The 2025 Dallas Cowboys continue to be incapable of getting out of their own way, and looking anything close to the team they are at home in tough road games. Now at 3-4-1 and a full three games behind the defending Super Bowl champion Eagles, the Cowboys still having their home game against the Eagles coming up in four weeks is not enough to look forward to when it comes to reaching the playoffs by winning the NFC East. Dallas will need help elsewhere, as well as much better road performances in Las Vegas, Detroit, Washington, and New Jersey to keep any of these hopes alive. Their 44-24 week eight loss at the Denver Broncos did not provide much reason for this hope, as the Broncos completely dictated the pace of play and never allowed the Cowboys to get into their rhythm.
Matt Eberflus’ defense, down multiple key starters in the secondary again, was no match at all for the Broncos short passing game. That led to the deep passing game getting going, and also opened up the running lanes for Denver to look like the much better and more balanced offense compared to the Cowboys own top-scoring offense. This will surely be a point of frustration for Brian Schottenheimer, who becomes the third different Cowboys head coach to lose to the Broncos since 2017. All three losses have been decisive and featured a Dak Prescott-led offense looking way out of character.
The Cowboys have now lost eight in a row to the Broncos, seeing a window of opportunity slammed shut this Sunday on proving they’re anything more than a carbon copy of the McCarthy era teams that reached the playoffs almost solely by winning against lesser teams, and mostly at home. It can’t be forgotten in this context that just reaching the playoffs at all under Schottenheimer would be a success given how he was received at the time of his hiring, but with what the Cowboys have invested on offense and especially at quarterback, not having any visions of being a truly viable playoff team for the first time in decades is rightfully frustrating. The Broncos in their amazing throwback uniforms delivered a serious blow in this way.
The Cowboys only have their ownership of the New York Giants to thank for being out of the top spot on this dubious list against the Broncos, as they’ve beaten the Giants nine times in a row. The fact their full body of work on this 2025 season only includes wins against the Giants in overtime with Russell Wilson at QB, at the Jets, and versus a Commanders team without their top two starting wide receivers, and Jayden Daniels for much of the game, paints a clear picture that this team is not truly close to being a contender yet. Schottenheimer’s team has continued a lot of concerning trends from the McCarthy era so far, particularly in how they perform on the road, making this loss in Denver equally as miserable to watch compared to how joyous it was versus the Commanders. We may not be asking who the 2025 Cowboys are for much longer, but that doesn’t make having the answer they’re a middling team unable to get above .500 or win consecutive games any sweeter.
Let’s get to some notes on the latest loss to the Broncos, the third in Prescott’s career to Denver, with this one being his lowest yard output, tied in interceptions and sacks, and highest in yards per attempt despite completing only one pass over 20+ yards. The Broncos and Bills are the only teams Prescott does not have a win against in his career, now 0-3 against Denver.
The first-place Broncos ran away from the Cowboys in this game and made a statement about their standing in the tough AFC West by being ready to capitalize on every single mistake by Dallas. The time for the Cowboys to do this off Broncos mistakes was short-lived and will become a forgotten footnote from this loss, and didn’t come without regular unforced errors they made throughout the afternoon too.
Following Trikweze Bridges’ interception on the opening drive of the game for the Broncos, the Cowboys started on a short field and got the ball to the one-yard line after a big play-action pass to CeeDee Lamb. The Denver defense started with Patrick Surtain on George Pickens, and Lamb quickly took advantage working against Riley Moss. Instead of being able to run the ball in and fully take advantage though, the Cowboys were backed up to the six on a false start for a third-and-goal attempt that went incomplete to Lamb this time. Getting the ball to Pickens against Surtain also didn’t work on second down. Settling for a field goal kept the door wide open for the Broncos to come back and take their first lead, one they would never give away all game.
The Cowboys secondary certainly had their struggles holding up against the pass, with a starting safety group of Markquese Bell and Alijah Clark, but it was the run defense on the backend paired with more poor play at linebacker that really let the Broncos offense get off to the races. RJ Harvey ran for two touchdowns and caught another, the first of which was a 40-yard dash that caught the Cowboys in a pass rush look up front and unable to set the edge whatsoever. This touchdown came after the Cowboys got a third-down stop on the drive that was negated thanks to James Houston lining up offsides. The Broncos ran away from Houston and towards Sam Williams, and the defense was unable to slow down Harvey or the Broncos from taking a 7-3 lead.
This theme of the Cowboys defense being unable to get the Broncos behind the sticks offensively led to the Broncos only facing eight third downs and converting five of them. The Cowboys did finish with just one less first down to the Broncos at 25-24, but were 4-11 on third down and leave Denver without TE Jake Ferguson getting even a single target. Much like the loss at the Panthers, the Cowboys offense felt stuck between aggression and patience from the start, put in this unfortunate spot thanks to a defense that came out of the gate regressing to all of the concerns they did well to put behind them against the Commanders – now back at square one in many of these same ways.
Dallas winning the big-play differential still likely wouldn’t have kept them in this game with the defense playing so poor again, but not being able to at least make these types of plays to continue feeling good about the offense adds an entirely new level of disappointment to this loss. Schottenheimer’s matchup-based offense had these struggles against a Broncos defense that lost Surtain to injury later in the game, but yet the only story of one offense taking advantage of matchups in the secondary from this game is Bo Nix and the Broncos against the Cowboys own defense. Nix was also only hit once by the Cowboys defense and not sacked at all.
Even when the Cowboys defense tried to bring extra pressure on a 1st-and-20 look for the Broncos following a Cowboys three-and-out with a third-down sack, they were gashed for the first of two Troy Franklin touchdowns that put the Broncos up 14-3. Bell was the blitzing defender on this play, but never got close to Nix, leaving the Cowboys exposed in the secondary as Bell was also relied on at safety in this game without Malik Hooker, Donovan Wilson, or Juanyeh Thomas.
The Cowboys answering this touchdown with one of their own by going to Javonte Williams near the goal line this time was as close as they’d get at 14-10. By the time Williams scored his second one-yard touchdown, the Broncos already had a 17-point lead. Their rookie receiver Pat Bryant beat the Cowboys rookie Bridges for a touchdown deep, with Bridges not having any safety help and giving up an outside release. This score took advantage of another Cowboys three-and-out after failing to convert in short yardage with both a run to Williams and pass into the flat that was nearly intercepted. The Broncos not only got this quick-strike touchdown, but they intercepted Prescott to end a scoring chance for the Cowboys before the half, a situation they’ve been so good in this season. Prescott got aggressive throwing down the seam for Ferguson when Dallas only needed a few more yards to attempt a Brandon Aubrey field goal. The Broncos had full control of the game and momentum behind a home crowd they haven’t lost in front of yet this season by halftime with a 27-10 lead.
The Cowboys offense was going to need to be perfect for the entire second half to have any chance, and mitigating the Broncos pass rush while playing from a trailing position is a mammoth task. Starting the second half with the ball, the Cowboys converted a third down with a Prescott scramble and later a fourth down with Pickens making another acrobatic catch along the sideline for 17 yards. This catch put the Cowboys in 1st-and-goal from the ten, but it took six plays, two pass interference penalties on Moss, and valuable time off the clock to finally get in the end zone. The Cowboys stayed balance to get the score they needed, but with just over a quarter and a half remaining still down ten, the defense was going to need to do something it showed no capability of and tighten up against the run to get quick stops to have any real comeback chances. Instead, the Broncos proved they were ready to respond to anything positive but hard-earned from the Cowboys in this game with a much more effortless big play of their own.
Denver took the ensuing kickoff after Williams’ second touchdown 46-yards on Marvin Mims’ return, and thought they had the dagger touchdown just four plays later when Nix hit a wide open Courtland Sutton in the end zone. The play was called back for offensive pass interference and the Broncos settled for a field goal, but from here their 30-17 lead didn’t take long at all to reach 37-17 and effectively end the game. The Cowboys offense was unable to be perfect on their next drive, missing on third and short, and punted the ball away only to see the Broncos go on their longest scoring drive of the game in 12 plays for 84 yards and another touchdown. Tight end Evan Engram made far too easy work of Kenneth Murray at linebacker to convert a 3rd-and-10 that kept the drive alive and got Denver in the red zone. Franklin scored his second touchdown, the Broncos came down off another interception and this time picked on rookie linebacker Shemar James in coverage to get Harvey his third touchdown, and enjoyed their biggest home lead of the season at 44-17.
The Cowboys were pushed around in the trenches with their defensive line, unable to get a pass rush off the edge, shredded at linebacker, and undermanned in the secondary against a Broncos team that now has wins against three of the four NFC East teams, not playing the Commanders until Week 13 on the road. Really the only good news offensively coming out of this game for the Cowboys is that they remained healthy and can continue to look forward to doing so with Cooper Beebe working his way back at center. Their longest pass play of the game was Joe Milton throwing to Jalen Tolbert for a 35-yard touchdown after Dallas already trailed by 27.
The Cowboys will have to count on much more consistency and the ability to finish drives on offense back at home for their first Monday Night Football game of the season against the Cardinals next week. Just like their recent struggles against the Broncos, the Cowboys have lost seven of their last eight to the Cardinals, and are getting them off a bye. Losing on the road to a division leader is one thing, but the Cowboys not coming out with a much better home performance in week nine and overcoming this record versus Arizona to beat a currently 2-5 team on a five-game losing streak could be game over for this season going anywhere at all for Dallas.
The last time the Cowboys lost at the Broncos in 2017, their next game was actually a Monday night win at the Cardinals. When the Cowboys lost at home to the Broncos in 2021, they remained at home and took out frustrations on the Falcons 43-3 the following week.
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