Blogging The Boys
Hello darkness, my all too familiar friend. Needing a win to keep pace in the NFC playoff chase, the Cowboys needed to pull off an upset. Instead, fans were upset. The Cowboys rolled into the Mile High City only to be trampled by the Denver Broncos. Dak Prescott’s MVP candidacy likely came to a screeching halt after a poor performance where his streak of at least three touchdown passes and zero interceptions was snapped.
Conditions were not ideal, but Prescott wasn’t making matters any better. His two interceptions took potential points off the board for a team that needed a shootout just to have an outside chance of winning. That said, it wasn’t only Prescott responsible for the team’s struggles; many other factors contributed to the embarrassing loss. Here are three more reasons why Dallas lost against Denver.
Penalties
Playing against a quality opponent in a hostile environment, the Cowboys needed to be at their best to play sound football. Dallas failed at that, which resulted in a sloppy performance throughout. Being undermanned and getting beaten between the whistles is somewhat understandable, but what cannot be excused is that they failed to limit pre-snap penalties.
After Trikweze Bridges’ interception of Bo Nix, the Cowboys started off with a promising drive to open the game and were on the doorstep of taking a 7-0 lead. That is, until Tyler Guyton had a false start penalty when Dallas had 3rd-and-goal from the one-yard line. Technically, the penalty was called on Brock Hoffman, but video evidence clearly shows Guyton moving before the snap to force the Cowboys in 3rd-and-goal from the 6-yard line, ultimately resulting in a field goal versus a touchdown.
On Dallas’ next drive, Guyton had a false start penalty that placed Dallas in second and long after a positive gain by Javonte Williams. The drive then stalled after Guyton allowed a sack on Dak Prescott as it was not a very disciplined sequence of plays for Guyton.
Also, edge rusher James Houston had a brutal offsides penalty. Had it not been for Houston lining up offside, the Cowboys would have forced Denver to punt and had the opportunity to take a two-score lead, potentially changing the course of the entire game. That’s just a few early examples of Dallas’ lack of attention to detail hurting them almost as badly as the Broncos could have. In all, Dallas committed nine penalties for 80 yards of field position. The only penalty that resulted in a positive outcome was Sam Williams’ unnecessary roughness penalty, which tempted the Broncos to attempt a two-conversion, which failed. The Cowboys were beating themselves.
A defenseless defense
Where do we start? Yes, the Dallas secondary is very depleted. Trevon Diggs was placed on injured reserve on Saturday, Juanyeh Thomas was inactive as was Donovan Wilson, but still the secondary is not performing even at an acceptable level given the circumstances. Despite getting an interception, Bridges was often picked on by Bo Nix and allowed multiple touchdowns in pass...
