There should be a law that the Cowboys can’t play the Broncos anymore. The Cowboys haven’t beaten this organization, in Denver or Dallas, since 1995. And they’ll have to wait even longer to break that streak, as they fell apart at the seams this week on the road. All the good will that was built up from last week’s win was blown out of the water.
Things started off great, though. The Broncos started with the ball and Trikweze Bridges, making his second start, picked off Bo Nix on the third play of the game. Dak Prescott hit CeeDee Lamb on a huge 29-yard gain to set up first and goal, too. But some broken plays and a false start penalty resulted in settling for a field goal.
And things pretty much went downhill from there.
An offsides penalty wiped out a third down stop for the Dallas defense, which was missing four different starters plus their top backup safety. A few plays later, RJ Harvey went 40 yards for a touchdown, taking the lead. The Cowboys offense promptly went three-and-out afterwards, and Denver scored another touchdown in just four plays.
The Cowboys later scored a touchdown, with Javonte Williams getting a taste of revenge against his former team. That cut the Broncos lead to 14-10, but the defense couldn’t get a stop. A 32-yard pass interference penalty on Alijah Clark flipped the field for Denver, and they scored another touchdown soon after. Another three-and-out for Dallas led to another touchdown, putting the game virtually out of reach at 27-10 in the end of the second quarter.
Still, the Cowboys tried one last-ditch effort to score points before halftime, made more valuable by the fact that they’d get the ball to start the third quarter. But Prescott tried to force a ball downfield to Jake Ferguson that was picked off, swiftly extinguishing any hope of creaking open the door for a comeback.
A Cowboys touchdown to start the third quarter helped, but it was simply too little, too late. The game was over at halftime, and the defense only got worse as the game wore on. Unlike previous games this season, Dallas couldn’t rely on their offense to score in bunches, which is how teams get blown out.
By the time the final whistle blew, Joe Milton was handing off to Malik Davis to run out the clock on a 44-24 blowout. It’s the third straight game between these franchises that saw Dallas lose by multiple scores, and it drops the Cowboys to 3-4-1. They have yet to be above .500 this season, and their earliest chance to do so won’t come until after their bye week.
Of course, the Cowboys have a lot of soul searching to do before even thinking about that.
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