Blogging The Boys
The Dallas Cowboys are fully and blatantly out of things to play for on this 2025 season. The black and blue fact of this was set in stone before the Cowboys even arrived to AT&T Stadium on Sunday, as their playoff chances were reduced to 0% Saturday night when the Philadelphia Eagles beat the Washington Commanders on the road. It was made even more evident and painful by the way the Cowboys lost to the Los Angeles Chargers in their final home game of the season, losing 34-17, getting just one defensive stop and being shut out offensively in the second half.
The Cowboys will need road wins at the Commanders and Giants to sweep the season series against both rivals to finish 8-8-1, a technically non-losing record that would feel as hollow as their most recent two home performances against the Vikings and Chargers.
For the second game in a row, everything the Cowboys offense did against the Chargers felt extremely hollow. Last Sunday night against the Vikings, it was mostly CeeDee Lamb carrying things for the passing game while George Pickens was quiet, but the defense did not put up enough resistance for any of it to matter. This week against the Chargers was more of a showing for Pickens while Lamb was held more in check, but the defense somehow being even more hapless made the fact the Cowboys can have two different players stand out at receiver in different weeks an afterthought instead of anything at all to build on.
The result of defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus moving up to the coaching box and defensive line coach Aaron Whitecotton having a bigger role on the field was the Dallas defense being the first to not record a sack against Justin Herbert all season, and allow the Chargers to convert on 7-of-11 third downs. Mix in the fact the Cowboys were just one for three in the red zone, and this game was nothing more than 60 more minutes of football where the home team played in a way completely incompatible with winning, and unsustainable with an eye towards having a competitive culture and edge.
The Cowboys are on a short week for the final time this season, moving on from this game in a hurry and preparing for Christmas Day against old friend Dan Quinn. Let’s get to a few notes on the loss to the Chargers.
The examples of the Cowboys offense having good play sequencing and situational calls are few and far between over the last two weeks, but there were some glimpses of positives in this area early on against the Chargers. Against their shell style of coverage, the Chargers were playing to take away the quick inside routes from Pickens. After a third-down attempt on the opening drive went through the hands of Lamb, Pickens used this leverage to his advantage and won with an outside release to make a 28-yard catch on fourth down.
Three plays later in a goal-to-go situation,...
