You nailed it.
You can also add Dak averaging 5.9 yards per pass attempt, which is becoming a habit in games not against Washington and his longest pass to a WR was 26 yards, which came late in the game. The longest pass of the day was thrown by Ced Wilson to Tony Pollard for 31 yards.
The fumble was not a fumble.
The offense is not making any big plays and that is not characteristic of the offense that we saw the first 7 games. I don't want to hear any excuses about teams playing 2 deep on Dallas. If 2 deep was so effective then why isn't every team playing it all the time? Either Dak or Moore is afraid to throw downfield for some reason.
At the same time the defense allowed the Cards to score on something like 6 consecutive drives, or 5 out of 6. Ouch. The most disappointing aspect of the defense was the drives they allowed just before the half and at the end of the game. Before the half, there was 1:25 left on the clock when Dallas kicked off to Arizona. Arizona ran 10 plays to the Cowboys 35 and kicked a FG to end the half. Knowing the Cardinals get the ball to start the 2nd half, the Cowboys needed a stop and could not get one. 10 plays in 1:25. We've seen Dallas get more time than that and blow it all in 3 plays. The Cards showed how to manage a game. Outcoached.
Then, after Dallas scored to make it 25-22, the Cowboys kicked of with 4:42 left in the game. They let the Cardinals run 10 plays for 52 yards and 4 first downs to end the game. The players can talk about the fumble all they want, but they allowed the Cardinals to gain 4 first downs with the game on the line. Championship teams find what it takes to make those stops and get the ball back for their offense.
Arizona won the game in all 3 phases. I believe the Cowboys last TD drive was against a defense that played soft. I believe if the score was closer the Cowboys offense would have failed to move the ball. We are 16 games into the season and the Cowboys offense has looked feeble too often, and again yesterday.
The Cowboys look like at best a wild card team. If they played in a tougher division they would probably miss the playoffs altogether.
At the beginning of the season I thought the Cowboys would go 9-8 at best. They surprised me with wins over the Chargers and Vikings. But after watching the Cowboys play yesterday, they looked like a 9-8 team playing in an easy division to me.
Yesterday was a reality check. I think we now know just what this team is.
And the worst part is, the CAP is going to cripple this team in 2022. So is Dak's contract. In the meantime, the Giants and Eagles have multiple 1st round draft picks in 2022, and the WFT is already projected to be $58 million under the CAP.