Dak Prescott explains the frustrating lack of targets to George Pickens in Week 15 loss to the Vikings – Mauricio Rodriguez, A to Z Sports
Two games is enough for a trend, and George Pickens not being involved in two straight losses is a concerning one for the Cowboys offense.
Throughout the week, you heard it all about the Vikings’ aggressive defense led by one of the most blitz-happy defensive coordinators in the NFL, Brian Flores. Leading up to the game, Prescott even reminisced about that one time Flores sent Cover-0 (man coverage, no safety help, 6-7 man blitz) over 20 times versus Lamar Jackson.
And yet, the Cowboys weren’t ready for it. When asked about Pickens’ lack of involvement, Prescott pointed toward the Vikings’ Cover-0 looks.
“Honestly, just the zero looks and things like that,” Prescott said. “Simple as that, anytime we were in a passing situation or passing downs and they were giving us that look, we tried to throw him just a quick smoke — not early, well late honestly — and maybe we should have done it earlier. Maybe we should have just thrown him a slant. A lot of ‘maybes.’ I’m frustrated. This was one of the toughest ones I’ve been a part of.”
Maybe Prescott is right about the slant routes, though it sure felt like the Vikings — just like Detroit a week ago — were sitting on it. The Cowboys failed to have a changeup going into this one.
Brian Schottenheimer’s offense shut down by Cover-0 looks
Prescott attributed the “zero” looks to why he struggled to get Pickens the football, but that wasn’t it. Instead, he thinks that’s what overall made the Cowboys struggle in a must-win matchup.
“The zero [looks] that we talked about throughout the week, gave it to us a bunch,” Prescott admitted. “We didn’t have a good enough answer, and when you don’t have a good enough answer for that, especially against Flores, you’re going to see it again and again. That’s what happened.”
Though Cowboys players didn’t execute, the lack of a good answer also falls on head coach Brian Schottenheimer and his coaching staff. After the game, Schottenheimer was willing to admit it.
“They did a good job with their blitz packages,” Schottenheimer said.
Cowboys’ Trevon Diggs publicly steamrolls Matt Eberflus after SNF disaster – Jerry Trotta, The Landry Hat
Matt Eberflus’ defensive scheme being the right one for Dallas is also trending the wrong direction after Sunday night.
While Jerry Jones is quietly losing faith in Eberflus, he stopped short of throwing him under the bus. Trevon Diggs did not follow Jones’ lead. Here is what Diggs said after the game about why he thinks the defense has struggled to click this season (h/t to Jon Machota of The Athletic).
“It could be the change in defensive coordinator,” Diggs said. “That’s hard to deal with, changing plays, changing personnel, finding what fits, finding what scheme fits your players that you have, and then trying to find a balance that you can run with. I think we made some great additions, like on the interior with adding Quinnen and Kenny Clark and that was good. I feel like it’s headed in the right direction.”
Diggs did his best to sugarcoat that quote by saying that the defense is heading in the right direction. It’s also possible that Diggs was referring to the Cowboys’ revolving door of defensive coordinators, and not just Eberflus, who is the team’s third DC in as many years. Mike Zimmer replaced Dan Quinn last year, before Eberflus replaced Zimmer this season.
10 thoughts on the Cowboys devastating 34-26 loss to the Vikings – Dan Rogers, Blogging The Boys
The Cowboys didn’t match the energy of a Vikings team already out of the playoffs at home, which was a bad look.
5. A not-so-special special teams
Things didn’t go well on offense. Things didn’t go well on defense. And sadly, things didn’t go so well on special teams. After the successful fake field goal, it all went south. Aubrey uncharacteristically missed two field goals, which is always a bad sign that things are not going well. KaVontae Turpin let a punt bounce that rolled all the way back near the goal line. Even when Turpin had a nice return, they got flagged for a hold that negated the run. It was just bad on all three phases of the game.
6. Gotta be more aggressive
When the Cowboys started their opening drive with a fake field goal, this game looked like you’d see Schottenheimer being aggressive on fourth down. But several times when the Cowboys’ offense stalled out, he kept opting to trot Aubrey on the field. Normally, it would be hard to argue with his decisions, but the Cowboys’ defense makes this a precarious situation. Settling for field goals wasn’t going to cut it, and that should have made the head coach inclined to take more chances and leave the offense on the field.
The Cowboys attempting so many field goals in the first place was one issue in the loss, but Brandon Aubrey not being automatic on two of them was another.
Aubrey also, notably, made four other field goal attempts, the first time in his career he’s tried six field goals in a single game.
And yet, Aubrey is human. Having missed only two field goals all season through 13 games, the two-time Pro Bowler doubled that total Sunday night, sending both a 51- and a 59-yard try wide right.
After the game, the former soccer star took the two errant boots in stride, having already analyzed what went wrong.
“Struck the first one well [from] 51, just left it a little right of the target,” Aubrey told reporters after the game. “And then off the toe for the second one from 59. Pretty easy fixes for me.”
(Just for a moment, stop and think about how, just a few years ago, any field goal try from over 50 yards was a pretty iffy proposition. Since Aubrey entered the league, the Cowboys treat anything from the midfield stripe and closer as just about automatic.)
As stunning as the multiple misses were to watch, Aubrey pointed out that, even though the misfires are rare for him, a night like this happened before.
“I’ve had days like this every year; I’ve had one, specifically, every year,” he said. “I bounce back those years and just do the same thing. Nothing needs to change in the process.”
Indeed, Aubrey also missed a pair of field goals in the 2023 regular-season finale of his rookie season. Then it happened again last year, in Week 12’s meeting with the Commanders.
Zero to 100: Numbers behind Cowboys’ 34-26 loss to Vikings – Tommy Yarrish, DallasCowboys.com
CeeDee Lamb made some big plays in his return to action, but yet another highly-ranked Cowboys offense is going to be wasted with the loss.
16.7%
On 12 total third down attempts for the Cowboys offense, Dallas converted just two of them for a 16.7% conversion rate, their lowest of the season. The Cowboys fared much better on fourth down, where they were three of four (75%).
27
With 111 yards on six catches Sunday night, CeeDee Lamb now has 27 100+ yard receiving games in his career, moving him to second place in franchise history for the most such games. He now only trails Michael Irvin, who has the record with 47.
Commanders to sit Jayden Daniels for final three games of 2025 season – Kevin Patra, NFL.com
If there are any Cowboys fans still holding onto the slimmest of hopes for the playoffs, expecting two Eagles losses to the Commanders just got a lot harder.
After a sensational 12-5 rookie campaign, Daniels saw his numbers fall across the board, even when on the field.
He completed 60.9 percent of his passes for 1,262 yards with eight touchdowns and three interceptions in seven games. The quarterback added 58 rush attempts for 278 yards and two scores. The Commanders went 2-5 in Daniels’ seven starts.
The decision to shut down Daniels makes sense for a Washington club that was eliminated from postseason contention earlier this month.
The hope is that the rest will allow the dynamic QB to get fully healthy heading into the 2026 campaign.
Marcus Mariota, who started Sunday’s win, which broke an eight-game losing skid, will remain the starter. Veteran Josh Johnson is also on the roster, with Sam Hartman on the practice squad.
The Commanders end the season with home games against the Eagles and Cowboys, and close the campaign at Philadelphia.
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