Brad Mills-Imagn Images The Cowboys take on the Commanders in Week 12. The Dallas Cowboys take on the Washington Commanders. Enjoy! This is an open thread for game chat.

Photo by Perry Knotts/Getty Images It is going to be interesting to see how Micah Parsons finishes the season for the Dallas Cowboys. The Dallas Cowboys aren’t having the season they would have hoped. At 3-7, their hopes for a fourth-consecutive playoff appearance are all but gone, and it appears that a top five draft pick could be in their future. One of the most frustrating things about this season has been the injury report for Dallas. It has resembled a scroll as weekly, it seems to get longer and longer. Quarterback Dak Prescott is done for the season, which has crippled the Cowboys to the core. Also, there are several other guys who would be considered leaders in Dallas who have missed time or are currently dealing with an ailment. As a result, defensive coordinator Mike Zimmer has presented former first-round pick and All-Pro Micah Parsons with a challenge, which he spoke about recently. Zim’s talking to me about my leadership and how I need to be better. I love that stuff, because it bothers me when I feel like a coach is upset at me. He gave me a challenge, and I’m going to live up to that challenge. Dallas hit the jackpot when they drafted Parsons. He’s done nothing but live up to his first-round draft status with three-consecutive All-Pro campaigns to start his career. That’s what the best players do. They lead by example with how they prepare and perform when it’s game time, and not many on the defensive side of the ball have done it on his level since he entered the NFL in 2021. As mentioned earlier, the Cowboys have made the playoffs each of the previous three seasons, and Parsons has been at the forefront of their success. However, this year has been different with all the injuries the Cowboys have coupled with play on the field that has left a lot to be desired. Situations like these truly test the character of guys like Parsons that are looked at to guide the ship. He talked about evolving as one of the leaders in Dallas. I’m learning how to lead differently, I’m learning how to become a better leader. It’s challenging in these dark times, it was easy when were always winning and we were always the ones whooping on people, and it didn’t matter who stepped up or who was the light, and you were able to just sit back and watch everything and how things unfold, but now people are looking at me. One of the things the Cowboys have been able to rely on over the last several years is a good defense that created a lot of turnovers (led the NFL in 2021 and 2022). However, under Zimmer, it has not been anywhere close to that. Dallas ranks 31st against the run, 27th overall, and has the fourth-fewest turnovers with nine (tied for second-worst turnover differential). In defense of Zimmer, the Cowboys didn’t exactly give him what he needed to succeed. Zimmer relies on big interior defensive lineman to cause chaos, and while Dallas brought some guys in, veterans Linval Joseph and Jordan Phillips are just too long in the tooth and their best days are behind them. Also, even before the injuries to Parsons, DeMarcus Lawrence, Sam Williams, and rookie Marshawn Kneeland, the Cowboys needed help at edge rusher after losing Dorance Armstrong and Dante Fowler in free agency. Veteran Carl Lawson was signed, and he’s made some plays, but that wasn’t nearly enough. There is some light at the end of the tunnel, though. In addition to Parsons being back, All-Pro cornerback DaRon Bland is expected to make his season debut on Sunday against the Washington Commanders. Also, Kneeland had his 21-day practice window started this week. Parsons is confident that by seasons end, Zimmer will have put together a defense that can be built on for the future. By the end of this year, y’all are going to say Mike Zimmer didn’t have all his pieces, but we sure did put a damn good defense together. And I can take that, because I know we can grow from that. Dallas has seven more games to get things flowing in the right direction on defense. So, we’ll see how things play out.

Kevin Jairaj-Imagn Images Your Sunday morning Cowboys news. Cowboys’ Trevon Diggs, Zack Martin Out vs. Commanders with Injuries in NFL Week 12 – Jack Murray, Bleacher Report The Cowboys are going to be down two All-Pro players against Washington. Nick Eatman of DallasCowboys.com reported that cornerback Trevon Diggs and offensive lineman Zack Martin did not travel with the team and have been ruled out for Sunday’s game against the Washington Commanders. Eatman reported that Brock Huffman or T.J. Bass will replace Martin in the starting lineup while Diggs could be replaced by Josh Butler, Israel Mukuamu or Kermon Hall. Cornerback DaRon Bland is also set to play for the first time in 2024. In addition to Diggs and Martin, Adam Schefter of ESPN reported that the Cowboys will be without wide receiver Brandin Cooks as well. Diggs is a two-time Pro Bowler and has played in all 10 games for Dallas in 2024, recording 37 tackles, eight pass deflections and two interceptions. He is dealing with groin and knee injuries, per Eatman. Martin is an 11-year veteran who has been named first-team All-Pro seven times. He has also started every game thus far for Dallas. Cooks was designated to return from injured reserve but will not make his return this week. He has nine catches for 91 yards and a touchdown this season and has not played since Sept. 26. Running out of gas among 3 things Cowboys will love about Commanders – Ben Grimaldi, Cowboys Wire Pump the brakes on the tank? The Cowboys may have a path to upset the Washington Commanders today. Can’t stop the run Here’s a rare place where the Cowboys and Commanders are actually competing in 2024; the race to see whose defense is worse against the run. Mike Zimmer’s defense currently holds the title, allowing 151 yards per game on the ground, while the Commanders give up 150.5 yards. That half-yard is all separates the Cowboys in 31st place in the league, just one spot ahead of their rivals in 30th. The Commanders have given up 13 rushing scores this season, good for eighth-worst in the league, and they allow five yards a carry, third worst in the NFL. If the Cowboys ever wanted to establish the run, this would be the game to do it. The offense hasn’t had much opportunity this season to run the ball efficiently, but the Commanders will give it up on the ground and it could be a big part of the Cowboys pulling off the upset in Week 12. It’s a defense that’s struggled against the run, but the Commanders have been getting out to leads in the first half, making their weakness less of a factor. If that sounds familiar, it was the same script when Dan Quinn was the defensive coordinator in Dallas. If quarterback Jayden Daniels and Quinn hadn’t won seven games, much more would be made of the team’s inability to stop the run. Perhaps McCarthy can make his old DC pay by beating him how Quinn used to get beat when he was with the Cowboys, by keeping the game close and attacking the Commanders with the run game. Dallas Cowboys 5 Round Mock Draft – Cody Warren, Inside the Star It’s never too early for mock draft season. Round 1 Pick: Ashton Jeanty (RB) Boise State In this mock draft, the Indianapolis Colts offered a trade: pick 9 and pick 147 for the Colts’ picks 10 and 47. Ashton Jeanty has been a name that has come up in numerous draft talks and the Dallas Cowboys. Taking him with a top-10 draft pick may or may not be the way to go. Ashton Jeanty should be the Heisman winner and lead the NCAA in nearly every running back category. Oh, and he can block and catch out of the backfield. Jeanty’s film study unequivocally demonstrates a generational talent whose skill set surpasses traditional running back norms. His extraordinary vision, unmatched contact balance, and explosive playmaking ability make him the most complete backfield prospect in recent memory.His anticipation and acceleration in zone schemes will leave linebackers flailing, while his decisive cuts and power in gap schemes will dominate even the strongest NFL defenses. Moreover, Jeanty’s receiving skills and route-running potential allow him to be deployed as a receiver, while his elite pass protection establishes him as the quintessential modern three-down back.Jeanty is a transformative talent that franchises cannot overlook. His immediate impact on an NFL offense is beyond question, and any team selecting in the top five will find it nearly impossible to pass on him. He is poised to compete for Offensive Rookie of the Year and quickly establish himself among the league’s elite playmakers. The do-it-all back would be the perfect weapon to add to this offense. Dallas Cowboys scouting report: Breaking down the Commanders offensive scheme-David Howman, Blogging the Boys Here’s the rundown on what the Commanders’ offensive scheme will present to the Cowboys. When Daniels came to Washington, his style seemed to perfectly fit with the triumvirate of offensive coaches he’d now be working with. Kingsbury hails from the Air Raid offense of Mike Leach, while Johnson cut his teeth in the Dan Mullen spread option that’s spawned numerous dual-threat legends; Johnson was also responsible for installing the bulk of the Eagles’ option run game with Jalen Hurts. Meanwhile, Lynn brought an exposure to a wide variety of run schemes in the NFL, including the highly successful one that Shanahan has made so popular in San Francisco. The idea was to meld the traditional NFL schemes with the college schemes that had made Daniels so successful. And so far, through 11 weeks, it’s been a big success. Daniels is completing 68.7% of his passes and ranks third in the league in EPA/dropback. He has 2,338 passing yards on top of 482 rushing yards and has notched 14 total touchdowns to just three turnovers. He leads the league in scramble yards and ranks eighth in yards per

Photo by Scott Taetsch/Getty Images The Cowboys are plenty familiar with this defense When the Cowboys take the field this Sunday in Northwest Stadium, it’ll be more than just another game in the storied rivalry between the Cowboys and Commanders. This will be their first meeting against former defensive coordinator Dan Quinn since he left to take this head coaching gig. It wasn’t just Quinn who left, either. He brought along Cowboys defensive pass game coordinator Joe Whitt Jr. to be his defensive coordinator, even as Whitt was under consideration to replace Quinn in Dallas. Quinn also hired Cowboys assistant defensive line coach Sharriff Floyd to the same role in Washington. And when free agency began, Quinn welcomed a handful of Cowboys free agents into the nation’s capitol, including Tyler Biadasz, Noah Brown, Dorance Armstrong, Dante Fowler, and Noah Igbinoghene. It became a bit of a running joke that Quinn was simply trying to recreate the magic of his three years in Dallas with his new job, but so far that approach has turned out to be a smart idea. The Commanders are 7-4 and on pace for their best season in quite a while. Quinn is firmly in the running for Coach of the Year honors, and star quarterback Jayden Daniels is similarly the frontrunner for Offensive Rookie of the Year. Despite all the team’s success, though, Quinn has yet to implement a defense as successful as what he had with the Cowboys. Coming into this matchup, Washington ranks 23rd in both EPA/play allowed and defensive DVOA. Only six teams are giving up more yards per play than Washington, though they rank 14th in scoring defense. Quinn isn’t calling the plays on defense, as he did in Dallas. He’s handed that off to Whitt, who was his most trusted assistant with the Cowboys and also worked with Quinn in his final season as the Falcons head coach. This is Whitt’s first year as a defensive coordinator, and his first time calling the plays, though the overall scheme remains virtually identical to what the two coaches were running in Dallas. Fundamentally, this defense plays with four down linemen that are all tasked with rushing the passer. Behind it, this scheme aims to take away the middle of the field and primarily plays Cover 1 or Cover 3. As was the case in Dallas, Quinn’s Commanders play man coverage at one of the highest rates in the NFL. The issue that Quinn and Whitt have run into is that the Commanders do not employ anyone named Trevon Diggs or DaRon Bland. Their top cornerbacks thus far have been Benjamin St-Juste, a third round pick back in 2021, second-round rookie Mike Sainristill, and the aforementioned Igbinoghene, who’s already logged more defensive snaps this season than in any of his previous four years in the league. Things haven’t been terrible for the Commanders secondary, but they haven’t been good either. Washington is 19th in EPA/pass, 21st in pass defense DVOA, and 18th in pass yards per play. Sainristill has been a bright spot, but St-Juste and Igbinoghene have struggled. That was a motivating factor behind the team trading for four-time Pro Bowler Marshon Lattimore at the trade deadline. Lattimore has yet to make his Commanders debut as he deals with a hamstring injury, and he won’t suit up this week either, but help is on the way for this secondary. One element that’s followed Quinn and Whitt to Washington is their pass rush prowess. There may not be a Micah Parsons on the team, but Quinn has still managed to scheme up pressure with his creative stunts and twists on the defensive line. Quinn and Whitt have used the blitz more than they ever did in Dallas, currently blitzing at the sixth-highest rate in the league. While it’s only yielded the 15th-best pressure rate, Washington is getting home consistently, currently eighth in sacks. Due to the problems in the secondary, though, this defense has become all too dependent on the pass rush winning their reps. On plays where they generate a pressure, Washington is 12th in EPA/pass. But on plays where they don’t generate a pressure, they’re 25th in EPA/pass. Simply put, the secondary cannot hold up without help from the pass rush. Another trait that’s stayed true to this scheme is the struggles against the run. Quinn likes to use such wide alignments on the defensive line, and then moves his guys all over with stunts and twists, that it creates wide open lanes for running backs. Coming into this one, the Commanders are 23rd in EPA/rush, 29th in run defense DVOA, and are giving up the second-most yards per carry in the league. And no, the one team ahead of them is not the Cowboys. That’s right, Quinn’s defense is giving up more yards per carry than Mike Zimmer’s dismal unit. Whereas Quinn’s Cowboys defenses usually got attacked on the edges to great success, his Commanders defense is mostly getting beat right up the gut. Only five teams have had more runs between the tackles against them, and only the Colts have allowed more runs of 10+ yards on attempts inside the tackles. That’s music to the Cowboys’ ears, considering that no offense runs up the middle more than them on the year. They haven’t had much success in that approach, mostly because defenses just load the box to stuff the runs. But Washington refuses to do so. Quinn and Whitt have continued their trend of running a high rate of dime personnel, and are presenting light boxes at the fourth-highest rate in the league, making it even harder to bottle up those runs inside. From a schematic standpoint, the Commanders have almost exactly recreated the defense that Quinn and Whitt were running with the Cowboys. They’ve been able to replicate the success in the pass rush, while also still having the same issues against the run. Personnel issues in the secondary have added an additional challenge, though facing Cooper

Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images Playing the Cowboys these days is all about embarrassing them so the whole world can see it. Something I have come to realize is that if you are a Dallas Cowboys fan around the age of 40 (a little room for flexibility at the top) or younger, you have only gotten the bad in this. Your friends, family, co-workers, etc. all tease you and mock you when your team loses and for the majority of your life, for all of your adult life, that has been the case. You get the treatment that fans of the Los Angeles Lakers or New York Yankees get in terms of meme-ability but without any sort of hardware to make crawling through the mud worth it. Consider that each of those teams are dealing with droughts of their own, the youngest of which was born when Dallas’ was already 14 years old. It is for this reason that when CeeDee Lamb said following Monday night’s loss that teams are looking to “embarrass” the Cowboys that I found it interesting. I’m not here to act like playing the Cowboys “is so and so’s Super Bowl”, but I do put some stock into the idea that opposing teams smell blood in the water so to speak and know that a domination against America’s Team lives a little bit louder than most. Consider all the fanfare that the New Orleans Saints picked up earlier this season as a recent example. These are just my two cents though so I was curious how someone who has actually been in those shoes/cleats feels about the whole thing. Thankfully I had an opportunity to talk to former New York Giants wide receiver Victor Cruz earlier this week and asked him about the idea among other things. You can watch our conversation here: Cruz’s Giants team won the Super Bowl 13 years ago when Dallas’ drought was already 16 years old (I’d imagine Jerry Jones bought them a brand new Mercedes for the occasion). They famously defeated the Cowboys in an NFC East title game in Week 17 at MetLife Stadium, the first of three in a row that Dallas would lose to each of their division rivals. I lived those three years like every one of you and still cannot believe that they actually happened in that exact way. The Murphy’s Law of who the Cowboys are speaks for itself in that what can go wrong will and while Cruz didn’t exactly agree with that particular sentiment, he did note that playing the Cowboys comes with a little bit of extra motivation. He added that playing for the Giants brings with it a big stage in and of itself, an objectively true statement, and said the right things about how you want to embarrass anybody you play because it’s the NFL. Whatever the case you can add Cruz to people who at least partially share the sentiment that CeeDee Lamb offered on Monday night. The whole thing is depressing and it is hard to know when it will end. Cruz and I discussed a variety of things, including his recent partnership with Captain Morgan and a particularly sweet new crewneck. Starting November 22, limited quantities of the Captain Morgan Crewneck will drop on KidSuper.com. Miss the drop? You’re in luck – Captain Morgan is unlocking access for fans 21+ to score the coolest merch of the season. Head over to FollowTheCaptain.com, and while you’re there, dive into a world of hidden clues and surprises, because you never know what Captain Morgan has in store as we gear up for Super Bowl LIX. Our thanks to Victor Cruz and Captain Morgan for the time.

Photo by Michael Owens/Getty Images Our latest mailbag features plenty of questions about the Dallas Cowboys Every week, we take questions on X (Twitter) and Facebook about Dallas Cowboys players and other issues surrounding the team. So let’s get right into it. “I would like a complete analysis of Ryan Flournoy’s performance”. (@EquipTheNations on Twitter) Mike: Starting for the first time last week meant the world to Flournoy and he was very vocal about the fact. The sad part is he only managed two receptions for 19 yards, and that was on a day Cooper Rush threw the ball 55 times. Flournoy is a physical player with tremendous explosiveness that best fits as a downfield player. The issue here is that just doesn’t fit what the team is asking Cooper Rush to do. You can see the potential as a playmaker who can rack up YAC yards when given the chance, it just may be the case we have to wait till next season to truly see that on the field. Dana: Unfortunately, the sample size for Flournoy is pretty small when it comes to the NFL. Throughout the six games that he has been active, he has only seen four receptions on six attempts. Last week he saw the most snaps in a game by far with 54 snaps but he only came away with two catches for 19 yards. Right now, he looks like a rookie WR that is trying to get more playing time. He has done some good things like his 15-yarder last Monday, but the big blemish is the fumble against the Lions. He is a rookie and he is learning. Hopefully, we will see more of what he is capable of during the remainder of this season. “For a team that doesn’t get involved with free agency and therefore needs to hit on a higher % of draft picks, should McClay get fired?” (@Androvian70 on Twitter) Mike: Personally I think McClay does a very good job. I’ve spoken with him a number of times and he’s a very smart and articulate football guy. It’s true there have been some misses in the draft in recent times but that isn’t solely down to McClay. The best way to describe what McClay does is he’s the intermediary guy between the coaches, the front office and the scouting department. They all tell him what they want and McClay goes to work finding those best fits. No matter what he says or what he suggests, there’s only one man that makes the final decision when it’s the Cowboys turn to make that draft pick, and that’s the guy the question should be pointed at. Dana: The Cowboys are pretty well known to be good a drafting players and when you look at the stars on this team, that is mostly true. However, when drafting players to support those stars, there definitely needs to be improvement. The Cowboys are actually towards the bottom of the list when looking at the percent of draft picks that never play in the NFL. Each team’s percentage of draft picks that NEVER play in the NFL since 2015: ( Ig/pickinem) pic.twitter.com/Lthu0kEu0q — Dov Kleiman (@NFL_DovKleiman) November 16, 2024 When the team’s strategy is to rely on drafted players as opposed to free-agency, that percentage needs to be a lot smaller. Now, when evaluating the person responsible, it gets a little more muddy than just placing the blame on Will McClay. There are a lot of people inside of the Dallas Cowboys’ war room that influence which players get drafted. Coaches have their favorites and the owner/GM has his. The decision may not always fall on the shoulders of one person. Like Mike mentioned above, there are others that should be questioned as well. “In their history, have the Cowboys ever had a winless home record in any season? Better yet, what season yielded the worst home record?” (@MrEd315 on Twitter) Mike: The last time this Cowboys team went an entire season without winning at home was 1989, their only win that season came on the road. But since the team has played in AT&T stadium, this has never occurred. Over the years the team was slowly building a reputation at home and went two seasons recently with only one loss. This year one stat that is particularly depressing is that the Cowboys have led at home this season for a total of two minutes and 15 seconds, we are now heading into Thanksgiving. This is a seriously depressing home team record at the moment. Dana: Just to add some color here, there are many factors that go into why a team loses any one game. When looking at causation vs correlation, it is unlikely that simply playing at home is the main reason for any of these losses this year. But whether it is the strength of opponents for home games, traveling fans of opposing teams coming to experience AT&T Stadium, the sun peeking through the windows at the perfect angle, or simply the fact that this 2024 Cowboys team is not very good, the idea of having a home field advantage is completely lost in Dallas.