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Cowboys Today: Of Dallas' 5 losses, which one is the season's worst?

4 November 2024Last Update :
Cowboys Today: Of Dallas' 5 losses, which one is the season's worst?

ATLANTA — Just when you might have thought it couldn’t get any worse, it did Sunday for the Dallas Cowboys. A third consecutive loss has us wondering: What has been the worst of Dallas’ five losses this season? Considering that Dak Prescott could miss some time with a hamstring injury, maybe Sunday in Atlanta was it. But as sloppy as the Cowboys played against the Atlanta Falcons, we still think it was Week 2 against the New Orleans Saints.

Dallas lost 44-19 in that one, which is clearly worse than Sunday’s 27-21 defeat. But the bigger reason is because the Saints haven’t won a game since. They looked like one of the NFC’s best on that September day in AT&T Stadium. But in reality, they were just playing what has been a bad Cowboys team.

Here’s how fans voted after Sunday’s game.

What we wrote …

Catch up on our coverage from the game Sunday in Atlanta and more:

Machota: The Cowboys look more like a team with a top-10 draft pick than playoff contender

Yousuf: Jerry Jones remains “all-in” and hints at trade deadline movement

The Athletic roundtable: Will Cowboys play a meaningful game after Christmas?

Zak Keefer: What we learned from Week 9

And what we’re saying

A couple of snippets of what you’ll hear in our instant reaction to the loss in our “One Star Cowboys” podcast:

Machota: “3-5 looks bad. Losing these games looks bad. It’s worse than how it looks.”

Yousuf: “They’re next game against an NFC opponent — non-NFC East — is the Carolina Panthers in mid-December. We talk about the NFC not being very strong and the conference and all that stuff, the Cowboys haven’t beaten an NFC opponent in a very long time outside of their division. Honestly, I think they’re staring at 3-8 right in the face right now.”

Offensive line issues

One of the few positive plays for the Cowboys was a roller-coaster touchdown pass from Prescott to Rico Dowdle in the second quarter. Even though the end result was good, the play itself exposed arguably the Cowboys’ biggest weakness on offense: the offensive line.

By the time Prescott planted his foot on his dropback, Falcons defensive lineman Grady Jarrett had beaten Zack Martin and Eddie Goldman had gotten through Cooper Beebe, so Prescott had significant pressure inside. Meanwhile, James Smith-Williams beat Terence Steele around the edge on one side and linebacker Arnold Ebiketie was crowding Prescott’s feet after fighting through Tyler Guyton on the other side.

Six yards in front of Prescott, left guard Tyler Smith was a one-man wall, blocking Zach Harrison.

This Falcons’ defense, and specifically this pass rush, hasn’t been anything special all season long yet the Cowboys’ second drive of the game had back-to-back sacks. The aforementioned play should have been a sack but was salvaged into a touchdown after Prescott escaped. Everybody on the offensive line — aside from Smith — has struggled to some extent. That includes Martin, who has been arguably the top player at his position for the past decade. The right guard also whiffed on a block on the first drive that resulted in a busted screen play.

The running backs have worn a lot of the blame this season for the struggling run game but the offensive line holds as much, if not more, blame for that, too. That’s been an issue in both the run and pass games.

About that botched fake punt 

If there was one play that flipped the game in favor of the Falcons, it was the Cowboys’ decision to run a fake punt on fourth-and-2 from their own 38-yard line less than two minutes into the third quarter, trailing 14-10. Punter Bryan Anger threw a pass to C.J. Goodwin on the right side which fell incomplete.

“Love it,” Goodwin said of the decision to run the play. “Be aggressive. In Bones (John Fassel) I trust. I loved it. We’ll do it again later. It’ll work next time.”

The play was fairly straightforward, with Anger having the option to throw it to Goodwin on the right side or Ryan Flournoy wide to the left. The Cowboys were on the right hash, so the throw to Goodwin was shorter for Anger. The play was doomed — the Falcons were in Cover 2 and had the flats covered well.

The Falcons outscored the Cowboys 13-3 after that play, until Cooper Rush threw a late touchdown pass to Jalen Tolbert in the final 90 seconds.

What’s next for Zeke?

Ezekiel Elliott didn’t make the trip to Atlanta because of disciplinary reasons. The veteran running back has recently missed some team meetings. While many might think Elliott’s time is coming to an end with the Cowboys, it also sounds like the team wants to support the former two-time rushing champ.

“Definitely a difficult situation,” Prescott said. “Me personally, being as close as I am with him, wanting to help. I think if anything this will be good. I say that as obviously it was a mutual decision for him to not take this trip. As he’d say, just getting himself together. I’d like to just see us rally around him and be the teammates and the brothers that we are, and good will come from it.”

(Photo: Todd Kirkland / Getty Images)

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