What went wrong for the Cowboys in 34-10 loss to the Texans

The Texans had no issues on Monday night, because why would they have?

Ahead of Monday night’s game, it was reported that a large piece of sheet metal had fallen from the roof of AT&T Stadium. It represented how everything has come crashing down for the Dallas Cowboys this season. No Dak Prescott, as he officially went on injured reserve before the game. As the Cowboys fell 34-10 to the Houston Texans, they dropped to 3-7 and are still winless at home as the season continues to crumble down, just like the stadium’s roof. In another excruciating home loss that saw the stadium overran by Texans fans while the Cowboys fans left in disgust, here’s what went wrong for the Cowboys.

Defensive Miscommunication

The Cowboys wanted to send a message by elevating many young players for Monday’s game to the active roster. Caelen Carson was benched in favor of Josh Butler, yet it didn’t matter. New players, same results. The Cowboys ushering new players into the lineup only continued communication issues on defense and permitted wide-open rush lanes for Joe Mixon, who dominated the trenches, running for over 100 yards and three scores.

In the back half of the defense, much was the same. Dallas played a lot of zone coverages versus Houston, and on several occasions, whether it was the linebackers or Israel Mukuamu, the player in the back seven were not on the same page. Houston’s receivers could run through zones without being re-routed, which permitted wide open windows for C.J. Stroud. Stroud completed passes to eight different receivers and was comfortable enough to choose his spots, while the secondary struggled to pass off receivers effectively.

Poor pass protection

First, we must acknowledge that Cooper Rush was placed in an unenviable position. Even though the Cowboys trailed, 55 attempts for Cooper Rush isn’t what a player of his caliber is best suited for. We’ve seen him succeed starting in place of Prescott, but he has never been asked to shoulder that much of the offensive burden as he was against Houston. It’s clear from Monday’s game that he’s not comfortable playing behind the Cowboys offensive line that suddenly is riddled with injuries.

The pressure from Houston’s defense forced him to be skittish in the pocket and have poor footwork, as many of his throws were rushed. Rush was sacked six times and had ten of his passes defended. Houston was in Rush’s face constantly, severely impacting his accuracy and timing with his receivers, forcing him to throw before he was ready, and the Texans’ secondary was tight in coverage, especially on short to intermediate passes. Also, Rush’s passes were often errant. Several of his passes missed the mark, were wide of his receivers, and put them in harm’s way. According to Next Gen Stats, Rush was about 10% below his expected completion percentage, mainly due to a lack of protection. Having him throw as much as possible didn’t do him any favors, but his protection is where a lot of it started.

Trying to play hero ball

To an extent, having Rush throw as much as he did is a byproduct of a team not playing within themselves. The first sign of Dallas trying to win the game with guts versus their brains was the decision to attempt a fake punt from their 33-yard line in a 7-0 game. Needing nine yards for the first down, Bryan Anger threw a pass well short of the line to gain to Juanyeh Thomas, who was tackled short of the markers for a turnover on downs. It didn’t hurt the Cowboys then because they intercepted Stroud on the ensuing drive—still, a very head-scratching decision.

Later in the game, Dallas was trailing by ten. Head coach Mike McCarthy passed up points after Brandon Aubrey nailed a 64-yard field goal after Derek Barnett’s penalty awarded the Cowboys a new set of downs. On the drive, numerous throws slipped out of the hands of Houston defenders as if to foreshadow that Dallas would not score on this sequence. Ultimately, they didn’t, as Dallas failed to convert on fourth and short from deep inside the red zone and they came away empty-handed. Instead of going for it on fourth down, Dallas could have taken the short field goal and only trailed by seven points and still very much been in the game until one more sequence sealed their fate.

This is just an example of wanting to do too much. Tyler Guyton is a rookie, and he’d be the first to admit he’s still learning and needs to be more consistent in pass protection. Yet, on this play, it goes from bad to catastrophic. He missed the block on Barnett leading to the strip-sack, recovered the fumble, but unfortunately is leveled by a Texans defender when trying to extend the play before fumbling again, Barnett scoops it up and returns it for a touchdown. It was a full comedy of errors occurring in one quick, deflating sequence. However, what is no laughing matter is that Guyton was injured on this play and had to leave the game, adding injury to insult and what could have been circumvented by living to fight another down.

Dallas’ desperation is starting to show, and it’s not looking pretty.