When it mattered the most, the Cowboys offense turned in their worst possessions Sunday night. But a few ill-timed incompletions obviously don’t tell the whole story of the 30-24 loss to the 49ers; there were plenty of other contributing factors that make up the bad and the ugly in this week’s recap. The run game couldn’t get out of first gear (again) despite the one personnel move that the fanbase had been screaming for, a controversial penalty might have altered the disastrous third quarter had it gone the other way, and even John Fassel’s special-teams unit couldn’t get out of their own way in an unusually sloppy outing.
There was some good to be found, though… if you looked hard enough. CeeDee Lamb actually had one of his best performances, for example, perhaps putting to bed the bye-week storyline that there’s something wrong with the way he runs routes. And while most rookie offensive linemen prefer to fly well under the radar, one Cowboys youngster showed out and turned heads with a particularly flashy play that’s worth a second look.
Here’s are some of the trends, plays, and players you may have forgotten about that comprise the good, the bad, and the ugly of Week 8’s disappointing loss.
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Good: CeeDee Lamb’s never-say-die performance
Route-running critiques from franchise legends notwithstanding, Lamb continues to be the bright spot for the Cowboys offense in 2024. He had his most productive outing- by far- of 2024 on Sunday night, and his two late scoring grabs somehow helped turn a game in which Dallas trailed by 17 points with eight and a half minutes to go into an honest-to-goodness nail-biter. The comeback bid came up short, but Lamb turned in one of the best statistical performances of his career. His 17 targets and 13 catches tied personal bests, his 146 yards are a top-seven total for him, and he scored two touchdowns for just the eighth time as a pro. Given the lack of reliable pass-catchers around him to draw the defense’s attention, what Lamb is doing as the only legitimate offensive weapon on the team is remarkable.
Bad: Run game didn’t cook up any improvements over bye
Cowboys Nation clamored for seven weeks to put Dalvin Cook in the backfield, and when they finally did, he gained… 12 yards on six carries. (Sigh.) Rico Dowdle was a surprise last-minute scratch due to a mysterious illness, Deuce Vaughn never got onto the field, and Ezekiel Elliott managed just 34 yards on 10 tries. Even the first two series’ worth of plays- all ostensibly scripted over the previous two weeks- earned Dallas just eight yards on four rushes, with two of them gaining nothing. And it actually got worse after halftime: the Cowboys averaged just 0.6 yards per carry in the third and fourth quarters combined. The team apparently has no answer for how to spark a ground attack; at their current clip, they’ll end the season with just 1,260 team rushing yards (three clubs have more than that now) and their 74.1 rushing-yards-per-game average would rank as the lowest in franchise history for a season.
Ugly: Wasted possessions when they mattered most
That Dallas had a shot at a walk-off win at all defies belief. After forcing a three-and-out, the defense handed the ball back to Prescott & Co. with 3:05 to play, down by six points. Even with no timeouts, that’s an eternity for an experienced quarterback to lead his unit 75 yards. Except Prescott threw four straight incompletions (the only time all night he had more than two missed connections in a row) for a drive that used 16 seconds of clock and gained zero yards. Most painful was the deep-ball drop by KaVontae Turpin on third down, a gorgeous ball that he should have- and a taller receiver likely would have– caught. It wasn’t the only wasted opportunity; Dallas went three-and-out with under two minutes to play in the second quarter, when a touchdown would have increased the Cowboys’ halftime lead to 11 points and had San Francisco two scores down coming out of the break. Things could have been very different.
Good: Cooper Beebe shows hustle, continued progression
The rookie is trending in the right direction in his first pro season. His PFF grade for Week 8, a 77.3, was good for fifth-best among NFL centers (prior to Monday night’s game) and marked his best grade- easily- of the 2024 season thus far. He showed off the hustle that at Kansas State earned him the nickname “The Dancing Bear” on one first-quarter play in particular. After pancaking 49ers lineman Sam Okuayinonu on a Turpin end-around, Beebe followed the play and just happened to be in the right spot when Turpin coughed up the ball 11 yards downfield. Beebe pounced to retain possession and extended what turned out to be the Cowboys’ first touchdown drive of the game.
Bad: Seemingly obvious call doesn’t go Dallas’ way
George Kittle was all alone in the end zone for his third-quarter touchdown catch. And for good reason: Cowboys safety Donovan Wilson had been blown up by 49ers receiver Chris Conley. It looked like a clear and obvious pick, yet officials waved off the offensive pass interference flag. Incredibly, NBC’s Terry McAulay seemed to put the blame on Wilson for stepping in front of Conley, but also on cornerback Amani Oruwariye, who he claimed “kind of rides [Conley] into [Wilson].” Cris Collinsworth was baffled by both the no-call and the explanation, suggesting that teams will start copying Conley’s technique to similarly “act” their way into legal pick plays. Had the penalty stood, the 49ers touchdown would have been nullified, and it would have been 4th-and-goal… from the Cowboys’ 12. San Francisco likely would have settled for a field goal, and Dallas might have been able to stop the bleeding sooner.
Ugly: Special teams have not-so-special night
The Cowboys’ usually-spectacular special teams unit had an uncharacteristically rough outing. It started early when C.J. Goodwin was flagged for illegal formation on the opening kickoff. (The league later admitted it was a blown call, but far too late.) Then John Fassel’s troops got hit with yet more penalties on the night: Markquese Bell left early on another kickoff, one of Brandon Aubrey’s knuckleball boots came down short of the landing zone, and KaVontae Turpin’s lateral to Goodwin on a third-quarter kick return (the one they’d been faking for weeks in games) was deemed to be an illegal forward pass. The Cowboys were penalized six times Sunday night; four came against special teams.
