Ron Chenoy-Imagn Images Who wins tonight… Denver or New Orleans? The Denver Broncos play the New Orleans Saints on Thursday Night Football. FanDuel has the Broncos as 2.5-point favorites over the Saints. Final score prediction: Broncos 17 – Saints 16. Check out FanDuel for all of your NFL betting needs. This is an open thread for game chat.

Photo by Sam Hodde/Getty Images A lot of disappointing things happened to the Cowboys on Sunday. The Dallas Cowboys left AT&T Stadium licking their wounds after the Detroit Lions tore them apart, leading to one of the worst home losses in team history, 47-9. This is becoming a theme for the Cowboys after they were one of the best home teams in 2023. Let’s dive into what happened. First Point: Dak Prescott and the offense struggle Mike Sando, who covers the NFL at large for The Athletic, shared his thoughts on the game during the latest episode of Scoop City. He referenced the loss at home to the Baltimore Ravens and said that despite Dallas losing at halftime, they managed to close the gap offensively in the second half and show something positive. The Cowboys’ offense did not show anything against the Lions. After their first two drives and another turnover in the red zone, it started to feel like ‘here we go again,’ with the offense having to dig themselves out of a hole at home. With around two and a half minutes to go in the second half, Dallas was down 20-3 and went for it on fourth down… from their own 38-yard line! Finding themselves in that scenario, at home nonetheless, and not having a better play call than a short pass to the team’s smallest wide receiver is malpractice on multiple levels. You can still believe Prescott is worth the record-setting extension he signed, but he is uncharacteristically putting the ball in harm’s way through six weeks. The Cowboys quarterback currently leads all signal callers with 13 turnover-worthy plays per Pro Football Focus. Second Point: The lack of experience hurts Dallas against top opponents The Cowboys have some big-time players on the injury report and cannot play football right now. Micah Parsons, DaRon Bland, DeMarcus Lawrence, Brandin Cooks, Eric Kendricks, and Sam Williams did not play against the Lions. All those names listed outside of Kendricks were on the field to face Detroit a season ago. Veteran presence doesn’t always directly lead to wins, but it can be beneficial when facing tough opponents and creative play-callers. When we look at the players Dallas lost this offseason and their replacements, there’s a noticeable difference in experience. Tyron Smith (161 games in Dallas) — Guyton (5 games) Tyler Biadasz (61 games with Dallas) — Cooper Beebe (6 games) Tony Pollard (79 games with Dallas) — Rico Dowdle (42 games) Dante Fowler/Dorance Armstrong (127 games with Dallas) — Marshawn Kneeland/Chauncey Golston (58 games) Biadasz, Pollard, Fowler, and Armstrong aren’t top-tier players at their positions, but their extensive experience in unpredictable situations is something Dallas could be missing right now. Look at the best teams in the NFL through six weeks (Baltimore, Detroit, Kansas City, and Minnesota); they have a nice balance of experienced players to complement their young, up-and-coming talent. They also have coaches who put their players in the best position to succeed as well. The Cowboys have a strong track record of drafting and developing their players. With six out of eight draft picks seeing playing time this season, it may seem like a positive outcome for their roster construction. However, this strategy may not be as effective against top opponents such as the Baltimore Ravens and the Detroit Lions, especially in a season with high stakes for the franchise. Third Point: The special teams unit continues to be special The special teams unit should not be the phase of the game carrying the Cowboys right now, but that is where things stand. Brandon Aubrey continues to have another All-Pro season, and Bryan Anger is among the most consistent punters in the league. A new development could be KaVonatae Turpin’s various usage under the NFL’s new “dynamic kickoff.” The former Pro Bowl player had a career-high in yards with 194 off just four returns. He also leads all returners with a 43.0 average off seven run-backs. Doing something as little as the fake reverse got the Lions to bite and open up a running lane for Turpin to take it 79 yards. A more significant development is that coordinator John Fassel opened up the number of opportunities for Turpin to be the single return man, as opposed to what the team did earlier in the season. Listen to Fassel explain below. I charted this during the game. Detailed and transparent explanation by Bones Fassel. #Cowboys https://t.co/w1IQNsC3lQ pic.twitter.com/1uYCKO1HTA — Patrik [No C] Walker (@VoiceOfTheStar) October 15, 2024 If points are hard to come by right now, having a field flipped by dynamic returns from Turpin could help get the offense back on track. Fourth Point: How can the Cowboys create turnovers? Under Dan Quinn, the Cowboys’ former defensive coordinator, the defense forced turnovers at a historic rate. They led the NFL back-to-back seasons from 2021 to 2022 for the first time since the days of the Steel Curtain. This season under Mike Zimmer, the Dallas defense ranks 23rd with just four. DaRon Bland. The Pick-Six King has yet to play a snap this season, and Trevon Diggs is coming back from missing last year with a torn ACL. The Cowboys are not used to relying on practice squad secondary corners. When Zimmer first arrived in Dallas this offseason, he mentioned how turnovers could decrease and that he wanted to focus more on stopping the run. Unfortunately, turnovers have decreased, but teams have been running up and down the Cowboys’ defense. Since teams are content with running the ball, that means fewer opportunities to intercept passes in the secondary. The Cowboys offense has also been unable to keep a lead long enough, forcing more opponents to be in passing situations. Mike McCarthy is well aware of turning the ball over on both sides of the ball. “You are what your record is. I think we’ve had some out-of-balance games that, when you get in out-of-balance games and you’re on the wrong side of it, you have the numbers

Kevin Jairaj-Imagn Images Historical notes from Sunday’s Dallas Cowboys loss are as rough as you think. Something we do every week around here is take a look at the Dallas Cowboys game that we just saw and compare it to various points in franchise history. The goal is simple and obvious. We want to understand where the team stacks up against groups of old, whether with regards to the game at hand specifically or where the team is at the point in the season in question. Doing that in that exact way this week feels a bit difficult as there are only so many ways to say that it was the worst loss ever experienced in the Jerry Jones era of ownership and therefore in the history of AT&T/Cowboys Stadium. This is of course from a point differential standpoint. We will do our best to try though. Buckle up and put on your hazmat suit. Shout out to our friends at Stathead and Pro Football Reference who help make these types of searches possible. Ezekiel Elliott is doing very little with a decent amount, and the alleged help waiting in the wings has done it before Much has been made about the Cowboys’ running game and the fact that it is the worst in the NFL. This isn’t hyperbolic. Dallas has the fewest yards per game from a rushing standpoint and the fewest team rushing yards over expected, according to NFL Pro. Some of this obviously is impacted by games getting so far out of hand, but even then it’s not like the room has talent that is simply lacking opportunities because of the flow of a contest. Through six games this season Ezekiel Elliott has received 38 carries. He has turned those into 115 yards which is obviously not great. Since the beginning of last season there are only five running backs (Russell Wilson is on this list) who have had at least 38 carries and had no more than 115 yards, aka four other runners who have not exactly made lemonade. It is not exactly a fun feeling to see Dalvin Cook on this list! Cook is, of course, somebody who many fans are calling to see active. He may be on this list and might not be an improvement, but the run game is at a place where “any change might help” is a fair rallying cry. What a mess. This is the second-worst the Cowboys have ever been at this point at running the ball Along these lines, it should not shock you to learn that the Cowboys are having one of their worst rushing starts to a season ever. Literally ever. As a team they only have 463 rushing yards through six games. Only once has a Dallas Cowboys group had fewer rushing yards than that through the first six games of a season. Any time you are in the same sentence as the 1989 Dallas Cowboys things are tough. The leading rusher for the 1989 Dallas Cowboys was Paul Palmer. He had 446 yards for the team then and even played part of the season for the Detroit Lions. Again, not great company. This is literally one of the worst defenses ever at home through the first three games The Lions ultimately put up 47 points across all of Sunday, a rare type of thing in the NFL. We all saw Detroit trying to rub the Cowboys’ nose in the game and the fallout of that even continued relative to the lack of punting. On Tuesday afternoon, after all of Jerry Jones’ antics, the Lions social team shared a video that was a “highlight reel” of their punter. He was literally holding kicks in all of them. It was an outstanding troll job. But the 47 points are only part of what the Cowboys have allowed in their home building so far this year. Dallas has allowed 119 total points to be scored against them at AT&T Stadium – it has only been three games – and that puts them in some more poor company. The last team across the entire NFL to allow at least 119 points through their first three home games was, amazingly, the Dallas Cowboys! It was the 2020 group with Mike Nolan calling the shots (and avoiding hot sauce in his eye). Unlike now, the offense was at least doing their best to go shot for shot on the other side of things. What is troubling is that the cutoff for this at nine teams wasn’t just for fun. This is the entire list of teams to have allowed at least 119 points scored against them in their first three home games in all of NFL history. Yup. This was the worst loss in the Jerry Jones era and obviously AT&T Stadium’s history We noted this up top, but it felt fair to include every game that exists in this sort of territory for the purposes of full and total context. What you are looking at here is any game in which the point differential in a Cowboys game was 38 points or more against them. The franchise as a whole has suffered worse losses in this capacity, but they have been on the road. As many will note, the last game (literally the most recent one!) in which the Cowboys were handled this badly by an opponent was the last time that Wade Phillips patrolled the sideline as the group’s head coach. He was fired right after that 2010 loss that was amazingly and all-time coincidentally at the hands of Mike McCarthy’s Green Bay Packers who would go on to win the Super Bowl that season in the very building that the game we are talking about now just happened. You can’t write this stuff! The Cowboys have tied an all-time horrible thing in terms of total yards allowed at home There has been a lot of focus on what the Cowboys are doing and how poorly

Photo by Matthew Pearce/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images The Cowboys have found themselves in quite the situation. It has been a rough start for the Dallas Cowboys. They are coming off their worst loss since 2010 when they were beaten by Mike McCarthy’s Green Bay Packers, 45-7. That was the game that got Wade Phillips fired, and in a strange turn of events, it’s now McCarthy who finds himself in the hot seat. And it’s not just the head coach feeling the heat. Owner Jerry Jones is being called out for the team’s complacency in free agency and he’s not handling it very well. Recently, he lost his cool in an interview with the boys over on 105.3 The Fan creating more intensity to the villainous role he already plays so well. The situation in Dallas is a tricky one. They are in a dark place with very little light in the tunnel. How did this team get to this point? Actually, it’s not too hard to connect the dots, which is the topic of our discussion today. The front office follows a plan This is a hard pill for some to swallow, but the Cowboys have a process in which they like to operate and the core of that process does not change. This process includes drafting well, limiting free agent spending, and using a great majority of their cap resources to retain their own talent. They are also careful with their future cap funds. While they’ll ship some costs into future years with restructures, they are hesitant to borrow too much from subsequent seasons and very reluctant to do so when it comes to free agency. This is upsetting to the fanbase. Many want them to spend more in free agency, even though the returns on those investments are statistically unfavorable. Fans don’t care. They want the front office to take some swings because just standing there with the bat in their hands hasn’t produced a deep playoff run in almost 30 years. This is the proverbial staring contest between the fanbase and the front office. Fans point to the lack of success, but the front office swears up and down it’s not the strength of their roster that’s holding them back. Changes have thrown a wrench in their plans In fairness to the front office, there have been many seasons where the torches came out in the offseason, only to be snuffed when the Cowboys were winning games in the regular season. And then once they are bounced in the playoffs, the torches are re-lit and the treacherous six-month offseason march begins. Every season this is the way, without fail. The part overlooked in all of this is the Cowboys plan has typically worked when it comes to regular-season success. Many (not all) areas we were apprehensive about actually turned out to be better than expected. This season, the Cowboys hired a new defensive coordinator whose mastery of schemes came with a learning curve. The team is feeling the effects of those growing pains. Adding insult to injury is… well, injuries. The defense has been hit incredibly hard with several key players missing extensive time. Micah Parsons, DeMarcus Lawrence, DaRon Bland, and Eric Kendricks are all key starters and former All-Pros, but none were on the field on Sunday. Neither were key reserves like Sam Williams, Caelen Carson, and Marshawn Kneeland. The speed bumps we expected from the onset are exacerbated by the extensive health issues the defense is experiencing. When healthy, this is a promising unit, but with all these key players missing, that’s a tough ask of any team and it would be incredibly hard for them to be better prepared for this. Key players aren’t living up to expectations Injuries have played a key role in the defensive struggles, but what’s happening on offense is another story. The offense is averaging 21 points per game, their lowest total since the dreadful 2015 season when Tony Romo missed most of the year. And you’d have to go back another 10 years to find another season where they were worse than this season. Since the Romo/Prescott eras, the Cowboy’s offense has been consistently productive, but that is not the case this season. There are some expected things like rookie linemen figuring things out or an underwhelming running back room being who they are. What has caught them off-guard is the play of their stars. Prescott, CeeDee Lamb, Zack Martin, and Terence Steele are four of the Cowboys’ top five paid players on the roster and none of them played particularly well on Sunday and a couple stunk. This can’t be happening. What we are seeing from the Cowboys is the result of all of these things collectively. The plan, the injuries, the underperforming, it all plays a role. It’s a little Murphy’s Law-ish and they are feeling the effect. A team that skimps in free agency, relies heavily on rookies, and is hit with an onslaught of injuries must have their star players perform, and on Sunday, they did not. The good news is despite all of this the Cowboys are 3-3, have a bye week to help get healthy, and still have a roster full of players who are capable of playing better. As bad as things have been, the idea that they can right some wrongs and get better is within the range of outcomes. Will it happen? We don’t know. If they turn a corner and play well down the stretch, will that even matter come playoff time? Again, tough to say. All we can say is that the Cowboys have been right more times than they have been wrong in the regular season, and this opens the door for better days in upcoming weeks. Fingers crossed.

Photo by Justin K. Aller/Getty Images The latest news surrounding the Dallas Cowboys. Tyler Guyton expected to return to starting left tackle spot – Tommy Yarrish, DallasCowboys.com The Cowboys are going to bring back Tyler Guyton as left tackle after the bye. Musical chairs has been played along the Cowboys offensive line the last two weeks, but it appears the movement won’t last much longer. Tyler Guyton, who was injured against Pittsburgh and did not play against Detroit on Sunday, is the guy at left tackle. “Yes, he just wasn’t ready to go.” Cowboys owner/GM Jerry Jones said when asked if Guyton was still the left tackle for the Cowboys. And Jones wasn’t the only member of the Cowboys staff to have his rookie left tackle’s back either. “Yeah, absolutely,” offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer said when asked if the best five offensive linemen still involved Guyton at left tackle. “Tyler’s a really good talented young player, he just wasn’t feeling great.” Support from the staff is great and needed, but Guyton needs to hold up his end of the deal too. One of the best abilities a player can have in the NFL is availability, and Guyton has already missed some crucial time with an illness in training camp and now, nearly two games worth of valuable snaps and experience. It was a message that head coach Mike McCarthy made sure Guyton heard. “You got to practice every day, you’re not going to get to where you want to be because it’s all about those five linemen getting out there every single day to get those reps,” McCarthy said on Monday. “So when that doesn’t happen it can be bumpy, and that’s what we’re going through.” Four players the Dallas Cowboys need to put on the trade block – Koby Skillern, Sports Illustrated Dallas rarely trades for players in season, but what about trading away some? The Dallas Cowboys have just two games remaining against the San Francisco 49ers and Atlanta Falcons before the NFL trade deadline on November 5th. If the Dallas Cowboys find themselves at 3-5, they should seriously consider trading some key players to retool for the future. Here are a few players the Cowboys must consider moving: 4. Brandin Cooks Brandin Cooks’ value has diminished given his recent performances and age, but the Cowboys could still trade him for a sixth or seventh-round pick. Cooks doesn’t appear to factor into the Cowboys’ long-term plans, and moving him would open the door to evaluate younger receivers like Jalen Tolbert, Jalen Brooks, and Ryan Flournoy. This would be the perfect opportunity to see what the team has in its developing talent while gaining a draft asset in return. 3. Luke Schoonmaker The Cowboys typically don’t like to give up on their draft picks, but there’s little need for Luke Schoonmaker given the current roster. Unless the team decides to move on from Jake Ferguson, they wouldn’t really miss Schoonmaker. As a former second-round pick with promising talent, he could be an ideal candidate to place on the trade block. Schoonmaker holds value, but it’s value that the Cowboys don’t necessarily need right now, making him a potential asset in a trade for draft picks or more immediate needs. 2. Trey Lance The Cowboys’ plans for Trey Lance became clear when they decided to extend Dak Prescott. This makes Lance an appealing, low-cost trade target for teams in need of quarterback help, such as the Miami Dolphins, Las Vegas Raiders, and Tennessee Titans. Cowboys continue to show arrogance when it comes to building and discussing their roster – Michael Lenix, BloggingTheBoys.com If there’s no need for accountability, arrogance runs rampant. The Cowboys are heading into their bye week, and there’s plenty figure out. However, once the dust settled from the beat down they got from the Lions, some disturbing things came from members of the Cowboys’ organization. Team owner Jerry Jones, who has never met a camera or microphone that he didn’t like, did his usual post-game media session. He was asked if the Cowboys as currently constructed have a roster to be one of the top teams in the league, and his answer was full of ignorance. Also, Stephen Jones gave a similar answer. The Cowboys came into the offseason knowing that they had several holes to fill on their roster. Specifically, they needed to address the running back and defensive tackle positions. Dallas, for whatever reason, didn’t take a running back in the NFL draft. Instead, they brought back veteran Ezekiel Elliott during the offseason. Now, this isn’t a knock on Elliott because he can still serve a purpose, but bringing him back didn’t elevate the room significantly, and there were good backs there for the taking in the first three to four rounds. Looking at the 2024 season so far, the Cowboys are dead last in the NFL with a dismal 77.2 yards per game average. That’s simply unacceptable. The lack of talent in running back room is clear. Dallas could have aided in this process by simply paying quarterback Dak Prescott and wide receiver CeeDee Lamb once the offseason started. Instead, the Cowboys did what they always do, and that’s wait until the last minute to get contracts done, which forces them to pay top dollar. It also hinders pursuit of impactful free agents, but they would likely shop in the bargain-bin anyway. Then you have the Jones family telling everybody that it’s all good. Well, it’s not. This roster had already lost big contributors like Dorance Armstrong, Dante Fowler, and Stephon Gilmore. In response, the Cowboys didn’t aggressively pursue options to fill these holes and others when they had all the resources to do so, instead using the salary cap as an excuse. The Cowboys are master of doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Yes, they have drafted well, but that can’t be your only method of team building. It’s bad in Dallas, and it’s likely to get

Photo by Cooper Neill/Getty Images There are tons of questions about the Cowboys after last Sunday, but what are some of the biggest? The Cowboys’ 47-9 whoopin’ from the Detroit Lions has rightfully created a lot of turmoil. Taken with the big losses to New Orleans and Baltimore, all of them at home, the latest blowout has called just about every level of the team into question. What were some of the key concerns coming out of Week 6? Why did they go away from Rico Dowdle? After a breakout game against the Steelers, Dowdle’s usage dropped again to just five carries. This was partly due to the game getting out of hand and Dallas leaning on the pass, of which Dowdle did have a decent share with five catches for 30 yards. But what’s really baffling is that Ezekiel Elliott finished the game with eight carries, and with only 17 yards to show for them. Even on his fewer runs, Dowdle still managed to get 25 yards for a 5.0 average. Yet even when Zeke quickly showed he wasn’t going to do anything special with his touches, the Cowboys still gave him more. It’s starting to look more like politics and less like a meritocracy in the running back room. Yes, Elliott does help as another pass blocker when teams are bringing the heat on Dak Prescott like Detroit was. But Dowdle’s no slouch in that area himself, and he’s far more of a threat to do other things if given the ball. If the bye week doesn’t lead to a switch in how Dallas distributes snaps among its RBs, then decisions are being made that aren’t about football. What’s up with Prescott and Lamb? We’re not so worried about the personal relationship, but more their partnership on the field. While Lamb did have 89 yards on seven catches against Detroit, it was not an efficient game as he was targeted 14 times. It does seem that something is off in the chemistry between QB1 and WR1, so it makes any heated sideline interactions or bad body language get extra attention. Lamb’s holdout through the preseason is obviously part of this, but to still see the lack of rhythm between him and Prescott in mid-October is scary. And if it was that the Lions were doing a great job of defending Lamb, then why couldn’t Prescott do more with some of his other receiving options? Last year we saw Prescott have no issue running the passing game through #88 as they exerted their will against most teams. They have to get back to that for this offense to do anything noteworthy, so hopefully the bye week will allow some time for emotions to cool and chemistry to be found again. Will getting defensive stars back matter? If Micah Parsons and DaRon Bland do return after the bye week, you have to wonder how much it’s going to change with what we’ve seen this year. Remember, Parsons played in the losses to the Saints and Ravens. He was part of the ineffectiveness, and that’s also been true over the past few years when Dallas’ run defense has been so malleable. As long as teams can keep having their way with Dallas in the trenches, Parsons’ best traits are going to be neutered. It’s also going to make the return of DaRon Bland a moot point if opposing offenses can stay ground-focused. The real key for the Cowboys going forward is for Mazi Smith to play like he did against the Giants instead of what we’ve mostly seen, or for them to start giving more of his reps to Linval Joseph. Until they fix the middle, the outsides and edges won’t be enough.

Tim Heitman-Imagn Images DeMarcus Ware spoke about wanting to see more effort from the Dallas Cowboys. The Dallas Cowboys have a lot going on these days. On the surface they appear to be a .500 team through six games which sounds fine and far from the worst case scenario; however, the way that Dallas has gotten here has been rather troubling with them surrendering a ton on defense and barely getting anything done on offense. Ultimately fans are questioning just about everything with the team right now – something that Jerry Jones does not seem to be a fan of – and in the process the word “soft” has been thrown around. This is a heavy accusation to toss out about anybody else, a point that I brought up to DeMarcus Ware when I spoke to him on Wednesday. You a can watch our entire conversation below. The setup to Ware included noting that the word “soft” is indeed a bit of an unfair one to offer out given that we do not know full and total circumstances. Given who he is and what he has accomplished, I was curious for his perspective and he noted that he believes effort is more of an issue. Ware mentioned that when the Cowboys fall into big holes, something that is unfortunately happening quite often, that the effort seems to disappear a bit. It is hard to disagree with that claim. Seasons past saw the Cowboys build leads on their opponents and punch from above, so to speak, and with them trailing so much this season it has felt like they were content to let matters pass them by. Of course that has not been the case in every game, look at how the team rallied late against the Pittsburgh Steelers as an example. We are extremely grateful to DeMarcus Ware for the time and his insight, and if you want to hang out with him then you can do so this week! Ware joined us on behalf of a partnership with Sam’s Club Café and the grand opening of one that he will be attending on Thursday, October 17th. To celebrate the Sam’s Club Café opening, Pepsi has teamed up with local legend DeMarcus Ware, who will be on-site for a meet and greet and photo opportunities with fans from 2 to 3 pm on Thursday, October 17. Sam’s Club Café will be offering free pizza samples, powered by Pepsi – which complements Sam’s Club Café offerings perfectly when paired together. Members who visit the new Sam’s Club Café can purchase a whole pie for just $8.98, and they’ll be able to pair it with a Pepsi fountain soda for only $0.89. Place Sam’s Club Café orders with ease using Scan & Go™ in the Sam’s Club App while shopping. Once you’ve checked out, you’ll pick up your tasty food and Pepsi beverage pairings at the Café without having to wait in a line. If you’d like to attend the Café’s opening you can do so on Thursday as mentioned. The address is 1701 W. State Hwy. 114 in Grapevine. Our thanks to DeMarcus Ware and Sam’s for the time!