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One of the most consistent messages the 2024 Dallas Cowboys have tried to sell their fans on amidst a losing season that has them at 3-4 and third in the NFC East is how the amount of young players getting playing time now will pay off later on. In the spirit of Thursday being Halloween, here is a scary thought – it is now officially later for this team.
The Cowboys have dropped two games in a row for the second time already this season, losing last Sunday night off the bye 30-24 at the 49ers. If there was an opportunity for their theory to prove true about spinning inexperience as a positive, this was the game to turn fortunes against an opponent that’s had their number for seemingly forever now. Put all of that aside with players that haven’t been a part of playoff losses to the 49ers in two of the last three seasons, lean on the veterans who were to add timely plays, and get to 4-3 with a statement road win. The Cowboys managed to do none of these things and squandered a 10-6 halftime lead by allowing 21 straight points at the start of the second half.
This latest loss makes it easier than ever to say this quiet part out loud. The Cowboys are rebuilding. Since the beginning, this was always the true meaning of Jerry Jones’ now infamous “all-in” comment. In the most Jerry way possible, he took a term that the football world almost unanimously associates with doing everything possible to win football games, and rebranded it to basically mean the Cowboys are in on evaluating what they have in the depth of this roster before moving forward. A bold strategy to say the least with a head coach that’s won 12 games in the three previous seasons, but is now on the final year of his contract along with several assistants.
It comes as a shock to so few this season that the Cowboys are struggling in almost all of the ways they are. Mike McCarthy’s team has reached full-on midseason turmoil with an 0-3 home record and 61-19 point differential against them in the third quarter of their seven games. They have not beaten a team that currently holds a winning record outside of the Steelers, who were quarterbacked by Justin Fields at the time and not Russell Wilson who is now responsible for two of their six wins.
We bring all of this up just three days before the Cowboys’ next game in Atlanta, particularly the absurd retrospect on Jones’ offseason “all in” comment, because it was a loss at the very stadium Dallas will play in on Sunday back in 2017 that also produced a Jerry quote that’s hard to forget.
“We don’t want to have another Atlanta happen to us. The Burning of Atlanta” – Jerry Jones
Jones was referring to a 27-7 loss the Cowboys took at the Falcons in Week 10 of the 2017 season. The loss snapped a three-game winning streak and became the start of a three-game losing streak instead, scoring less than 10 points in the next two weeks as well against the Eagles and Chargers. The reigning NFC East champions from 2016 missed out on the playoffs entirely with a record of 9-7.
The Falcons loss that started the slide became known as the burning of Atlanta because starting QB Dak Prescott was sacked a career-high eight times. The Cowboys were banged up along the offensive line, most notably starting the woesome Chaz Green at left tackle, and the Falcons took full advantage of a Cowboys offense that let the pass rush tee off without ever adjusting. Adrian Clayborn did most of the damage himself for the Falcons with six of their eight sacks. Clayborn finished the season with a career high 9.5 sacks, basically making his entire season and setting the Falcons’ single-game sack record in the process in just 40 snaps against the Cowboys.
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Allowing a game like this to happen and rattle Prescott’s confidence was supposed to be motivation for the Cowboys to build a roster that could withstand injuries with better depth in the offseason, at least still according to Jerry:
“You do lose people… you’re supposed to make adjustments, we didn’t adjust,” Jones said of last season. “That really, really was a a focal point of our offseason.
Here in 2024, the Cowboys have negatively impacted Prescott’s confidence in a whole new way as they routinely ask him to play hero ball in a handicapped offense. They are still struggling with injuries, do not overcome any of them thanks to scheme or offensive creativity, and can’t even adjust well enough within the confines of a game to keep the offense on the field for more than three or four plays for long stretches at a time. This is how the Lions were able to hand the Cowboys the worst ever loss of the Jerry Jones ownership era in week six, and 49ers followed a similar script on Sunday to turn a four-point Dallas lead at halftime into a 17-point lead of their own by the fourth quarter.
When referencing how the Cowboys have not learned their lesson of how to field a more competitive team, starting with offseason approach, it goes much farther than just the Mike McCarthy era and has a bookmark here prior to this next chapter of Cowboys vs. Falcons. McCarthy as the Cowboys’ HC is 2-0 against the Falcons, with wins in each of his first two seasons.
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The first was a week two win from AT&T Stadium that marked his first win as the Dallas head coach in 2020, and it didn’t come without a wild ending and memorable play. Trailing 20-0 after the first quarter and 29-10 at halftime, the Cowboys put up 14 points and shutout the Falcons in the third quarter to draw closer. They still trailed by 15 with just under eight minutes to play though. The Cowboys got a Prescott passing touchdown and rushing touchdown in the span of six minutes and change, but still trailed by two as they missed the two-point conversion on the first score.
With 1:49 left, the Cowboys turned to Greg Zuerlein to attempt a unique onside kick. Later dubbed the “watermelon kick” by special teams coordinator John Fassel, Zuerlein spun the ball sideways right towards the Dallas sideline as a slow roller. The oblong leather ball apparently mystified the Falcons’ hands team, as they waited for it to go ten yards. Of course, only the kicking team actually needs the ball to go a full ten yards before recovering, whereas the Falcons could have jumped on it at any point to take over and run out the clock.
Instead, once the ball was at the Cowboys’ 46-yard line, special teams ace C.J. Goodwin recovered it and kept Dallas in the game. The Cowboys needed just six plays to gain 26 yards and win the game on a last-second Zuerlein field goal from 46 yards out.
Of note, Fassel remains in place as the Cowboys ST coordinator here in 2024 under McCarthy, and his group with kicker Brandon Aubrey had the only successful onside kick of this season under the new kickoff rules through week seven when the Buccaneers recovered one against the Ravens in a home loss.
McCarthy has always needed his top end assistants and coordinators to do their part in scheming up game-changing plays. This is something the Cowboys were forced to try and do out of desperation last week against the 49ers on defense, with first-year DC Mike Zimmer squeezing everything out of a group still without DaRon Bland, Micah Parsons, DeMarcus Lawrence, and Marshawn Kneeland. It was McCarthy’s offense, with play-calling that made the Cowboys look like a team that gets invited for a homecoming game to ensure the home fans go home happy, that created the fatal sequence in this game with three consecutive three and outs in the second half that led to 14 San Francisco points.
This trend may continue in Atlanta with the Cowboys playing in the early window for just the second time all season (also against a NFC South opponent in the Saints). They are getting slightly healthier on defense with Bland possibly back at corner, and will be putting a three-game winning streak against Falcons’ starting quarterback Kirk Cousins on the line. Cousins is 2-8 in his career against the Cowboys, but is coming off his second win against a new division rival in four weeks by beating the Bucs on the road. Cousins threw for a career high 509 yards against Tampa Bay in week five with four touchdowns including the overtime winner, and added another 276 yards and four touchdowns last week to improve to 4-0 against the NFC South.
The Falcons brought in the veteran QB to do exactly this, stand out in a division where their rivals lack a franchise signal caller, and Cousins is immediately delivering to make Atlanta the clear favorite going forward in the division. The same can hardly be said about a Cowboys team that has tried to use the same approach with Prescott’s edge on other NFC East quarterbacks to remain competitive, instead seeing rookie sensation Jayden Daniels lead the East with former DC and first-year HC Dan Quinn along with the Eagles find new life on offense thanks to big free agent acquisition Saquon Barkley at running back.
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This Sunday feels like a game that is extremely tough for the Cowboys, as the Falcons have any number of playmakers that can make the types of game breaking plays their own offense is mostly incapable of. The Falcons are a top ten team in both pass plays over 20 and 40 yards this season, while the Cowboys are in the bottom half of both categories. Dallas’ only hope may be that late life from the Prescott to CeeDee Lamb connection at the end of the 49ers game was an actual sign that, much like a year ago, the bye week can be the turning point for this crucial connection in the pass game.
Falcons first-year head coach Raheem Morris, in charge of the defense for Atlanta, will likely be aggressive and give Lamb his one-on-one opportunities should the Cowboys hold up in pass protection.
This is also a meeting of the two teams that have given up the third and fourth most rushing first downs in the league so far in 2024, with the Falcons at 69 and Cowboys just behind at 68. It hasn’t been difficult at all for Cowboys’ opponents to establish the ground game early and often against them. With the Falcons passing offense being plenty to handle on its own, Dallas must find a way to hold up better against the run, and starting with running the ball with any success themselves would go a long way in playing the complementary football McCarthy is seeking.
The Cowboys have scored at least 40 points in each of their last two games against the Falcons, but are still searching for their first 30 point game of the season entering week nine. The Cowboys scored at least 30 points in ten of their games a year ago, meaning they’d have to start a new streak this week and maintain it for the rest of the regular season to match the scoring from McCarthy’s first year as play-caller to the second.
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There may be some interesting and memorable history between the Cowboys and Falcons as NFC foes, but one thing is clear. If the Cowboys failed to make the 49ers a nameless, faceless opponent and play loose as a team “all in” on young talent, they better be able to against the Falcons if there is any chance of this rebuilding team remaining in a playoff hunt. A win would put the Cowboys back at .500 going into a stretch where two of their next three games are against the teams ahead of them in the division with the Commanders and Eagles. A loss would mark the Cowboys’ first three-game losing streak since McCarthy took over in 2020.
It won’t take too long into Sunday afternoon in Atlanta to find out if the Cowboys can be something of a rising phoenix from the ashes of a previous burn site, or just another team burnt by the regression caused by their own mistakes.
The Falcons look like an NFC playoff team. A third NFC loss and fifth overall on the season for the Cowboys would be catastrophic. A win, and the discussion around the Eagles game that follows changes dramatically.
