zekecowboy
Well-Known Member
- Messages
- 1,927
- Reaction score
- 2,233
I am conflicted because of Garret and Dak! Here is an article that sums up the Atlanta game.
Leave it to the Dallas Cowboys to engage in a defensive battle with the Atlanta Falcons. Practically every game the Falcons have played this season has been a shootout. They have one of the NFL's most explosive offenses, but with star defenders like Keanu Neal and Deion Jones out, they typically aren't able to slow down anyone. This game therefore seemed like a perfect opportunity for the Cowboys to get their offense going and build momentum after a big win over the Philadelphia Eagles, but it took them over a half to get their offense going. They scored only three points in the first half. They followed that up with 19 in the second, and they needed every one of them to secure a victory.
The Cowboys are now back to .500. With the injury suffered by Alex Smith and the Eagles playing in New Orleans against the Saints, they now seem to control the NFC East. Things are looking up for the Cowboys, and the media covering the game gave them credit for that. Here is what they had to say following the big win.
Prescott did not play well in this game. Let's get that out of the way. But he was clearly injured, and he kept fighting. Quarterbacks with ankle issues generally don't make big plays with their legs, but in addition to his touchdown, Prescott earned a big first down on a read-option run as well. He may not be a star, but he is a fighter.
The Cowboys are missing practically an entire starting lineup today. No Sean Lee. No David Irving. No Taco Charlton. They are not remotely at full strength. If they win today, it will be a sign that their depth has improved significantly over the course of the season.
Drives that go for over 80 yards on 14 plays are rare. They need to be taken advantage of. The Cowboys don't have that many opportunities to score touchdowns. They missed a big one when Cole Beasley dropped an easy touchdown catch. That not only cost the Cowboys four points, but quite a bit of momentum as well.
The blocking is partially responsible for this, but Dak Prescott has not been able to set his feet and make basic throws so far in this game. Ezekiel Elliott has been the basis of the offense as Prescott continues to make some questionable throws, including a floater that was nearly intercepted to Beasley.
Prescott is trying to play hero ball in a game in which his defense has starred. He is trying to turn plays that should be throwaways into too much and it is resulting in big risks and, at the end of one Dallas drive, a sack. Elliott is playing very well. The Cowboys need to lean on him, not try to win through the air. Prescott needs to know that.
There's bad coaching, and then there's lazy coaching. The former is forgivable. The latter is not. Jason Garrett could have let the Cowboys throw a hail mary on their final play of the half, and they were in conceivable distance to do it. But he chose to just let the half end. It's not as though the Cowboys were likely to score, but not even trying is downright lazy.
Prescott is obviously physically compromised. He was taped up in the second half, and Dallas' play-calling show that he was not at 100 percent. But that doesn't excuse his poor decision-making in this game. The Cowboys are operating under a "three yards and a cloud of dust" philosophy today.
As a general rule, good things happen for the Cowboys when Dak Prescott runs the ball. When his ankle got taped up earlier in the game, it looked like that wasn't going to be a real option for the Cowboys. But Prescott gave the Cowboys the lead on a run, setting up one of the most predictive stats for the Cowboys possible.
What makes this all precipitously worse is how careful the Cowboys were with Lee going into the 2018 season, sitting him during OTAs and minicamp to prevent any injuries. That alone carried an ominous tone for what's now his present state, because if a football player needs to be cradled like a Faberge egg, it's time to discuss their ability to continue playing such a physically demanding game. That unavoidable conversation has now arrived with the heat of a thousand suns, melting away narratives of supposed loyalty and revealing the ugly truth beneath the porcelain mask.
https://247sports.com/nfl/dallas-co...A-BE-20-12-57-DD-6E181119_123346DallasCowboys
