Last week was extremely tough for the Dallas Cowboys.
Any time that a team loses 47-9, something had to have gone really bad. In the case of the Cowboys, it was everything that went really bad for them. In that spirit, let’s hand out some grades and assess some blame for this one. Spoiler: there’s plenty to go around
Quarterback
I’ll give this one away right now: Dak Prescott gets the best grade on this team outside of the special teams group. It’s not saying much, because the quarterback looked off pretty much right from the beginning, but he was one of the few who seemed to show up to play in this one.
Prescott only completed 51.5% of his passes and failed to score all day, but it’s hard to judge him in a game where he was under pressure on 47.4% of his dropbacks. He was also sacked four times, hit seven times, and his second interception of the day came when he was staring directly into the sun that Jerry Jones refuses to block with a simple sunshade. Prescott was far from blameless in this game, but there was also exceedingly little he could do given the way the rest of the team performed.
Grade: C-
Running backs
This week showed how far a good complaint session will get you. After Ezekiel Elliott spoke publicly about his dissatisfaction with his role thus far, the running back that had averaged just 22% of offensive snaps and four carries a game the last three weeks suddenly played on 41% of the offensive snaps and led the team in carries with eight. He proceeded to average 2.1 yards per rush, failed to break a single tackle, and failed to record a single first down.
Rico Dowdle, who was coming off a career game against one of the league’s best run defenses last week, played on just 28% of offensive snaps and saw just five carries; it was the first time all year he had seen fewer than 40% of snaps and set a season low for carries. Despite that, Dowdle accounted for 25 of the team’s 53 rushing yards, easily leading the team and being the only Cowboy to record a run of 10 yards or more. It already seemed obvious a week ago, but there is no reason Dowdle shouldn’t be the top back in this offense.
Grade: D
Pass catchers
So much was made last week about CeeDee Lamb calling for a jump ball from Dak Prescott that it felt ironic, and depressingly on brand for this team, that Prescott’s first jump ball to Lamb in this game went incomplete in the endzone on the opening drive. Lamb only caught seven of his 14 targets, and there several plays where miscommunication once again popped up for him and his quarterback.
It’s fair to wonder why the All-Pro receiver still can’t be on the same page, especially considering how rare those moments are for other, less experienced receivers on this team. Combine Lamb’s lackluster day with a disappointing showing from Jake Ferguson, a crushing fumble from rookie Ryan Flournoy, and not much else going on and this unit’s grade is not great. Jalen Tolbert saves the group from being worse, as he continues to stack consistent play week after week, but the Cowboys need more than just Tolbert.
Grade: D+
Offensive line
Where to even start? The Cowboys entered this game giving up the second-fewest pressures in the entire league, and the Lions defense was 28th in getting pressure. The result was Detroit pressuring Prescott on 47.4% of his dropbacks. Not only is that the highest mark they’ve given up this year, but it’s the second-highest in the entire Mike McCarthy era.
This was next level terrible from the offensive line, and their run blocking wasn’t much better. Somehow, Zack Martin was the worst offender in this game, giving up a team-high seven pressures. He had given up eight pressures so far this year, and he gave up seven in just one game. It’s never a good sign when even Martin is getting pushed around.
Grade: F
Run defense
It’s hard to rag on this defense too much, given how thin they are everywhere, so we’ll be brief here. The run defense was aggressively bad, generating next to no resistance against the Lions’ two-headed attack. Both Jahmyr Gibbs and David Montgomery averaged over five yards a carry, which is never a good sign.
Grade: F
Pass rush
Again, this pass rush unit was decimated, but Jared Goff had forever and a day to throw in this one. He was sacked twice but otherwise had clean pockets with relative frequency. Only Osa Odighizwa and Linval Joseph registered multiple pressures in this one. When does Micah Parsons return again?
Grade: F
Pass coverage
When the quarterback has as much time as Goff did in this game, the coverage is going to look bad. Even so, the Cowboys got beat bad quite a few times, frequently letting Amon-Ra St. Brown get wide open. Just two of Goff’s 25 pass attempts were thrown into tight windows. That’s bad.
Grade: F
Special teams
Brandon Aubrey remains amazing, and he was the only Cowboy who scored at all in this game. KaVontae Turpin had several big returns, including a 79-yarder that single-handedly set up one of Aubrey’s field goals. Special teams was the only group that played well in this one.
The only thing keeping this unit from an A+ is one of Bryan Anger’s two punts that only went 38 yards. Not that it mattered with how determined the defense was to let the Lions score from anywhere on the field.
Grade: A
Coaching
There’s no nice way to put this, but the Cowboys coaching staff was completely and totally outclassed in this one. How does your team get beat this bad at home? The come down from a gritty win over the Steelers was unexpectedly steep, and that’s on coaching.
Mike McCarthy’s offensive gameplan was fundamentally flawed, with no real rhythm or clear strategic purpose, and Mike Zimmer had no idea how to counter all the things the Lions threw at him. That’s not what you want from two coaches with this much experience. It’s enough to make you wonder why they’re even here if this is the kind of performance they put up in a game.
Grade: F
