Tim Heitman-Imagn Images This week’s power rankings were predictably unkind to the Dallas Cowboys. There is always further to fall than you think. History has taught us this painful lesson many times, unfortunately. Just when we think that there is no way that the Dallas Cowboys could outdo themselves in the embarrassment department, America’s Team shows up true to form. This week the Cowboys are coming off of a 34-6 drubbing in their home building against the hated Philadelphia Eagles. Under normal circumstances this would upset many of us, but everything around has been so on fire that we have grown used to the new status quo temperature and are no longer phased when it feels a little warm. It will not shock you to learn that the rest of the NFL finds the Cowboys to be quite bad, but just how bad do people think they are? The time has come for our latest power rankings and gathering of where outlets across the internet have the Cowboys. You can view last week’s rankings right here. 1 – Detroit Lions (LW: 1) You have to find ways to steal a game or two if you are going to lift the Lombardi at the very end of the season. Detroit did that on Sunday night by winning a game that they were supposed to lose. They are such an impressive team to watch. 2 – Kansas City Chiefs (LW: 2) Talk about stealing games… my goodness. This is the weakest Chiefs team we have seen (from an organization that has won three Super Bowls since 2019!) and they are undefeated through their first nine games. It must be so nice. 3 – Buffalo Bills (LW: 3) They seem to be floating among the contending teams in the NFL at large. Up next for them is a chance to give Kansas City their first loss, although the Bills have made way too big of a deal of regular season games against the Chiefs before. Hopefully Buffalo recognizes this is the battle and not the war and even then not the most important battle (relatively speaking). 4 – Baltimore Ravens (LW: 4) Another team who stole one! Although I don’t know that Baltimore stole their win as much as they just fought a little bit harder. They remain an elite team that is so fun to watch as well. 5 – Philadelphia Eagles (LW: 7) It wasn’t even annoying that they beat the Cowboys by a score of 34-6 at AT&T Stadium. That is where we are at. 6 – Washington Commanders (LW: 5) Sunday was a tough loss, but this is clearly a very good team that is going to be playing in the middle of January. Their game against Philly on Thursday night will be highly entertaining. 7 – Minnesota Vikings (LW: 6) It never feels right to drop a team after they win, but Minnesota barely held on against a struggling Jaguars team. Kevin O’Connell is so impressive, but it feels fair to say that the Vikings are losing some steam a bit. 8 – San Francisco 49ers (LW: 8) Do you mean to tell me that they did not look like juggernauts in the first game that they played after they played the Cowboys? Shocked! I am shocked! 9 – Green Bay Packers (LW: 9) Welcome back from the bye. 10 – Arizona Cardinals (LW: 11) I’ve been absorbing Cardinals stock for weeks now and am very happy about it. Could they seriously win the NFC West?! These are my Cardinals and I am proud of them! 11 – Pittsburgh Steelers (LW: 12) This whole thing still feels a little like the clock will hit midnight and it will fall apart. But for now Mike Tomlin, Russell Wilson, Mike Williams and everyone else are having the time of their lives. 12 – Houston Texans (LW: 10) It feels fair to say they are on a serious fraud watch, but given that they play the Cowboys at AT&T Stadium next Monday night that will stabilize soon enough. 13 – Tampa Bay Buccaneers (LW: 16) It would be good for the NFL at large if this team made its way into the playoffs. They are tough and Baker Mayfield specifically is a huge reason for that. 14 – Atlanta Falcons (LW: 13) You cannot lose to the New Orleans Saints. The drop should be more, but I digress. 15 – Los Angeles Chargers (LW: 17) Kudos on the win. But my goodness they are so irrelevant in the bigger picture. Maybe playing on Sunday night this week will help with that. 16 – Cincinnati Bengals (LW: 18) Sometimes a season has a very good team who just caught some poor breaks at the most inopportune times and it all snowballs against them. It feels safe to say that this is the Bengals this year. 17 – Los Angeles Rams (LW: 14) They are so up and down these days. 18 – Denver Broncos (LW: 20) Are we not talking about Bo Nix enough? I know they lost, but wow what an outing at Arrowhead. I’m not ready to crown Sean Payton’s era in Denver as a success but there is no question that this was a step forward, even if they did lose. 19 – Seattle Seahawks (LW: 15) Another team back from their bye week. 20 – New England Patriots (LW: 24) They had nine sacks against the Bears. What. How. 21 – Carolina Panthers (LW: 29) You can’t help but feel happy for Bryce Young what with everything he has been through. They are going to really enjoy that bye week. 22 – Tennessee Titans (LW: 22) Another team who is simply existing right now. 23 – Indianapolis Colts (LW: 23) Their season feels lost in a different way than Dallas’. Either way, they are not very good at all. 24 – New Orleans Saints (LW: 31) They finally got their first win since blowing the doors off

Photo by Cooper Neill/Getty Images Everything about Sunday was an embarrassment for the Dallas Cowboys The Dallas Cowboys kicked off their first game of the Cooper Rush era in 2024 just as you’d expect: with a loss. Rush barely completed over 50% of his passes and averaged a paltry two yards per attempt. Trey Lance finished out the game and averaged just 3.5 yards per attempt. The two quarterbacks combined for three turnovers on the day. The Cowboys came into this game as serious underdogs, and the final score of 34-6 reflects that. But they actually kept this one pretty close early on. These five plays were what made the difference and helped the wheels come off in the third quarter. Cooper Rush’s first fumble sets up easy touchdown The Cowboys’ first offensive drive went about how you’d expect given the circumstances. But then the Dallas defense flexed their upper lip and forced a punt from the Eagles, and suddenly it looked like we might have a game. The offense retook the field and lined up in the pistol at their own 20-yard line. When Rush went to snap the ball, he turned away too early and completely missed the ball. It bounced off his chest and hit the ground before an Eagles defender fell on it. That gave the Eagles the ball just 16 yards from the endzone and, sure enough, they were celebrating in there after just four plays. It’s hard to blame the defense for this one, but Rush’s fumble – the result of bungling one of the most basic requirements of the quarterback position – is what gave Philadelphia their first points. Ezekiel Elliott fumbles into the endzone To Rush’s credit, he kept his head in the game and managed to orchestrate a solid drive after his defense followed up an endzone interception by forcing yet another punt. Rush hit on four of his six passes, and also drew a pass interference penalty, to supplement a strong running game that took the Cowboys inside the 10. Facing first and goal just six yards from a touchdown, Rush handed it off to Ezekiel Elliott, who plunged forward looking for his third touchdown of the year. Instead, the ball got punched out of his hands and rolled into the endzone, where an Eagles player recovered it for a touchback. If Elliott scores there, or even if he just goes down and the Cowboys score on one of their next three downs, they take a 10-7 lead right before the two minute warning in the first half. And with the way the defense had been playing, that would have seriously boosted their odds of winning. But Elliott – who, not too long ago, publicly complained about not getting enough red zone touches – quite literally fumbled that golden opportunity away. CeeDee Lamb gets blinded by Jerry Jones’ arrogance The Eagles did nothing with the Cowboys’ turnover, fumbling it themselves just two plays later. That set the Cowboys up right where they had just been: first and goal from the Philadelphia six-yard line. After an Elliott run cut that distance in half, Rush rolled out to his right and fired a shot to a wide-open CeeDee Lamb, who made no real effort to catch the ball. Right afterwards, cameras caught him signaling what appeared to be an admission that the sun had blinded him. Lamb confirmed this was the case after the game. CeeDee Lamb on not catching the potential touchdown pass from Cooper rush in the sun:“I couldn’t see.”Are you in favor of curtains in AT&T stadium?“1000 percent.”#DallasCowboys #cowboys #NFL pic.twitter.com/0i5y6Dvslq — Pat Doney (@PatDoneyNBC5) November 11, 2024 This was arguably the most frustrating part of the game, as it was yet another reminder of Jerry Jones’ arrogance and unwillingness to help his team out. Jones has repeatedly insisted that he’ll do whatever it takes to win, but that doesn’t mesh with his fierce insistence against simply putting up curtains in the stadium. This has happened several times before, and here it cost the Cowboys a second straight shot at taking the lead. Dallas ultimately settled for a field goal on this drive. Big Jalen Hurts scramble flips field After the Cowboys settled for a field goal to cut the deficit to 7-6, the defense had a chance to keep it close. Outside of the drive that began in the red zone, the Eagles had punted or turned the ball over on every drive up to this point. But Philadelphia started executing their two minute offense and began moving the ball down the field with ease. Dallas took a timeout after giving up a third-down conversion right near midfield. On the ensuing play, the Cowboys had everything covered and Jalen Hurts was standing in the pocket looking for an open man. Then, he decided to scramble, and found nothing but open room for a whopping 24 yards. The defense had done a good job keeping Hurts in the pocket, and the pass rush got to him several times throughout the game. But this breakdown came at the worst moment, and it completely flipped the field. Hurts’ scramble came with just a minute left, and without it the Eagles may have had to settle for a long field goal attempt. But the big gain set up a touchdown to extend the lead to a near-insurmountable 14-6 at halftime. Cooper DeJean’s big punt return sets up easy touchdown To the credit of Mike Zimmer’s unit, the defense did not fall apart after that big scramble to end the first half. They forced a three-and-out on the opening drive, but the Cowboys offense returned the favor with a punt of their own. Bryan Anger boomed the punt way downfield, with rookie returner Cooper DeJean catching it at the Eagles’ own 32-yard line. He evaded the first tackler and cut to the far side of the field, getting an angle on the coverage unit. By the time he went out of bounds,

Photo by Matthew Pearce/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images The latest and greatest Dallas Cowboys news. Micah: Cowboys’ defense has to ‘be the light’, can build on hot start vs. Eagles – Patrik Walker, DallasCowboys.com Micah Parsons had another message that got lost in his Mike McCarthy comments. “Honestly, it felt great [to be out there],” said the All-Pro pass rusher. “I felt the energy on the sidelines was different. Being back with the guys was different, and you could tell the guys felt the energy that I was bringing. I just wanted to bring some juice to the team and I felt, for the most part, the defense played a pretty good game.” […] That said, what is the message in the locker room — sitting three games below .500? “We had a great message in chapel this week: You’ve gotta be the light. Even when the other side — the offense’s light— isn’t shining as bright as in the past … we’ve gotta be the offense’s light this time.” To Parsons, that means the defense will need to figure out a way to take their play from the first two quarters against the Eagles and spread it over each and every single quarter of football from here on out, given the context of a situation that includes quarterback Dak Prescott likely being done for the season with a severe hamstring injury. There’s currently little else to tie any hope to, as Cooper Rush and the offense moved in the wrong direction against the Eagles. “Hey, like I said, be the light,” said Parsons. “You can’t let it get to you. Understand that our quarterback is out, things ain’t always going to be how you expect it, and we kind of just gotta be the light; and I just gotta be on the sideline bringing the guys back up [emotionally]. It’s hard, but we’ve gotta do our job. “… It’s one of [those] years. It’s challenging but we got to be the light for everybody.” Mike McCarthy, Micah Parsons ‘had a conversation’ after edge rusher’s controversial comments following Cowboys loss – Jori Epstein, Yahoo Sports Setting up Mike McCarthy to fail this season was always a bad idea for the Cowboys, but the offense being as bad as it is has made the situation in Dallas a disaster. Micah Parsons generated headlines across social media and talk shows after Sunday night comments about his coach’s work ethic and the relative concern for McCarthy’s job status compared to his teammates’ looming retirement. “When [something] does create questions for others in the locker room, something that I’ve always done: Conversation has to happen,” McCarthy said. “So Micah and I had a conversation this morning about it. Handled those things as men should handle it.” Questions about McCarthy’s job status are heightening as the Cowboys sit at 3-6 during the final year of their head coach’s contract. McCarthy led the Cowboys to three 12-win seasons from 2021 through 2023. But early playoff exits, including a blowout home loss to the Green Bay Packers in January, kept team owner Jerry Jones from extending McCarthy’s contract past the 2024 season. With eight games to play, the Cowboys have a 1 percent chance of making the playoffs this season, per The Athletic’s playoff predictor. Blueprint Cowboys Must Follow This Offseason to Become NFL Contender Again – Alex Kay, Bleacher Report This is going to be one of the most seismic offseasons in the history of the Dallas Cowboys. Reload the Running Back Platoon Besides keeping McCarthy, Dallas’ other most head-scratching offseason decision was not taking a promising running back prospect in the 2024 NFL draft. After letting incumbent starter Tony Pollard walk in free agency with no proven depth behind him, the Cowboys instead re-signed the aging and ineffective Ezekiel Elliott to lead their backfield. The results have been predictably poor. Dallas is now averaging fewer rushing yards (83.7 per game) than any team besides the Las Vegas Raiders this year. The Cowboys have scored just three touchdowns on the ground across nine games, tying them with the Cleveland Browns for fewest in the league. Elliott has been particularly horrendous, averaging only 3.2 yards per carry and generating just eight first downs across 54 totes. Rico Dowdle has become Dallas’ top option since he’s the only effective ball-carrier on the roster, but even he leaves something to be desired. He has 374 yards and zero touchdowns on 83 carries. Dalvin Cook (2.5 YPC), Hunter Luepke (3.2 YPC) and Deuce Vaughn (2.9 YPC) are clearly not viable solutions, either. The Cowboys need to expend some capital on the position during the 2025 NFL draft. Boise State’s Ashton Jeanty and Ohio State’s Quinshon Judkins—both of whom rank in the top 20 of the B/R Scouting Department’s initial big board—could immediately change the fortunes of this flailing backfield and provide a much-needed spark as rookies. The Cowboys haven’t used a Day 1 or 2 pick on a running back since selecting Elliott at No. 4 overall in 2016. They’re long overdue to take one early to finally patch this glaring hole. Mike McCarthy: Cooper Rush will remain starting quarterback for Dallas Cowboys – RJ Ochoa, Blogging The Boys Trey Lance did come in for Cooper Rush at the end of Week 10’s home loss to the Eagles, but Rush will remain the starter going into a primetime game vs. the Texans next Monday. The Cowboys aren’t in action again for a full week as they will host the Houston Texans next week on Monday Night Football. That is Cooper Rush in primetime, baby. In Rush’s defense he has only started one game for the team, an objectively awful one, and that is a very small sample size. On the other hand though, this Cowboys team is, and has been, going nowhere for a long time now which means giving Lance a full and firm opportunity could be in everyone’s best interest. What’s more is, as has been noted,

Photo by Cooper Neill/Getty Images The Dallas Cowboys are continuing to find new lows to subject us to. The Dallas Cowboys lost to the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday afternoon, and perhaps the most frustrating thing about where they are as a franchise right now is that it was a loss to the Eagles of all teams, and we (generally speaking) felt nothing. Losses to the Eagles are supposed to sit with us and irk us and make us so mad that we say ridiculous things in our fits of rage. This is sports in a nutshell. Our passions drive us to intense emotional places because of how much we love the teams in question. Unfortunately, the Cowboys have done just about everything in their power to neuter that sort of thing these days. Philadelphia won, laughed in the process and celebrated on their way out of town all while the Cowboys made NFL history by becoming the first team ever to trail by at least 20 points in five consecutive home games. That streak obviously dates back to the playoff loss last year against the Green Bay Packers, the surest sign that things were going to unravel for this group. Think about what it must be like to be a Packers fan these days, by the way. Your team is contending and finding ways to win in spite of difficult circumstances all while your little brothers are still trying to figure out who they are almost a full year after you reminded them the unnerving answer to that question. Dallas Cowboys games are simply things that happen nowadays, not passionate rituals or battles that we live and die with. Here are three thoughts on the latest Thing That Happened with a day to reflect. It is hard to remember the last good thing that happened to this team To be clear I know the answer here, but you need to properly understand the question first. What I am asking is for the last time in which you felt pure, absolute joy for the Dallas Cowboys. It is my belief that the answer is/was December 30th of last year. It was on that fateful Saturday night that the universe apparently decided we had had enough joy. You see on that night Jimmy Johnson took his rightful place in the Dallas Cowboys Ring of Honor and the Cowboys were on the right side of a definitely-suspect officiating call while facing the Detroit Lions. As a result of that game, and the week that followed, the Cowboys were NFC East Champions and the #2 seed in the entire conference. That win meant that much and that it came on Jimmy’s night, also the evening in which CeeDee Lamb set the receiving records that he did, made it all feel like destiny. While the Cowboys did win their next game, for the most part that was the beginning of our current doom. Shortly after Jimmy laughed with Michael Irvin and Emmitt Smith on the floor of AT&T Stadium, the Green Bay Packers laughed in the playoffs as they made the Cowboys the first number two seed to lose in the Wild Card Round (only a possibility since 2021) in NFL history. After that? There was all-in, no free agency, talk about Ezekiel Elliott, actually bringing Zeke back, a suspect-ish draft, delay after delay on extensions, signing the extensions in question to the ridiculous numbers they had reached when they didn’t have to and, oh yea, literally all of this season. We have been crawling through this mud for a long time now and figuring out when it ends is sort of impossible. Reality is that there is nothing that can be done midseason to fix this You do not have to look far to find the suggestion. There are many people who believe that the Cowboys should fire Mike McCarthy. I’d like to make myself very clear in noting that I am in no way advocating for or defending McCarthy given, um, you know, everything about this season, but allow me to ask another question, please. What good does firing Mike McCarthy do now? This team is out at sea. Breaking the engine of the boat or throwing the life preserver, if you want to equate this head coach to either of those things, accomplishes nothing in the big and overall picture. I understand the want for something to be done to represent that somebody, anybody in charge of this operation cares or feels the level of frustration that we do, but what comes next if you want McCarthy out? Mike Zimmer takes over? That’s the knight in shining armor? I’ve asked this question on social media and mostly gotten responses about how a firing would represent that the team is not willing to stand for this and that it could instill some accountability in the roster. Hold up. You mean the roster that watched the front office send McCarthy and most of his staff into a contract year in the first place? Nobody is going to bat an eye if the Cowboys fire McCarthy because they saw what we all did when this thing was cleared on the runway for takeoff. The unfortunate reality is that we are stuck here. We have run two miles in one direction and have to run them back in order to return home. It is then and only then that we can start to try and pick up the pieces from this whole thing in the name of the required improvement. The lack of a true north star is the most disconcerting thing at the moment One of the most frustrating things about the offseason for the Cowboys was that they did not point all of their efforts into one common direction. I’ll explain. You will not struggle to find an article or several that I wrote where I encouraged the front office to extend Dak Prescott. A large part of my point was that if

Jasen Vinlove-Imagn Images Who wins tonight… Miami or Los Angeles? The Miami Dolphins take on the Los Angeles Rams on Monday Night Football. FanDuel has the Rams as 2.5-point favorites over the Dolphins. Final score prediction: Rams 24 – Dolphins 19. Check out FanDuel for all of your NFL betting needs. This is an open thread for game chat.

Photo by Sam Hodde/Getty Images Everything from the Cowboys on Sunday was ugly… except for a handful of things. Show of hands, how many of you changed the channel or turned off the TV before the Dallas Cowboys game was over Sunday afternoon? Don’t worry, no one blames you. Sitting through that 34-6 embarrassment at the hands of the Philadelphia Eagles was extremely difficult to do, and sadly enough, there will be more games ahead just like it. There’s no denying it now. The Dallas Cowboys are simply one of the worst teams in the league with Dak Prescott more than likely done for the season with a hamstring injury that will require surgery. There is very little to get excited about now except for maybe a few individual players worth keeping an eye on for the future. Despite all of the bad and ugly in this Week 10 matchup, there was a little bit of good hidden in there if you looked closely enough. You had to be paying particularly close attention to see any positives, but we assure you they were there. THE GOOD – DeMarvion Overshown and Micah Parsons It’s difficult to tell who had the better game, so we’re going to say the good from this Week 10 matchup against the Eagles was a tie between DeMarvion Overshown and Micah Parsons. It was really good to see No. 11 back in uniform and dominate as the pass rusher we’ve known him to be. His first game back in action resulted in his first multi-sack (two) game this season. Not to be outdone though, Overshown also netted two QB sacks Sunday afternoon as well as double digit tackles (11). These two make Dallas worth watching. THE BAD – Losing the turnover battle It’s hard to remember the Cowboys had two takeaways of their own Sunday afternoon against Philadelphia. That’s because they turned the ball over five times themselves, obliterating anything positive that happened on the offensive and defensive side of the ball in this Week 10 matchup. These turnovers are just further proof of how far this team has fallen and what we can expect from them the rest of the season. There’s no way this team will be competitive if they continue to lose the turnover battle each week. THE UGLY – QB Cooper Rush With Dak Prescott sidelined for this Week 10 matchup against the Eagles, Cooper Rush was promoted into the starting role. While he has proven he’s capable of winning games stepping in as an injury fill-in, Sunday afternoon was not one of his better performances as a starter. In fact, it was pretty deplorable. He completed only 13 of 23 passes for 45 yards and was part of the cause of Dallas losing the turnover battle with Philadelphia. His play Sunday is further proof there’s no reason not to start Trey Lance for the rest of the season.