we lose.

 

[jrumann59]

The game plan on offense was sound the execution sucked, the drops and bad passes. Steele is not a LT or Swing tackle he is a RT, he let their guys get into his body too much, maybe he was thinking too much but he looked like a guy playing left tackle in the NFL the first time. The defense it was only a matter of time before teams tried run and all you needed was confluence of events where the offense was out of sync and the the other teams run game paid off. The pass defense some plays were made by their players it happens, this hate for Diggs is unbelievable, I also believed he is more nicked up now than he was earlier in the year.