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What happened? Well, the defense wasn't very good early and they made a killer mistake on special teams, but what truly almost sunk the Cowboys was the fact an offense with six 2014 Pro Bowlers failed to produce until it was almost too late.
The Cowboys were held to just seven points until late in the third quarter. It seemed as though quarterback Tony Romo was taking hits on every snap, running back DeMarco Murray could go nowhere and stud receiver Dez Bryant was MIA.
They turned it on late, scoring 17 points in the game's final 18 minutes, but the Cowboys probably wouldn't have been so lucky against a stronger opponent. An opponent like the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field, for example.
So, what went wrong Sunday against the Lions?
The Offensive Line Was Bamboozled
This line might be sending 60 percent of its starters to the Pro Bowl, but it's important to remember that it remains a very green unit. Pro Bowlers Tyron Smith, Zack Martin and Travis Frederick are all 24 years old or younger, left guard Ronald Leary is only 25 and right tackle Jermey Parnell—subbing for injured veteran Doug Free—has only seven career starts under his belt.
Football is a chess match, which means that sometimes, no matter how talented an offense is, its lack of experience can cause it to become vulnerable. And on Sunday, the more experienced Lions and their coaching staff outsmarted Dallas' pass protectors while also holding it down against the run.
It was similar to what we saw when the Washington Commanders pummeled Romo over and over again in an upset Monday night victory over the Cowboys in Week 8. In that game, the Commanders didn't blitz a lot, which kept Dallas honest, but they showed a huge variety of looks throughout the night in order to confuse the Cowboys in pass protection.
“We definitely saw on film they have problems with movement,” Commanders linebacker Perry Riley said at the time, per ESPN.com's John Keim. “It’s a good line. They’re powerful, but they’re young. We knew we would throw a lot of stunts and movements and blitzes and see how well they pick it up."
Once again here, Detroit got to Dallas using a creative mix of blitzes and non-blitzes, resulting in a season-high six sacks against Romo.
On the first sack, for instance, Lions linebackers Josh Bynes and DeAndre Levy both showed blitz up the middle before dropping into hard coverage:
That froze Leary and Frederick long enough to render them basically useless in terms of giving help as two edge-rushers came after Romo:
Of course, it didn't help that Parnell either fell asleep or screwed up the snap count and remained in his stance a full second after the snap...:
Those things happen though, and Parnell has done a decent job in relief of Free this season.
On the second sack, the Lions overloaded the right side, sending safety James Ihedigbo and linebacker Ashlee Palmer from coverage spots, as well as Bynes, who didn't tip his hand:
The problem was that Parnell and fullback Tyler Clutts panicked and picked up Palmer together while Ihedigbo sprinted in untouched for the sack:
The Cowboy just weren't prepared for it.
Sack No. 3 was the most ridiculous of them all, because if you included running back DeMarco Murray off play action, the Cowboys had eight pass protectors on a 2nd-and-7 in the middle of the field. Yet Romo was sacked about two seconds after the snap.
That's because Leary got completely screwed up when they showed blitz at the last moment with linebacker Kyle Van Noy creeping up on the weak side. Van Noy became Smith's responsibility outside:
But as that happened, Darryl Tapp rushed directly inside at the snap, pulling Leary into a crowd. With Smith and Van Noy engaged on the edge, that made it easy for linebacker Tahir Whitehead to come through untouched on a slight delay:
The fourth sack came on a four-man rush, but only after Van Noy again teased them on the blind side, and the final two sacks were all about All-Pro defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh making plays combined with superb coverage from the Detroit secondary.
Those final two came on back-to-back plays inside the Lions 25-yard line, where it's harder for receivers to get open. In the first instance, Detroit unexpectedly sent Levy, who rushed the quarterback only three other times all day. The second time, it was only a four-man rush, but Romo walked into the sack after about seven seconds of scrambling.
The key takeaway here is that most of Detroit's sacks came on very different looks. They played games with the the Cowboys and it often paid off.
Now, why doesn't everybody do this? It takes good coaching to draw it up and good players to execute it. Then-Commanders defensive coordinator Jim Haslett did a great job using his safeties at the line of scrimmage last time out, and veterans Brandon Meriweather and Ryan Clark knew how to manipulate those young linemen. Lions defensive coordinator Teryl Austin also nailed his game plan here, and guys like Suh, Levy and Ziggy Ansah delivered.
There's no guarantee the Packers will be able to do the same thing, especially if this line is learning and improving each time it experiences these growing pains.
Romo Wasn't Very Good
On paper, it didn't look like a bad game from Romo. He completed 61 percent of his passes, had two touchdowns, no picks and a 114.0 passer rating. But the Cowboys could have won this game with a lot less of a struggle had Romo been more accurate in some key spots.
Too high for Cole Beasley on the first third-down play of the game:
Too low for tight end Jason Witten on the next series, albeit under pressure:
Behind Beasley on another first-quarter third down:
Early in the second quarter, on another third down, his third underthrown ball of the day:
Late in the first half, short again for Beasley:
Behind wide-open tight end Gavin Escobar on a huge fourth-quarter play inside the red zone:
For a quarterback who usually puts his receivers in good spots, his mechanics were off, causing Fox analyst Troy Aikman to speculate on the broadcast that Romo's back might not have been 100 percent.
It didn't help that, according to Pro Football Focus (subscription required), his receivers dropped four passes, but that just adds to the idea that the entire offense wasn't quite right.
Of course, it doesn't help that they were facing the NFL's second-ranked defense.
The Lions Were Just Good
And the key might be that it wasn't just one guy, which was also the case when they struggled with pass protection against Washington. Suh was dominant at times, but he and Ansah both had seven pressures, per PFF. They also got sacks from a safety, a middle linebacker and a backup defensive end. Levy and C.J. Mosley were monsters in run defense, too, which caused the Cowboys to become pretty much one-dimensional.
That's the other major factor here. When the Cowboys can't get Murray into an early groove, they're in trouble. The most balanced team in the league ran a season-low 19 running plays Sunday, marking the first time they won this year despite running fewer than 24 times.
I know there's a chicken-or-the-egg thing when it comes to rushing attempts because you usually run when you lead and pass when you trail, but this was really about the Lions holding Murray to a season-low 30 yards in the first half. And even that number is deceptive because 18 came on one carry.
During the regular season, Murray had over 1,000 rushing yards in the first half. Nobody else had more than 750. He set the tone time and again, but failed to do so against the league's best run defense.
On Sunday, he picked up more than five yards only three times all day.
I know splash plays are the talk of the football world, but when a stud back picks up 55 percent of his yardage for a game on just three carries, it usually doesn't bode well for the offense's ability to maintain balance and keep its opponent honest.
So this is somewhat of a blueprint, but that doesn't mean the Packers can just emulate what Detroit did. The Lions defense is quite special, and the reality is opposing defenses have known about this ever since that Commanders-Cowboys Monday Night Football debacle.
The week following that game, the Arizona Cardinals recorded just a single sack despite blitzing backup Cowboys quarterback Brandon Weeden 36 percent of the time, per PFF. And Arizona was one of the best defensive teams in the league this season, with a coordinator who is now getting plenty of head coaching interviews.
Point is, don't expect the Packers to strut out there Sunday and harass Romo and shut down Murray in the same way the Lions did one week prior. Dom Capers is a smart defensive coordinator and they've got a ton of talent up front, but the Lions are a different animal and this offense has a reputation for bouncing back.
Brad Gagnon has covered the NFC East for Bleacher Report since 2012.
Follow @Brad_Gagnon
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