Blogging The Boys
The Dallas Cowboys failed to achieve a winning record after a disappointing 30-27 loss to the Carolina Panthers. It was a back-and-forth contest that was frustrating thanks to a defense that continued to struggle and an offense that couldn’t make up the difference. The opportunities were there, but they just didn’t do enough to capitalize on them and came up short in Charlotte. Here are 10 thoughts on this disappointing loss to the Panthers.
After a good showing last week, we were all hoping the defense had turned a corner. Nope. It was another long day for this troubled defense. The Panthers put up 410 yards of offense, averaging 6.4 yards per play. While most of the damage came against the Cowboys’ porous run defense, Carolina was able to attack through the air as well. Panthers’ quarterback Bryce Young finished a yard shy of 200 yards, but threw for three touchdowns. The Cowboys’ defense just couldn’t make stops when they needed to.
Cowboys’ fans know firsthand that Rico Dowdle is a good player, but we couldn’t have prepared ourselves for what we witnessed on Sunday. Against his former team, Dowdle combined for a ridiculous 239 scrimmage yards with 183 of them coming on the ground. He finished with a career-high 30 carries and now has back-to-back 200-yard scrimmage games. It was an impressive showing for Dowdle, who was constantly churning out runs of seven-plus yards, repeatedly putting his team in favorable down and distances. The Cowboys’ run defense looked helpless against the Panthers’ rushing attack with Rico leading the charge.
Not only could the Cowboys not stop the run in this game, but they couldn’t run it themselves. Dallas had no threat of a rushing attack, finishing with only 31 yards on the ground on 19 attempts at a paltry 1.6 yards per carry. Javonte Williams couldn’t get going as he had his worst game in a Cowboys uniform with 29 yards on 13 carries. The Panthers’ defensive front lived in the backfield, as there were just no space to run. Without the presence of a rushing attack, the Cowboys’ offense became one-dimensional, and it wasn’t enough to get it done.
The lone bright spot for the Cowboys was how incredible George Pickens looked. The former Steelers’ receiver finished with nine catches for 168 yards and a touchdown. It was his sixth touchdown as a Cowboy, which is more touchdowns than in any of his three seasons with the Steelers. Pickens continues to show that he is the WR1B to CeeDee Lamb’s WR1A and has been everything we could have hoped for in helping the Cowboys’ offense.
The final Cowboys score did not end how we were hoping, as the team had a golden chance to go ahead in the game in the fourth quarter. With first-and-goal from the...
