Before I get into specifics, 4 points.
1) We beat ourselves, as you will see. We dominated the first half and likely should have been up 13. We also missed a couple plays, fumbled, slipped.
2) There were guys open. Most of the the time. But Dak only missed a few guys, too. Both sides are right in this debate.
3) Lots of blame to go around. Mostly Dez and Dak, but also Linehan and TWill!
4) TWill played a good game, but his knucleheadedness directly cost us 9 points or more, most likely, and at least 6.
Drive Breakdown:
Drive 1 -- 3rd Down and 3 at own 25. Dez crossing route, open at about the 40, Dak throws a bad ball.
Drive 2 -- TD
Drive 3 -- 3D 7
@NYG 47 -- Dez slips, picked. Looked like he was gonna be open so can't fault Dak too much, but Witten was WIDE OPEN for the first down
Drive 4 -- Zeke for 15, Zeke for 4, 2D and 6 -- nobody is open off play action to MORRIS, but why Morris and not Zeke? And also why not run it again? Morris looks like he would have gained a chunk. Bad playcall IMO
Drive 5-- We drive to NYG 31, on 1st down Zeke loses 1. 2D and 11 --Twill drops a well thrown slant with a step and a half on his guy. This play costs us at least 3. He has the first down at least. 3D -- Witten is open right at the sticks if Dak makes a decisive throw (he was looking that way but it woulda been tight). Also, Zeke dump off gains 4 or 5 at least. Instead, Dak runs the wrong way and gets a sack, pushing us out of FG range.
Drive 6 -- Zeke for 14, Zeke for 4, 2D and 6 at NYG 47 -- This is the play Beasley wanted a hold or PI, nd he was right. Good read and route... refs cost us. 3D was a dump to Dunbar which was the right call. Nobody was open
Drive 7 -- FG miss drive. TWill likely cost us 3 more here bc he didn't take the yards he could have gotten running straight and instead stopped and tried to head for the sideline. If he gets a half yard more than he did, Bailey's kick goes through
2nd Half
Drive 8 -- Zeke for 3, 2d7 -- This is the throw to Dez that came up short. This one is on both of them. Dez has to stop in the hole better and come back hard. Dak has to throw it a little further. Woulda had the ball at our own 45. 3D -- quick pressure and Dak throws it away
Drive 9 -- Starting at our own 9, 1D bootleg was well played by them. 2nd down -- run option that Dak keeps for no reason. The guy stayed home. Zeke only gets a couple here if he hands it, but on 3D Witten comes up a yard short of the first down
Drive 10 -- Zeke for 0, Zeke for 13, Beasley for 18, Zeke for 2. 2D @ NYG44. This is the hold on Twill. Beasley had gained enough for us to be in FG range or real close. Another 3 points he cost us, although the hold had no effect on the play and was called by the guy behind the action, the back judge. Weak call IMO. Now it's 2nd and 15, nobody open. 3D -- this is the deep INT. Dez quit running. Threw into double coverage. Good news is that there were only dump offs open otherwise.
Drive 11 -- Zeke gets a few, its now 3D and 5 at own 19 -- Dak misses Dez on cross, woulda had te ball at about the 40
Drive 12 -- Zeke for 4, Twill for 13, Zeke for -1. 2D 11 at own 31. Dak tries to hit Dez on comeback/back shoulder that woulda had the first down. But Dez didn't stop. Also, however, Butler is open near the sticks. 3D is an awful call -- the pitch play.
Drive 13 -- Zeke for 2, 2D at own 13 -- Butler is wide open on the fly here. All game it seems like Dak never looks his way. Dak makes a throw to Dez who is open, but he is hit as he throws and misses. Butler is open sooner than Dez, so there was time. He just watched Dez all the way across the field
Drive 14 -- 1D at own 25, this is a tough play. Dak is pressured but if he stays in the pocket he can hit an open Beasley, Beasley ran his out a little too round, took too long, and Dak wasn't sure he was gonna turn. But he did. If Dak hangs with it, nice pickup (hard to assign blame to him though). 2D -- Dak misses Beasley open in seam, dumps to Dunbar for 4. 3D -- Dez fumble
Drive 15 -- we had no chance at this point.
SO, no one can tell me that the NYG beat us. All of the big plays here were our own doing. Some 4 or 5 plays directly took points off the board. By my count, Twill had 3 mistakes that may have cost us 9 or more points. 2 really bad playcalls. 3 bad throws from Dak. 6 didn't see an open guy or bad decisions by Dak (one was the run option, so not that huge -- but one was taking the sack knocking us out of FG range). And drumroll please... Dez had 5 bad plays. Slipped, fumbled, quit on a route. Didn't come back or stop in the hole. Ran the wrong route. Importantly, though, Nobody being open only impacted two plays. Yet..
All in all, the receivers seem like they deserve more of the blame. If TWill catches that slant, I think we go up big. If Dez doesn't slip, we probably get three more there. Then there is Dez's fumble, Twill's hold, and Dez's bad routes a couple times. The hold on TWill and noncall of Beasley really hurt us. The refs took points off the board in both occasions. Not to mention 2 of the 3 holding calls on punts were suspect too. Nobody being open was not the issue, however.
Dak only made about 8 bad plays -- not too bad. 3 bad throws, that's probably average. Missing a couple open guys is to be expected too. He can play better and has, but I came away thinking it wasn't as bad as I had originally thought. Most of his misses of open guys came at the end (3 of those, 2 to Butler, 1 to Bease), so I think at that point he may have been stressing.