Brett Davis-Imagn Images It feels like we are reaching a new low with the Dallas Cowboys each and every single week. At a certain point hope exits the conversation. We may have differing opinions on when that inflection point came for the Dallas Cowboys this year. Perhaps it was when it began in a calendar sense and the team lost to the Green Bay Packers in the playoffs. Maybe it was over the offseason that followed when they did very little to help the team. It is possible that it took the constant pot-stirring from the front office and delaying of important extensions that they would inevitably negotiate in the eleventh hour that wore you out. To be clear, all of those things happened before the season began. Since then the team has played in eight games, lost five of them, and just before the last one created national headlines over the decision (if you want to call it that) to make the third-best running back on the team inactive. They sure are the Dallas Cowboys, if you know what I mean. Consider that on Monday morning the New Orleans Saints fired head coach Dennis Allen who oversaw a seven-game losing streak from his club. That streak was born literally one week after Allen’s Saints tore this Dallas Cowboys team to pieces and received all sorts of Super Bowl-type love as a result of it. This is who the Dallas Cowboys slowly and painfully became. and what they are in actuality. They are a weekly point of frustration and are only existing to find the next-most frustrating thing possible to do. Here are three thoughts about the most recent, most frustrating things that they did when they lost to the Atlanta Falcons. The Cowboys are starting to act desperate which is never a good sign This game saw the Cowboys win the coin toss and actually choose to defer which was a high point of fresh air given that they have been insistent on taking the ball to start games as of late. Clearly this disposition has been born out of desperation and a need to build a lead early to hopefully protect, given the struggle to score points and stop other teams from doing so for the large majority of games this season. As noted though the Cowboys zigged instead of zagging which was great to see. What’s more is that they successfully began the game in that they forced a stop and then turned around and scored points themselves. It was only a field goal, but the process was sound and right and just and legitimate. This set the team up for the first possession of the second half. It ultimately came with Dallas trailing 14-10 which was certainly a hole, but a moderate one. A false start on the literal first play of the second half made things a bit more tough, but it was just the beginning of the second half when the drive went nowhere and the team had to punt. The thing is the team did not punt. They ran a fake punt and let Bryan Anger – the punter – throw a pass on 4th and 2. Imagine letting anyone other than the quarterback who your team signed just two months ago to the richest contract in NFL history do this. Obviously, the play was unsuccessful and the Cowboys turned the ball over. This gave Atlanta the ball at the Dallas 38-yard line and they were in the endzone before anybody knew it, which turned a moderate hole into a legitimate one. It took five plays for the Falcons to turn a four-point lead into an 11-point one and that hole is too big for this team. Acting carelessly like this is representative of feeling the heat in a number of different ways. It is impossible to justify legitimate carries for anyone other than Rico Dowdle All told Rico Dowdle had 12 carries for 75 yards against the Falcons. He also had an incredible receiving touchdown that will be lost in the chaos of this season. Those numbers put Dowdle north of 6.0 YPC for the game. He is the first Cowboys running back to have at least 6.0 YPC with a minimum of 10 carries since Tony Pollard did it last season on Thanksgiving Day. The player to do it most recently before Pollard then was Dowdle himself. The point here is not that Dowdle is some serious weapon or one of the best running backs in the NFL, but the idea that literally any other running back on this team should get legitimate carries with Dowdle as an active member of the team is preposterous. On the subject of active members, this game happened after some high-level drama that could only befall the Dallas Cowboys. It became national news that Ezekiel Elliott would be inactive for the game, that this was a mutual decision (not something that, you know, the head coach could do of their own opinion!) and that there was some element of disciplinary action involved. Total circus type of thing. Do you know that Dowdle has the most 10+ yard runs of any player on the team this season? Do you know that he has more than half of the total runs of this variety from the team as a whole? Dowdle has eight runs of 10+ yards this season while the second-biggest contributor is CeeDee Lamb, a wide receiver, with four. Ezekiel Elliott, KaVontae Turpin and Dak Prescott each have one with Prescott’s coming in the same game that we are talking about. If football truly is a meritocracy then there is no reason that any other running back on this roster should get legitimate carries if the ultimate goal is to win. This is a different kind of lost season for the Cowboys, one where there is no excuse When we think about the Dallas Cowboys throughout The Drought™️ it makes some sense to split

Photo by Douglas P. DeFelice/Getty Images Who wins tonight… Tampa Bay or Kansas City? The Tampa Bay Buccaneers play the Kansas City Chiefs on Monday Night Football. FanDuel has the Chiefs as 9.5-point favorites over the Buccaneers. Final score prediction: Chiefs 28 – Buccaneers 23. Check out FanDuel for all of your NFL betting needs. This is an open thread for game chat.

Brett Davis-Imagn Images The Dallas Cowboys are a mess in almost facet of football, and that includes on and off the field. Their 27-21 loss to the Atlanta Falcons demonstrated just how far this team has fallen, and no matter how they try, they can’t seem to get out of their own way. They lost the battle and likely the war, falling to 3-5 and four games behind the Washington Commanders in the NFC East. Adding injury to the insulting performance of Sunday is Dak Prescott suffering a hamstring injury that will keep him off the field for some time, as well as an apparent shoulder injury to CeeDee Lamb. Prescott was forced out of the game, giving way to Cooper Rush. Meanwhile, Lamb was obviously uncomfortable for most of the game’s closing stages, and his injury status is murky. The Cowboys are riddled with injuries, but that’s not the primary reason why this team looks almost unrecognizable. This year’s version of the Cowboys differs from the group we’ve become accustomed to seeing. Sure, postseason success has eluded them for over a quarter century, but at the very least, under head coach Mike McCarthy, they have been a consistent team in the regular season. Yet, things are amiss. Discipline is the chief concern. Dallas struggles to do the most elementary football things well on a play-by-play basis. The reason for it has been discussed ad nauseam this season: distractions. Internally, the team is in shambles. From Jerry Jones losing his composure with local radio hosts and threatening their jobs, or their players being reprimanded for a lack of professionalism. On Saturday, the team announced that running back Ezekiel Elliott would not travel with the team to Atlanta and was made inactive for Sunday’s game due to disciplinary reasons. We later learned that it was because of a continual pattern of missing meetings and arriving late at the team facility. The Cowboys, inside their own walls, aren’t secure in addressing their problems. Elliott’s issues festering as long as they did, where a pattern of such behavior had to become an internal distraction before the team stepped in to make him inactive, speaks of a cultural dysfunction devoid of regulation and proper self-governance. Elliott’s one example, but players have also cited other detractions such as stadium tours at the Star in Frisco, while players are going about their football business, yet interrupted by visitors to the facility. Getting away from the home confines suits this team better, if only slightly. However, the diversions from a focused environment are spilling onto the field, causing the Cowboys to lose attention to details, costing them games. Here’s where the details undid the Cowboys’ game against the Atlanta Falcons. There are far too many to count, but we’ll focus on a few before stating what the team needs to do with the season at the brink of slipping away. Zack Martin’s whiff on Kaden Elliss The Cowboys are searching for anything to grasp onto offensively. They moved the ball easily on their opening drive and ran an up-tempo attack. Dak Prescott was perfect on all his throws and navigated the pocket despite occasional leaks in protection. Rico Dowdle, who was the feature back after Elliott was ruled inactive, looked good in his role. Mike McCarthy called a screen to Dowdle on 2nd-and-8 from the Falcons’ 19-yard line, and it was well-designed. The blocks appeared to be set up, and Atlanta was out of position except for linebacker Kaden Elliss. Elliss was one-on-one with future Hall of Fame guard Zack Martin. That should’ve been signed and delivered. At best, it is a pancake for Martin, and at worst, a block that sets Dowdle free for a score. Instead, Elliss slips the block and tackles Dowdle for a four-yard loss. Two plays later, Dallas settles for a field goal from Brandon Aubrey. Cowboys not blocking Grady Jarrett on 3rd-and-short Depending on who you ask, Tyler Smith or Tyler Guyton are responsible for a negative sequence that flipped the game even further for the Cowboys. The Cowboys were trailing 7-3 and could feel relatively good about where they were until that point in the game. As stated, they did leave points on the board during their opening drive but showed something of a spryness to the way they were carrying themselves, and you could see the glimmers of confidence. They were flying around on defense, especially DeMarvion Overshown, and although their first drive stalled, they played with more rhythm offensively to open the game than we’ve seen in almost a month. Therefore, it was painful to watch the left side of the Cowboys’ offensive line miss a basic blocking assignment. It was 3rd and 1 at the Atlanta 44-yard line. If Dallas blocks Grady Jarrett, their drive continues on an easy third-down conversion. Unfortunately, Jarrett slipped past both Guyton and Smith for the stop on third down and Dallas had to go for it on fourth down. McCarthy, likely outsmarting himself or lacking belief in his interior offensive line, calls for a jet sweep to CeeDee Lamb, who is tackled for a loss, and the Cowboys turn the ball over on downs. The lack of execution from Guyton and Smith set the offense up to fail on fourth down, setting up the next fundamental flaw from Sunday. Diggs not wrapping up Kyle Pitts to force Atlanta into a punt Plenty of respect should go to Trevon Diggs for playing. He hadn’t practiced all week, and we discovered following last week’s game against the San Francisco 49ers that Diggs suffered a tear in his calf. Early in the contest, Diggs looked reasonably mobile. Still, Atlanta made it a point to challenge Diggs in coverage, but his tackling hurt the Cowboys. The Cowboys were down 7-3 and were gifted a 3rd-and-14 on defense after a flag was thrown on Falcons’ offensive tackle Jake Matthews for holding. Dallas managed to get Kirk Cousins to check it down short to Kyle Pitts,

Photo by Todd Kirkland/Getty Images How many times can you watch the same thing over and over and still enjoy it? At this point in the year, this is an question with wildly different answers. If we’re talking about Christmas movies or Thanksgiving specials as the calendar turns to November, there may be some re-watch value. If it’s an NFL team that entered week nine on a two-game losing streak and third in their division before losing again to drop three straight for the first time since 2020, patience within the fanbase may be thin. This was already the case for the 2024 Dallas Cowboys, but their latest 27-21 loss at the Atlanta Falcons marked their second straight off a bye week that served as the last real chance for this team to regroup and remain within contention to repeat as division winners. The trade deadline is apparently a chance for the Cowboys to do “a couple of things” according to Jerry Jones. The problem is, the Cowboys came into this game at the Falcons as a team with more than just a “couple” of major issues, and only added more to this list in the loss. In the team’s first game since Halloween, a frightening amount of factors that have constantly set the team back on game days this season were all on full display again. Even the slight hope Dallas showed by holding a lead at halftime against the 49ers or mounting a fourth quarter rally to get within one score late was gone. There was another touchdown drive that led to Dallas being in position to need an onside kick to stay alive, but it was orchestrated by Cooper Rush after Dak Prescott left with a hamstring injury in the third quarter. There was nothing within the reasons the Cowboys lost on Sunday that was new for Mike McCarthy’s team. The only new things to talk about coming out of this game are further reasons why the season continues to slip away with Dallas at 3-5. Dallas, at a minimum, had a chance to show their culture was strong enough even after a tough loss at San Francisco to continue showing fight and make this season an honest and useful evaluation of the existing roster. Their effort in Atlanta would suggest even this low bar to clear is not being met with the Cowboys going 3 of 13 on third down, one for five on fourth downs including a fake punt attempt that had no chance, and committing nine penalties. The Cowboys faced more internal dysfunction leading to Ezekiel Elliott not making the trip with the team. Rico Dowdle looked good in the lead role, but was still part of a Cowboys offense that managed consecutive turnovers on downs between the end of the first half and start of the second, where Dallas has been absolutely punished by opponents this season. Both sides of the winning formula from a year ago, scoring points in bunches via big plays and playing defense from ahead to hunt for sacks and turnovers, have gone missing within this three-game losing streak. The Cowboys technically won the time of possession battle by a minute and 20 seconds and outgained the Falcons on the ground 137-100, but these became empty stats when the Falcons completed almost 80% of their passes for an average of over eight yards a play and established Bijan Robinson with 19 carries for 86 yards. Grading by how the game actually unfolded on Sunday afternoon and not these stats, it’s clear the Cowboys don’t have an offense capable of these same things. Even before Dak Prescott and CeeDee Lamb both left the game with injuries, the passing offense looked forced and unimaginative with short passes that played into Atlanta’s strength of tackling in the secondary. Lamb did return just to take more shots on an injured shoulder and ribs and catch a two-point conversion attempt from Rush that put the Cowboys within six, but this warrior-like effort only came in another loss that will frustrate the players this team is relying on even more. The Cowboys are still throwing meaningful passes on key downs to KaVontae Turpin or relying on both rookie tackle Tyler Guyton and Terence Steele at tackle to hold up in pass protection, just some of the latest examples of ways they fail to give themselves a chance in these games. With two division games now on the horizon against teams the Cowboys are looking up at, both the Eagles and Commanders who won again in week nine, this loss at the Falcons is now the type of game the fans, players, and media have no choice but to think more of are on the way for the Cowboys. The Cowboys still have four games remaining against the Eagles and Commanders and one on Thanksgiving with the Giants, but the reality is they are a three-win team at the moment. This puts them on par with the Jets in the AFC and only ahead of the Giants, Panthers, Saints, Patriots, Dolphins, Raiders, Browns, Titans and Jaguars. Photo by Sarah Stier/Getty Images None of these teams have made anything close to the $60 million commitment the Cowboys did to Prescott before the season, only to do nothing about his supporting cast or protection up front in free agency, and others have fanbases actively rooting for the number one overall pick. The Cowboys are not in the company of any teams with even the faintest hope they can earn a spot in the playoffs and make a run, not by holding wins against a Giants team still winless at home, Browns team at the height of turmoil under Deshaun Watson at the time, and Steelers pre Russell Wilson. They’ve been turned away with ease at every opportunity to show themselves against a blue chip team, beaten soundly by the Ravens, 49ers, Lions, and even the Saints for one of New Orleans’ two wins. This is obviously a

Brett Davis-Imagn Images Sunday was another tough day for the Dallas Cowboys. The Dallas Cowboys are now on a three-game losing streak after falling to the Falcons 27-21. They outgained the Falcons 378-310, won the time of possession, and won the turnover battle. Yet, they came up short in a game that Dak Prescott was unable to finish and CeeDee Lamb played through some serious pain. Let’s hand out some grades after this one. Quarterbacks In a cruel twist of fate, the football gods let fans finally glimpse Dak Prescott looking like himself before taking him away with a hamstring injury. The Cowboys came out firing through the air, and Prescott was in a rhythm early. He completed 75% of his passes for 133 yards, including a touchdown pass to Rico Dowdle. Prescott also used his legs more after discussing it earlier in the week, scrambling three times and picking up 30 yards. When Cooper Rush came in, things took a step back. That said, Rush was not entirely bad. He had several really well-placed balls that ultimately got dropped, and the offense found its groove after the first series with Rush. All in all, he completed 52% of his passes but amassed 115 yards and a touchdown. Rush wasn’t revolutionary or anything, but he played the way he typically has: good enough to keep things going, but not good enough to put the team on his back. Grade: B+ Running backs After all the drama surrounding Ezekiel Elliott settled in, the game kicked off and the Cowboys served up yet another blatant reminder that Rico Dowdle is, and always has been, the best running back on the roster in 2024. Dowdle tallied 75 yards on just 12 carries and added another 32 yards on five receptions, including the juggling touchdown catch. He also had five carries that went for 10+ yards, which matches the season long total of the rest of this offense. Dalvin Cook once again saw action, but had just two carries for eight yards. This is clearly the Dowdle show. Grade: A Pass catchers CeeDee Lamb deserves all the praise in the world for battling through this game despite very clearly being in immense pain. The star receiver has earned plenty of criticism this year for his perceived lack of toughness, but he fought through repeated hits to his injured shoulder and still managed to finish with 47 yards on eight catches. Outside of his gutsy performance, there wasn’t much to love about these pass catchers. Dowdle was a positive and Jalen Brooks had a really impressive sideline grab, but there were several drops throughout – especially once Rush came in – that could’ve really turned this game around. Grade: C+ Offensive line The Falcons came into this game dead last in pressure rate and sacks, with just six sacks through eight games. They sacked Prescott three times in this one and consistently got pressure on both him and Rush. In total, they had eight quarterback hits in the game. The offensive line was getting beat left and right and up the middle. The offensive line was also responsible for five of the team’s nine penalties in this game, with all of them being pre-snap penalties. They were able to open up some holes in the run game, but the line was a net liability in this game. Grade: D Run defense It’s really hard to judge this defense too harshly right now, so this grade comes on a curve. In that spirit, Mike Zimmer’s unit had a pretty good day, all things considered. Bijan Robinson had plenty of good runs, but he was held to just 86 yards on 19 carries. All in all, Dallas gave up just 3.3 yards per carry to the Falcons, a run-heavy team that’s been one of the more efficient rushing offenses in the NFL. This wasn’t the type of performance you can point to and say “now that’s how you stop the run” but it was more than enough for a defensive line that’s this banged up. Grade: C Pass rush Sticking with the same curve for this grade, the pass rush showed up in this one. The Falcons don’t give up pressure that often, and Kirk Cousins has a pretty quick trigger, but Zimmer was very methodical with his blitz usage to create some optimal pressure situations. Carl Lawson, in particular, had himself a game with two sacks and a forced fumble. The Cowboys had a handful of pressures that didn’t result in a sack too, which still forced Cousins to throw off balance and kill some plays early. Cousins hasn’t been under duress much this year, but this beleaguered pass rush made his life a little more difficult on Sunday. Grade: B- Coverage For all the good that the pass rush did in this game, the secondary canceled it all out. Cousins routinely found open receivers even when under pressure, and he completed 79.2% of his passes. Trevon Diggs had two particularly rough sequences when Drake London Moss’d him for the Falcons’ first touchdown and later when he ran right into a designed pick play that sprung Darnell Mooney for an easy touchdown. Elsewhere, Caelen Carson finally returned from injury only to be targeted early and often with resounding success for Atlanta. Grade: D Special teams Not many notes here, as the special teams unit remains very strong. Brandon Aubrey was perfect yet again, drilling two field goals with ease. KaVontae Turpin had some solid returns too, though he was a couple toes away from breaking a huge touchdown. The reason for the “poor” grade, relative to this unit’s standards, comes down to the fake punt. The call itself was certainly questionable, but the execution wasn’t all that much better. Bryan Anger didn’t make a great throw, and C.J. Goodwin didn’t exactly fight to come back to the football. Given that the turnover on downs resulted in quick points for the Falcons, that was enough of

Dale Zanine-Imagn Images Sunday ultimately came down to a handful of plays for the Dallas Cowboys. The Dallas Cowboys suffered their third straight loss with a 27-21 final score in Atlanta. On top of it all, both Dak Prescott and CeeDee Lamb had potentially serious injuries that could impact their availability moving forward. There were a ton of big, impactful plays in this one, but these five deserve special attention for how they sum up the game and season: a general lack of detail. Zack Martin misses huge block on screen pass The Cowboys defense got off to a good start in this one, forcing a punt on the opening drive of the game. In turn, the offense came out scorching too, with Dak Prescott completing all five of his passes and quickly getting into scoring range. After a first down run to Rico Dowdle, Dallas moved just inside the red zone at the Atlanta 19. On second down, Prescott hit Dowdle on a screen pass, but he was tackled immediately for a loss of four. Linebacker Kaden Elliss made the tackle after blowing right by Zack Martin, who completely whiffed on his block. On the replay, the missed opportunity set in. Dowdle had a wide open field in front of him and very likely would’ve scored a touchdown if Martin had made his block. But on third and 12, Dallas was unable to move the chains and had to settle for a field goal. This was an early four-point swing in a game that was ultimately decided by six points. Kaden Elliss left unblocked on fourth-down attempt Credit where it’s due, as the Dallas defense did their best in this one despite being down so many key players. After recovering a strip sack, they set their offense up to retake the lead down 7-3, but miscommunication on a third-down run set up fourth and short. Dallas opted to go for it, and the Falcons were loading up the middle of the defensive line. Dak Prescott appeared to make an audible at the line, and he brought CeeDee Lamb in motion for a jet sweep handoff. However, Kaden Elliss got to him right away and held him up for a turnover on downs. The replay pointed out how few defenders were over on the side of the field that Lamb was running to. Had Elliss been blocked at all – no Cowboys player even touched him at the snap – Lamb would have easily had the first down and possibly even scored. Once again, the little things doomed Dallas here. Trevon Diggs missed tackle sets up Falcons touchdown Following the failed fourth down from Dallas, the Falcons took over right at midfield and had a chance to go up by two scores. They quickly started driving, but a holding call erased a big third-down conversion and instead set up third and 14. Taking a shotgun snap, Kirk Cousins quickly hit Kyle Pitts for a catch-and-run. Trevon Diggs came up to meet Pitts at the 42-yard line, but opted to go for a big hit instead of wrapping up for the tackle. Pitts easily evaded him and picked up an additional six yards. He still came up short of the first down, but Atlanta was now looking at fourth and three instead of fourth and nine. That made all the difference, as the Falcons went for it and ultimately scored a 36-yard touchdown after Diggs got caught up in traffic. However, that play likely never even happens if Diggs goes for a more sound tackle on third down. Terence Steele false start kills drive before it even starts The Cowboys got the ball to start the second half and things were somewhat trending their way. The defense had been solid, the offense was starting to gain traction, and they were only down 14-10. A touchdown to start the third quarter would put them in the lead. Before they had even snapped the ball, and before a second had even come off the clock, Dallas found a way to go backwards. On first down, Terence Steele moved early and was promptly hit with a false start penalty. Pre-snap penalties are hard to stomach in general, but they’re especially inexcusable on the first play of the half right out of the break. The penalty backed Dallas up five yards, starting them out behind schedule. They ended up punting after three plays, but they came up just two yards shy of the first down. They picked up 13 yards on plays where they actually snapped the ball, but the penalty from Steele ensured that it wouldn’t be enough and squandered their chance at retaking the lead. KaVontae Turpin can’t stay in bounds on punt return After Dak Prescott was ruled out for the game, Cooper Rush came in and predictably struggled, with the Cowboys punting. But the Falcons were also forced to punt, and that’s when KaVontae Turpin ripped off a solid punt return. Turpin got outside to the edge and started tiptoeing down the sideline, picking up 16 yards in total before going out of bounds. The heartbreak came on the replay, when a wide open field was visible. If Turpin had managed to keep himself in bounds on the sideline, he very well could have scored on this return. Down 27-13 with just under eight minutes left in the game, that play could’ve changed everything. The Cowboys were going to need some big plays to make a comeback with Rush under center, and a Turpin house call would certainly have fit the bill. As it turned out, though, Dallas ended up turning it over on downs on that drive, leaving everyone with thoughts of what could’ve been. And in that sense, it summed up a thematic throughline for this entire season as the team dropped to 3-5.

Brett Davis-Imagn Images Notable headlines surrounding America’s team. Dak Prescott injured in Cowboys Week 9, 27-21 defeat vs Falcons – Mark Heaney, Inside The Star It was a bad day all around. Second Half So, after starting the game by deferring the toss, the Cowboys had the hope of getting the ball at halftime on their side. They only trailed by four and could have taken the lead with a big opening drive. Instead, they had a false start on the first play out of the locker room, went three-and-out, and decided that was a great time for a fake punt that failed miserably. That moment may become a key point in this season. It was a true low point for this organization. What followed was an easy touchdown drive from the Falcons, and a real punt from Dallas after somehow having 12 men in the huddle on a critical 4th and 1 play. The mishaps and blunders were never-ending in this one. 12 players in the huddle on offense when lining up to go for it on 4th and 1… on the first possession after a failed fake punt that immediately led to a touchdown. The Dallas Cowboys are one of the worst-coached teams in the NFL. — RJ Ochoa (@rjochoa) November 3, 2024 The Cowboys did manage to get a stop and score following that, though it was only a field goal as Brandon Aubrey’s leg saved Dallas again. That ended up being the last truly meaningful score of the game, as Jalen Tolbert’s final drive touchdown acted more as a garbage-time statistical boost. Of course, the biggest story here was not the game itself, but the injury to Prescott that I mentioned. Dak Prescott has been ruled out for the remainder of the game with a hamstring injury. ( FOX) pic.twitter.com/Re22ylTnwZ — ESPN (@espn) November 3, 2024 You can say whatever you want about the Cowboys quarterback, but as he goes, they go. If Prescott misses any time, you can essentially pack this season up and move on to 2025. Atlanta took it to Dallas today; they were the cleaner team, especially in the second half, and they deserved the win. Game Recap: Cowboys lose to Atlanta, 27-21 – Kurt Daniels, DallasCowboys.com A brief summary of how the loss transpired. Second Quarter The next 15 minutes got off to a promising start when the second snap of the frame saw defensive end Carl Lawson come off the right side for a strip-sack of Cousins. The bouncing ball was pounced on by safety Donovan Wilson, the Cowboys now with possession. Unfortunately, they couldn’t take advantage of the gift. Head coach Mike McCarthy decided to go for it on fourth-and-1 at the Falcons’ 44-yard line, only to have Lamb’s attempted end-around get stuffed for a 3-yard loss. That led to an easy Atlanta score. The Falcons went for it themselves on fourth-and-3 at the Dallas 36-yard line, but confusion lining up in the Dallas secondary led to Darnell Mooney breaking wide-open down the right sideline, an easy pitch-and-catch for the walk-in touchdown. And then the Cowboys answered with one of the craziest touchdowns you’ll ever see. Thanks to three runs of 15-plus yards – one each by Lamb, Prescott and Dowdle – Dallas found itself on second-and-goal at the Falcons’ 3-yard line. That’s when Prescott, scrambling back and avoiding defensemen all around him, tossed a pass to Dowdle in the end zone. The running back then jumped, bobbled the catch, hit the ball up once on his way down and finally caught the prize while on his back for the improbable score. That closed the gap to just four points, 14-10, at the half. 3 winners & 5 losers from Cowboys loss to Falcons in Week 9 – Randy Gurzi, Sports Illustrated Who are your winners and losers from week nine? Loser: KaVontae Turpin, WR/KR On one hand, KaVontae Turpin was one of the few sparks the Cowboys had on Sunday. On the other, he let them down twice late in the fourth. Turpin showed off his explosiveness once again when he went for 16 yards on a late punt return. The problem is that he stepped out of bounds at the 44. Had he stayed in, there was no way he wouldn’t have scored. A few plays later, Turpin was targeted on 4th-and-11 and should have hauled the pass in. Cooper Rush hit him in the hands, but Turpin left his feet for some reason and the defense was able to hit it out of his hands. Dallas has tried to get Turpin involved on offense more and he did convert a 4th down on the next drive. Still, he seems to be targeted far too often on key plays, and it hasn’t always worked. Dak Prescott injury video creates more questions than answers for Cowboys’ QB – Jerry Trotta, The Landry Hat Hoping for the best for QB1. Dak Prescott injury video creates more concern for the Cowboys While it is encouraging that Prescott was able to walk off under his own power, this creates more questions than answers for the Cowboys. The fact Prescott felt a pull suggests he’s dealing with a hamstring strain at minimum. The recovery time for a strain depends on its severity. A Grade 1 strain can heal in a matter of days or a few weeks, while a strain of the Grade 2 variety generally fall in the weeks-to-month range. Grade 3 strains are normally a complete rupture of the muscle and often require surgery for a full recovery. At the very least, Prescott should be considered a long shot to suit up in Week 10, which is Dallas’ first clash against the Philadelphia Eagles. It would be fitting of the 2024 season if Micah Parsons and DaRon Bland are able to return for that game only for Prescott to be sidelined. It is almost surprising that a hamstring injury forced Prescott from the game. The Cowboys’ offensive line was