Thoughts/observations about today's blowout loss

[Cowboyny]

-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.

 

[IceStar-D7]

I think the biggest problem is on run defense. I'm surprised other teams haven't ran on us more. I think it will happen now. Our linebackers are horrible on run defense. And our zone pass coverage is wide open in the middle. Not to worried about the offense. For now even with the sleep walking they did today if guys had caught the ball we'd of lit Denver up also. Not to forget the 2 bad misses by Dak.

 

[75boyz]

Excellent post and observations.

Particularly their backup o line situation handling the Cowboy defensive front so effectively.

Like you, I found this extremely concerning.

Offensively, I will try and refrain, but maybe not in expressing my personal told you so moment. Not you personally OP, but in general, lol.
And this is in regards to Smith's importance to this team.

Steele humbled me with a crowburger for his serviceable to better play at RT.

Looks like being a LT in the NFL is quite the difference from the right side.

I would really really really like to be proven wrong that someone can at least offer up a decent stand in performance at LT better than what Steele did today.

It was really really bad.
I hope it's not a sign of continuous things to come.
As I've said many times before, I believe LT is the second most important position on the team for how this whole team performs and the trickle down effect this position holds on the whole team.

jmo

 

[Swagger]

Diggs got burned big time again. He's a boom or bust cornerback. I prefer a consistent shut down corner myself.

 

[pitt33]

I prefer a consistent shut down corner myself.

Don’t we all.

 

[MWH1967]

Jerry rolled the dice and got the parity roll. This team just isn't as bad as they played today. No way. the 2000 Cowboys was not that bad.

 

[Swagger]

Don’t we all.

Well evidently not as some people on here were banging about Diggs being a cross between Deion Sanders and Darelle Revis! Diggs takes huge risks at all costs. Other cornerbacks could do the same but they actually respect accountability and aren't in it for their own individual stats.

 

[ghst187]

I’m perfectly fine with not trying to block a punt again this season. One time it worked for us but the other two resulted in a penalty and first down and a touch and a first down for the other team. Both times cost us points and huge momentum swings.

 

[Gaede]

Well evidently not as some people on here were banging about Diggs being a cross between Deion Sanders and Darelle Revis! Diggs takes huge risks at all costs. Other cornerbacks could do the same but they actually respect accountability and aren't in it for their own individual stats.

I get that it's easy to turn on Diggs. But dude has masked a mediocre defense by consistently making plays we haven't seen around here since the 90s. Some days you get beat. At least we got a guy that will do some beating in return.

Get a guy like Byron Jones who never contributes positively or negatively, and still loses the game in crunch time and you'll never win ****.

 

[Swagger]

I get that it's easy to turn on Diggs. But dude has masked a mediocre defense by consistently making plays we haven't seen around here since the 90s. Some days you get beat. At least we got a guy that will do some beating in return.

Get a guy like Byron Jones who never contributes positively or negatively, and still loses the game in crunch time and you'll never win ****.

The end of the Patriots game summed him up. Excellent pick which appeared to win us the game only to give up a horrible blown coverage which appeared to have lost us a game. Surely a coach would just prefer two incompletions.

 

[Darthkuriboh]

They need to run laps Mon and Tues. everyone was flat and it showed.

 

[JustChip]

I’m perfectly fine with not trying to block a punt again this season. One time it worked for us but the other two resulted in a penalty and first down and a touch and a first down for the other team. Both times cost us points and huge momentum swings.

There was zero momentum swing on that block today. Dallas never had momentum in the game unless you count the 1/2 second from the time the ball was block to when Wright touched it. They needed to do something to create a spark and they almost did. It just didn’t work.

 

[Swagger]

With that being said, I should be thankful we don't have Kevin King. Good grief.

 

[NorthoftheRedRiver]

Thank goodness Micah Parsons played. It would have been much worse.

 

[visionary]

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

 

[Swagger]

Thank goodness Micah Parsons played. It would have been much worse.

True. He is a genuine baller. What a player and we have him on the first year of his rookie contract. Happy days

 

[SlammedZero]

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.

 

[TequilaCowboy]

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

Yeah, the defense at this point is around 15 to 20...in my opinion. Still better than last year obviously, but need a run stuffing linebacker.. never mind sideline to sideline, we have that in Parsons...i would be happy hashmark to hashmark stuffing the run and covering, or being in the way, of the over the middle pass under 10 yards. A Rolando McClain without the problems.

 

[john van brocklin]

-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.

Thanks for the insights

 

[CWR]

They came out flat. Obviously they got complacent, and that's on the players for eating the cheese and the coaches for allowing it to happen. Maybe it was unavoidable from a coaching standpoint, but after that performance everyone deserves criticism. Parsons is awesome though, I won't say anything bad about him.