Blogging The Boys
Before the Dallas Cowboys kicked off their game against the Arizona Cardinals, Jerry Jones claimed on the Stephen A. Smith Show that he had already made a trade and was working on a few more. Despite Jones not stating who the team had traded for, we now know it was Logan Wilson from the Cincinnati Bengals, or was it Quinnen Williams from the New York Jets? It’s fair to ask, does it even matter?
The Cowboys lost another game after they played sloppily, and the defense continued to hemorrhage yardage at an alarming rate. The loss essentially signals to the fans that a playoff appearance is highly unlikely with their upcoming schedule and all that has transpired with the team’s injuries. The one constant that the team had going for it was the offense, and they, too, only found the end zone once on Monday. Let’s all take a collective sigh and analyze how it went so terribly wrong for the Cowboys against the NFC West’s last-place team, the Arizona Cardinals.
The first sign of trouble was after a promising drive to start the game; things appeared to be looking up for the Cowboys. They were marching down the field and on the doorstep of getting the early lead over Arizona. An assortment of things went wrong to undo the drive, but on their fourth-down try from the four-yard line, Tyler Guyton gave up a sack to Josh Sweat as Dak Prescott was trying to step up in the pocket looking toward the end zone. Guyton also got steamrolled later on Dallas’ last possession that led to a sack on Prescott, and overall, struggled with his technique.
Terrence Steele didn’t do much better either. He struggled mightily in pass protection and failed to keep the pocket clean for Dak Prescott. He was also was beaten for a sack by Josh Sweat. By late in the game, Dallas had seen enough, and Steele was benched in favor of Nate Thomas, who, as you might’ve guessed, also allowed a sack. For both Steele and Guyton, their lapses in pass protection are concerning to varying degrees. Guyton is a second-year player, so there is room for him to grow and improve, even with his inconsistency and poor reps happening at the most inopportune times.
The Cowboys invested heavily in him as a first-round pick, so he has a longer leash, but it hasn’t been inspiring from his rookie season to now. As for Steele, he has already been paid handsomely when he was given a five-year, $82M contract in 2023 and carries a cap hit of $18M or more in each of the next three seasons. Schottenheimer did promise changes following last week’s loss. Could something with Steele or Guyton be the change that the head coach had intimated? All the same, a productive year from Dak Prescott and his explosive offensive ensemble is being...
