What we learned in Cowboys’ 27-21 Week 9 loss to the Falcons

The Cowboys have won 12 games in three straight seasons, and to do that, sometimes the ball bounced their way. That is not happening this year, where everything that can go wrong has.

Injuries were plaguing the team coming into the meeting with the Falcons, and things only got worse. Quarterback Dak Prescott left the game after the third quarter with a hamstring injury, but he also appeared to be favoring his throwing hand on the bench. That led to backup QB Cooper Rush trying to win the game late.

Wide receiver CeeDee Lamb also was banged up in the loss, hurting his shoulder in the first half, which limited his ability later in the game.

Aside from the injuries, the Cowboys had chances to win this game. They couldn’t make plays that decent teams make to pull off the upset. There were mistakes everywhere, and they came from the Cowboys’ best players to cost them a chance at victory.

• Right guard Zack Martin missed a block that could’ve been a possible score on the offense’s first drive.
• On the second drive, Prescott missed a wide open Jalen Tolbert streaking down the sideline for what would’ve been an easy long score. Instead, he held the ball and took a sack.
• Prescott then missed a screen throw to tight end Jake Ferguson, who had to adjust to a bad pass, and wound up short of the first down. Two failed plays to get one yard later and the Cowboys turned it over on downs.
• Cornerback Trevon Diggs missed a tackle that would’ve forced a punt or a long field goal attempt, instead it resulted in a fourth-down conversion that went for a touchdown a play later when Diggs couldn’t fight through traffic. The confusion came after the Cowboys called a timeout to get themselves together.
• Return man KaVontae Turpin couldn’t keep his balance on a punt return that should’ve been a touchdown late in the fourth quarter, which was only compounded by Lamb’s drop of a perfect pass from Rush that should’ve resulted in a score a few plays later.
• The Cowboys were 4-18 on third and fourth downs, a percentage that won’t win many games.

We learned this team isn’t good enough to make up for the mistakes and nothing is going their way.

The Cowboys are one of the most poorly disciplined teams in the league, and that continued in the loss to the Falcons. There were nine more penalties for McCarthy’s reckless group, most of which were mental mistakes. There were false starts and infractions at the worst time to keep the Cowboys from being more competitive in the game.

Rookie left tackle Tyler Guyton had three false starts to put the offense behind the chains, but he wasn’t the only player who had issues. On the first play of the second half the right tackle, Terence Steele, false started to put the team behind on down and distance. To try and get some momentum going a few plays later, the Cowboys tried a fake punt, which failed, and Falcons scored five plays later to put Dallas in hurry up mode for the rest of the game.

The sloppy play isn’t new for the Cowboys, but the team was unable to overcome the mistakes. That’s been the case for much of the season, McCarthy just can’t keep his team from imploding.

Much was made of the decision to not allow veteran running back Ezekiel Elliott to travel with the team to Atlanta, but Rico Dowdle was the real story. Dowdle proved he could be the answer at RB, running 12 times for 75 yards and catching his second touchdown pass of the season. The 6.3 yards a carry was by far the best from any RB on the year yet McCarthy didn’t feel the need to give him more carries.

The Cowboys were having their most successful game in first down yardage, giving the offense opportunities to run it more, but Dowdle didn’t get the call. This is what McCarthy and Jerry Jones have been talking about since the season began, they wanted to be in position to run the ball more and it was effective early, yet they didn’t stick with it.

Dowdle’s juggling touchdown catch was the best play from the offense in the game and proof that he’s a good dual-threat RB. The veteran RB went over 100 total yards for the second time on the season.

If it wasn’t clear before Week 9, we learned that Dowdle is the best, and most complete, RB the team has, and he deserves to get the lion’s share of the work out of the backfield.