Cowboys lose more key players, real chance at NFC East with 3rd straight loss at Falcons

How many times can you watch the same thing over and over and still enjoy it? At this point in the year, this is an question with wildly different answers. If we’re talking about Christmas movies or Thanksgiving specials as the calendar turns to November, there may be some re-watch value. If it’s an NFL team that entered week nine on a two-game losing streak and third in their division before losing again to drop three straight for the first time since 2020, patience within the fanbase may be thin.

This was already the case for the 2024 Dallas Cowboys, but their latest 27-21 loss at the Atlanta Falcons marked their second straight off a bye week that served as the last real chance for this team to regroup and remain within contention to repeat as division winners. The trade deadline is apparently a chance for the Cowboys to do “a couple of things” according to Jerry Jones. The problem is, the Cowboys came into this game at the Falcons as a team with more than just a “couple” of major issues, and only added more to this list in the loss.

In the team’s first game since Halloween, a frightening amount of factors that have constantly set the team back on game days this season were all on full display again. Even the slight hope Dallas showed by holding a lead at halftime against the 49ers or mounting a fourth quarter rally to get within one score late was gone. There was another touchdown drive that led to Dallas being in position to need an onside kick to stay alive, but it was orchestrated by Cooper Rush after Dak Prescott left with a hamstring injury in the third quarter.

There was nothing within the reasons the Cowboys lost on Sunday that was new for Mike McCarthy’s team. The only new things to talk about coming out of this game are further reasons why the season continues to slip away with Dallas at 3-5. Dallas, at a minimum, had a chance to show their culture was strong enough even after a tough loss at San Francisco to continue showing fight and make this season an honest and useful evaluation of the existing roster. Their effort in Atlanta would suggest even this low bar to clear is not being met with the Cowboys going 3 of 13 on third down, one for five on fourth downs including a fake punt attempt that had no chance, and committing nine penalties.

The Cowboys faced more internal dysfunction leading to Ezekiel Elliott not making the trip with the team. Rico Dowdle looked good in the lead role, but was still part of a Cowboys offense that managed consecutive turnovers on downs between the end of the first half and start of the second, where Dallas has been absolutely punished by opponents this season. Both sides of the winning formula from a year ago, scoring points in bunches via big plays and playing defense from ahead to hunt for sacks and turnovers, have gone missing within this three-game losing streak.

The Cowboys technically won the time of possession battle by a minute and 20 seconds and outgained the Falcons on the ground 137-100, but these became empty stats when the Falcons completed almost 80% of their passes for an average of over eight yards a play and established Bijan Robinson with 19 carries for 86 yards. Grading by how the game actually unfolded on Sunday afternoon and not these stats, it’s clear the Cowboys don’t have an offense capable of these same things. Even before Dak Prescott and CeeDee Lamb both left the game with injuries, the passing offense looked forced and unimaginative with short passes that played into Atlanta’s strength of tackling in the secondary. Lamb did return just to take more shots on an injured shoulder and ribs and catch a two-point conversion attempt from Rush that put the Cowboys within six, but this warrior-like effort only came in another loss that will frustrate the players this team is relying on even more.

The Cowboys are still throwing meaningful passes on key downs to KaVontae Turpin or relying on both rookie tackle Tyler Guyton and Terence Steele at tackle to hold up in pass protection, just some of the latest examples of ways they fail to give themselves a chance in these games.

With two division games now on the horizon against teams the Cowboys are looking up at, both the Eagles and Commanders who won again in week nine, this loss at the Falcons is now the type of game the fans, players, and media have no choice but to think more of are on the way for the Cowboys. The Cowboys still have four games remaining against the Eagles and Commanders and one on Thanksgiving with the Giants, but the reality is they are a three-win team at the moment. This puts them on par with the Jets in the AFC and only ahead of the Giants, Panthers, Saints, Patriots, Dolphins, Raiders, Browns, Titans and Jaguars.

None of these teams have made anything close to the $60 million commitment the Cowboys did to Prescott before the season, only to do nothing about his supporting cast or protection up front in free agency, and others have fanbases actively rooting for the number one overall pick. The Cowboys are not in the company of any teams with even the faintest hope they can earn a spot in the playoffs and make a run, not by holding wins against a Giants team still winless at home, Browns team at the height of turmoil under Deshaun Watson at the time, and Steelers pre Russell Wilson. They’ve been turned away with ease at every opportunity to show themselves against a blue chip team, beaten soundly by the Ravens, 49ers, Lions, and even the Saints for one of New Orleans’ two wins.

This is obviously a Cowboys team in need of the types of changes that can only happen in the offseason. With nine more kickoffs to get through before then, here are a few further notes on their latest four quarters from Atlanta that Dallas will have to use to prepare for Philadelphia at home.

The Cowboys did not elect to take the ball first for the first time since week two, and actually saw it work out as the defense forced one of five Falcons punts with a quick stop followed by a field goal drive. The Cowboys had an early lead, similar to how they did against the Lions and 49ers, but once again couldn’t use it to swing control of the game on their side. While their scoring drive relied on the types of short passes that have gone for short gains all season actually moving the chains, the Falcons answered in the same seven plays it took for Dallas to go 59 yards for three points to go 78 for a touchdown to Drake London working against Trevon Diggs.

Kirk Cousins’ yards per attempt nearly doubled Prescott’s in the exact same amount of attempts. It didn’t matter that the Cowboys played turnover free football for the first time since that week four win at the Giants, as the Falcons still won the critical matchup of getting their best players schemed for big plays.

It sounds overly simple, but the Cowboys are one of the worst teams in the NFL in this area, while making their opponents regularly look like one of the best. Run after the catch opportunities to Jake Ferguson for gains of 27 and 15 on two of the Cowboys’ first three plays were few and far between for the rest of the afternoon. Ferguson caught five more passes for just 29 total yards the rest of the game.

Again without DaRon Bland in the secondary, but adding back rookie Caelen Carson who had been out since week three, the Falcons wasted no time going after Carson in man coverage as well as forcing him to tackle on the boundary. Bijan Robinson also found himself in the pass pattern against Eric Kendricks a number of times for big plays, catching all seven of his targets for 59 yards.

Once the Falcons could get these secondary matchups they wanted with ease, and mostly keep Cousins upright against any pressure looks Mike Zimmer called upon, it didn’t take long for the Dallas defense to be fully exposed again with more veteran players like Diggs and Donovan Wilson not being able to make plays they’re expected to.

The Falcons 7-3 lead after the London touchdown against Diggs quickly became a familiar two-score hole for the Cowboys as they went to Darnell Mooney for another touchdown. Early possessions that went backwards for the Cowboys again proved costly as they went three and out by taking two sacks on the drive immediately following the Falcons’ first touchdown and then had a turnover on downs on a failed jet sweep to Lamb on fourth and short.

The Lamb play came after a Tyler Smith missed block on third down led to Dowdle being tackled just short of the line to gain, where a Falcons player went unblocked on the right edge allowing Lamb to be tackled for a loss. A drive gift wrapped to McCarthy’s offense by a defense that turned the Falcons over on Carl Lawson’s strip sack ending in this way let enough air out of the balloon for the Cowboys’ chances to pop five plays later on Mooney’s score.

Out of a Dallas timeout to get Diggs back on the field after being seen nursing an injury for a long time after the previous play, the Cowboys’ top corner never got lined up properly and ended up in no man’s land on a pick play and wheel route from Atlanta. Mooney ran to wide open space while Diggs trailed the play and never came close to covering anybody, catching an easy lob from Cousins that set the tone this would be yet another game the Cowboys would play from well behind against a powerful offense.

Zimmer’s defense may have found few opportunities to get to pressure looks and scrap like usual to keep the Cowboys in this game, but the Falcons always had an answer that looked so much easier than the desperation plays the Cowboys needed to stay alive like Dowdle’s juggling touchdown catch. This a Cowboys team that has to fight for their lives on game days just to look like they belong on the same field as some of their opponents, and even when doing a good job of this, still find a way to commit unforced mistakes and penalties that only widen the disadvantage they’re at thanks to injuries and scheme.

After the Falcons jumped ahead 21-10 by picking on Wilson with a crossing route for a Ray-Ray McCloud touchdown in the third quarter, the Cowboys’ ensuing drive stalled with a 12 men in the huddle penalty on fourth and short. The Cowboys punted and would only manage to get the ball in Prescott’s hands one more time, getting another field goal drive at the end of the third quarter to go to the fourth within eight points. Unfortunately, the rest of their comeback effort would have to be led by Cooper Rush, who had no benefit of the run game being established or anything else to keep the Falcons defense from keying on a hobbled Lamb and slowing down the entire pass game.

This is a Cowboys team without trust in their offensive line despite making it their mission to be a tougher team under McCarthy and spending draft capital here, without trust in receivers to run downfield or create space for each other with crossing routes that are staples of other offenses, and understandable lack of trust in the run game. It is a stunning deterioration from year one to two of McCarthy as the play-caller.

The Cowboys’ final turnover on downs came after an incompletion just out of the reach of Lamb at the goal line, the kind of catch he needs to come up with along with the play that took him out of the game momentarily, followed by a drop through contact by Turpin. How Turpin continues to end up being targeted on must-have downs for this Cowboys offense that is doing nothing to help their skill players, quarterback, or offensive line succeed is a mystery that’s gone on too long for this team.

The best thing that came from their last win at the Steelers all the way back in week five was supposed to be establishing Jalen Tolbert as this type of receiving threat, but that has quickly disappeared from an offense still without Brandin Cooks.

If the best thing that was supposed to come from the loss to the 49ers was some resemblance of fight and a lack of quit being shown by this severely undermanned Cowboys team, as well as the beginning of a Prescott-to-Lamb connection heating up, both of these things also disappeared in the latest loss to the Falcons in the worst possible way.

Injuries to star players like Prescott and Lamb may distract from how poorly overall this team was playing, even with these two in the lineup. It won’t be long until the Cowboys have to turn the page to another game day though, still looking for their first home win against the Eagles. When they do, the Cowboys are all the more likely to look like an underprepared and under-talented team once again. This is not a football team equipped to win anytime soon, or as least any definition of “soon” that lives within a 2024 season that’s gone so horribly wrong for a Cowboys team that had a chance against the Falcons but couldn’t seize it. This was the only game within the current losing streak that felt there for the taking, and even that was a fleeting feeling that only persisted for short spurts against the first place team of the NFC South.

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