ARLINGTON, Texas — On the first play Monday night at AT&T Stadium, the Dallas Cowboys’ defense gave up an apparent 77-yard touchdown. Although a Houston penalty brought the ball back, the Texans scored on a Joe Mixon 45-yard touchdown run five plays later anyway. Two drives later, Mixon scored his second touchdown of the game.
Sandwiched in between those two Houston touchdowns were a couple of Dallas possessions. The first ended in yet another failed head-scratching fake punt. The other was an interception. Things looked like they were spiraling out of control, like each of the last six home games.
However, suddenly, things changed.
Right after falling behind 14-0, Dallas scored a quick-strike touchdown to make it 14-7. Houston added to its lead with a field goal, but Dallas responded with a field goal of its own. All in all, over the middle two quarters, the Cowboys outscored the Texans 10-6. The defense tightened and the offense looked functional. Most of the failed drives had something positive, even if the endings — a 40-yard miss by Brandon Aubrey and a turnover on downs at the 8-yard line after a 13-play drive — were sour.
The Cowboys looked like a competent NFL team.
If the middle stanzas made anybody believe the Cowboys had a chance, the fourth quarter exposed them. The Texans finally stopped playing with their food and brought out the forks and knives. Derek Barnett strip-sacked Cooper Rush. Tyler Guyton became the second Cowboys tackle in as many weeks to try and transform into a running back with the loose ball. The Texans jarred it out from Guyton. Barnett recovered the second fumble of the play and rumbled 28 yards for the touchdown.
Derek Barnett forced the first fumble and recovered the second for the TD!
📺: #HOUvsDAL on ESPN/ABC
📱: Stream on #NFLPlus pic.twitter.com/XoOP2tepIG— NFL (@NFL) November 19, 2024
Instead of dropping interceptions and gifting first downs, the Texans brought the hammer down on the Cowboys’ season, 34-10.
Most people on the outside — fans, media, pundits, etc. — had stuck the dagger in the Cowboys’ season long before Barnett sealed the game Monday night. There are any number of moments over the past month — perhaps even further back — people could point to as the unofficial end of the Cowboys’ postseason aspirations. But through all of that noise, the people on the inside displayed a brash exterior. They talked about a storybook ending. They were confident that wins were around the corner.
The leader of that attitude has been Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones. As recently as last week — after the Philadelphia Eagles blew out the Cowboys 34-6 at AT&T Stadium — Jones had an intensity about him when he spoke. There was a visible fire, from his words to his demeanor.
Monday night, it was different. For the first five minutes, Jones spoke in a subdued tone. Then, he was asked if he thought the season could still turn around, as he spoke so much about in recent weeks, even as the losses piled up.
“Well, it’s 10 games,” Jones said. “Certainly, the numbers are coming to us and certainly we have to be realistic about how we’re playing. We have to be realistic about what we’re dealing with at quarterback, what we’re dealing with — we have to calculate that in the look ahead.”
The delusion was gone. It was replaced with acceptance.
Acceptance that 10 games had been played and the team is 3-7. Acceptance that the Cowboys are tied in the standings with the Carolina Panthers, and Travis Hunter looks a lot closer than the final wild-card spot. Acceptance that Rush, 0-2 on the season, won’t go 4-1 in relief of Dak Prescott this time.
In the locker room, there was a similar feel.
“I look at this as an opportunity for growth,” Lamb said. “Like my rookie season (in 2020), we went 6-10. I know every year after that, it was pressure for everybody. With that, I know that the world doesn’t end this year. Unfortunately, it didn’t happen the way that we wanted to but we’ve got to learn from these things. We’ve got to learn that, obviously, not scoring touchdowns in the red zone is going to kill us. We’re going to lose games. … We can’t really take all of these steps back and expect to win.”
If the Cowboys were to even sniff a magical turnaround, it had to start against the Texans. The demoralizing thing about the results Monday night is that the defense actually gave the Cowboys a chance. That may sound strange, given the atrocious start defensively and the Texans finishing with 34 points, but it’s true. After a terrible first quarter, the second and third quarters were solid for a unit that’s been historically bad this season.
But as the defense held on by a thread, the offense did nothing.
“I feel like the defense after the first half, they played lights out,” Lamb said. “Quite honestly, I take it real personal for (the offense) to be the reason that we’re losing in these blowout games because if you look at it, granted, they’re giving up a lot of points but bro, we are scoring nine points per game.
“Everybody should take accountability in that, myself included because obviously, I’m the one here. I wear that on my sleeve. I know I’ve got to get in the end zone. For me, it’s getting better at what I do and my craft and getting in the end zone for us.”
For weeks coming into the game Monday night, many Cowboys fans and detractors alike had issued the verdict on the Cowboys’ 2024 season. Although it isn’t mathematically official, it felt like the Cowboys have accepted the reality of that verdict, too.
(Photo: Sam Hodde / Getty Images)
