Photo by Mario Hommes/DeFodi Images via Getty Images Things are going so bad in Dallas, they can’t even get ahead of the Giants in the 2025 draft order. The chasm between winners and losers in the NFC East grew wider in Week 10. But even if you’re fully invested in the Cowboys’ 2025 draft positioning, disappointment is still coming thanks to one of our division rivals. No matter how bad things are getting in Dallas, the New York Giants keep finding ways to be a little worse. Before America’s Team suffered another humiliation against the Eagles last Sunday afternoon, the Giants lost to the Panthers that morning in Germany. QB Daniel Jones’ two interceptions helped keep Carolina in the game long enough for it to get to overtime, where they finally won with a field goal. That’s what Cowboys fans are reduced to at this point; rooting for the Giants to win so that we can get a better draft pick next April. The Commanders’ loss to Pittsburgh last week didn’t even matter as there’s no realistic chance of Dallas catching them, or anyone else, in terms of a division win or other postseason goals. The focus has moved to the future and even that can’t come without frustration thanks to the G-Men. Current NFC East Standings Philadelphia Eagles 7-2 (2-0, 4-2 vs NFC) Washington Commanders 7-3 (2-0 in division, 5-1) Dallas Cowboys 3-6 (1-1, 1-5) New York Giants 2-8 (0-4, 1-6) Further illustrating the divide that Philadelphia and Washington have established from their hapless division rivals, their big game tonight on Thursday Night Football feels irrelevant to Dallas and New York. Even if the Commanders take a second straight loss, they’ll still be in the NFC wild card playoff picture. Meanwhile, the Eagles are starting to look like the team with the best shot at stopping the Detroit Lions from getting to the Super Bowl. The Cowboys have to wait until Monday night for another likely defeat from the Houston Texans. About the only positive you can say, at least for Jerry Jones’ sake, is that the sun won’t be an issue in the primetime game. Even in failure, Dallas can’t get ahead of New York in the 2025 draft order this week. But it would shorten the gap as the Giants are on a bye, reducing their loss-column cushion. By the time we get to the Thanksgiving game between them, it could become a fascinating display of two teams trying not to be obvious about tanking.

Brett Davis-Imagn Images The Dallas Cowboys will go with Rico Dowdle as the top option at running for the rest of the season. It only took nine games, but the Dallas Cowboys finally made the right decision when it comes to their running back room. Rico Dowdle has been named the team’s RB1. There is no more running back by committee in Dallas. Mike McCarthy said Rico Dowdle is the Cowboys lead back: “Definitely, you have to get him the ball. That’s my focus to continue to get him opportunities. He’s the lead back.” — Clarence Hill Jr (@clarencehilljr) November 14, 2024 This isn’t a shocker to anyone who’s watched the Cowboys in 2024. Dowdle is averaging 4.5 yards per rush on the year as opposed to 3.2 for Ezekiel Elliott. His best performance came in a Week 5 against the Pittsburgh Steelers when he set a career-high with 87 rushing yards. He’s had 24 carries over the last two games, and he’s racked up 128 yards (5.3 yards per rush). The Cowboys came into the season with the mindset of having a committee approach. Fair enough, but at some point, you have to give someone the keys to the car, and on this roster, it’s Dowdle. The Cowboys take on the Houston Texans on Monday night at AT&T Stadium. It will be a stiff test as they rank 11th against the run. However, the more interesting part will be how much head coach Mike McCarthy uses Dowdle since he also calls plays. If the Cowboys are to have any shot in this one, especially without quarterback Dak Prescott, Dowdle needs to be effective as much as he can.

Photo by John Rivera/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images Next Monday night will be interesting. This Week 11 matchup between the Dallas Cowboys and Houston Texans is one of those interstate rivalries that can divide household’s, pitting friends against friends and family against family in the state of Texas. Due to the current state of one of these teams, the excitement of this rare head-to-head regular-season meeting has all but lost its appeal. These two teams are on different ends of the spectrum heading into this Week 11 matchup. The Cowboys really have nothing left to play for this year with their playoff hopes ended, but the Texans are playing for the playoffs, even with their close but unfortunate loss to the Detroit Lions last week. One thing that makes this game interesting is some of the individual matchups that should be entertaining to watch. Sadly the brother-against-brother battle between Stefon and Trevon Diggs won’t take place, but there are several other battles to keep an eye on this week. DE Micah Parsons vs. LT Laremy Tunsil After missing multiple weeks with a high ankle sprain, Micah Parsons’ triumphant return to the field proved why he is one of the most feared pass rushers in the entire league. He registered two QB sacks last week against the Eagles and will try to replicate that success in Week 11 against the Texans. That’s easier said than done though considering Houston’s LT Laremy Tunsil has only given up two sacks this year. He is however the most penalized OT in the league (14), which means Parsons could at least get the better of him that way. CB Trevon Diggs vs. WR Nico Collins A lot of us had this Week 11 matchup circled on the calendar to watch the head-to-head battle between brothers Stefon and Trevon Diggs. Unfortunately a season-ending knee injury for Stefon prevents that from happening. Instead of that matchup, the one between Trevon and Nico Collins is a pretty interesting one as well. Collins has been out since Week 5 with a hamstring injury, but led the league in receiving with 567 yards at that point. Neutralizing his impact on the game could fall mostly on Diggs’ shoulders this week. All of this is predicated on Collins playing, which is expected at this point. LT Tyler Guyton/Asim Richards vs. DE Will Anderson It’s unknown right now if Tyler Guyton will return to the starting lineup after being inactive for last week’s game, but whether it’s him or Asim Richards, they will have their hands full with one of the best young pass rushers in the league in Will Anderson. Like Guyton, Anderson also missed last week’s game. Despite that though, he is still tied third in the league with eight QB sacks this season. The second-year pass rusher could be a problem this week. The same is true for Danielle Hunter versus Terence Steele on the other side.

Photo by Cooper Neill/Getty Images Things with the Cowboys are so discouraging these days. The Cowboys are bad. Everyone knows that by now, and in case you thought it might change with Cooper Rush coming into the lineup, it did not. This team is too bad right now for any move to serve as a quick fix or save the season. But even the most optimistic Rush fans had to be blown away by how bad he was. Ditto for Trey Lance in his limited playing time. The question, though, comes down to how bad the Cowboys’ backups really were. Watching the game was rough, as both Rush and Lance made several especially egregious mistakes, but did their play really drag this team down considerably more? Let’s take a look at the advanced statistics to see. In short, no they did not. The Cowboys took a very small step back in their offensive efficiency grades this week, but their rankings – offense, defense, and special teams – remained the same as a week ago. Their total team DVOA grade dropped one ranking, but only because they were just barely ahead of a Dolphins team that just won. We also now pivot to tracking weighted DVOA instead of DAVE, casting out any preseason projections and instead focusing on more recent performances versus how the team did earlier in the year. Right now, the Cowboys’ weighted DVOA doesn’t deviate too much, but if it starts to shift significantly one way or the other, that will offer some clues as to the real impact of the quarterback change. 2024 NFL Team Tiers, Weeks 1-10, courtesy of rbsdm.com The team took a more significant tumble in the EPA-based team tiers. A week ago, they were still pretty bad but at least sat comfortably ahead of the Patriots, Browns, Giants, and Titans. Now, they’re practically even with the Browns and only ahead of the abysmal Panthers and Raiders. Thinking just about the NFC East, the Giants made almost no movement here, but the Cowboys just fell that far behind them. Meanwhile, the Eagles and Commanders are among the league’s best teams right now. And as far as playoff seeding goes, there are nine NFC teams in the top three tiers here with only seven spots open. Even if Dak Prescott was going to return this year, the playoff window is as firmly shut as it could be without being mathematically eliminated. Offense So the offense didn’t get all that much worse in going from Dak Prescott to Cooper Rush, which is both an endorsement of why Rush is the top backup and also an indictment of how bad this offense has been. Rush is not a particularly gifted quarterback, but his command of the playbook and solid fundamentals have made him a valuable backup because there isn’t likely to be a massive decline when he plays. That’s reflected here. However, when the offense is so disastrous already, it’s hard to get much worse. That said, it’s not impossible either: here are six offenses behind Dallas in offensive DVOA, three of which have either fired their offensive coordinator or changed play-callers. These next two months of football are going to make it painfully obvious that this offense is in need of serious structural changes. This will be the last week we look at Dak Prescott’s efficiency in this analytics roundups for two reasons. For starters, Prescott’s season was officially ended when he opted to undergo surgery on his hamstring tear on Monday. Additionally, one more game of Cooper Rush as the starter will give us just enough of a sample size to really dig into here, even though it’ll still be tough to compare him against the rest of the league. So, in looking at Prescott’s final standings for the year, this was one of the most precipitous dropoffs we’ve seen in quite some time. A year ago, Prescott finished the season ranked second in EPA/play, second in QBR, and fifth in CPOE. Similarly, he was second in MVP voting. This year, as his season ends, he’s in the bottom quartile of the league in nearly every category. Whoever is in charge of this offense next year will be tasked with reviving Prescott’s career, which looked to be hitting its peak not even a full calendar year ago. The offensive line has been a mixed bag all year. They’re not getting their quarterback sacked at a high rate, but they have a tendency to fall apart in big moments. Their run blocking has its moments – and it’s worth noting Rico Dowdle is behind only Bijan Robinson in running back success rate – but it’s not consistently dominant. One player on this offensive line that’s consistently been an issue is Terence Steele. Only two tackles in the NFL have surrendered more pressures than Steele this year, and none have allowed more sacks. That’s not a good sign considering that Steele’s base salary next year will increase from $1.6 million to $13.3 million. Even worse: the Cowboys can’t get out of his contract without taking on serious amounts of dead money until the conclusion of the 2025 season. Defense Micah Parsons returned, at long last, and immediately proved why he’s the best defensive player in the league. What he may lack in PR skills is made up for with another type of PR skills: pass rush. Parsons’ 92.1 pass rush grade from Pro Football Focus was the best of any defender in Week 10, and he helped the Cowboys climb all the way up to fifth in the league in pressure rate. Outside of that, though, everything else is bad for this defense. Parsons couldn’t fix a leaky secondary or squishy run defense. The game was a testament to Mike Zimmer’s ability to scheme up pressures, especially when Parsons is in the game, but the veteran coach simply lacks too much talent elsewhere to put a complete product on the field. Speaking of that leaky secondary,

Barry Reeger-Imagn Images The latest news surrounding the Dallas Cowboys. Dallas Cowboys surprisingly aren’t the NFL’s most disappointing team – Josh Sanchez, Sports Illustrated Saying the Cowboys aren’t the most disappointing team this season is surprising. While the Cowboys have been a major disappointment, they are not the league’s most disappointing team, according to CBS Sports. “Dallas had the fifth-best odds in the NFC prior to the season. Heading into Week 11, the Cowboys are not only barely in contention for the NFC East, but also three games out of the final playoff berth,” the report reads. As a result of their underperforming, the Cowboys are ranked as the second-most disappointing team in the NFL through 10 weeks, surpassed only by the New York Jets. Mailbag: Time to let Martin get healthy? – Tommy Yarrish, Mickey Spagnola, DallasCowboys.com The season’s is all but decided, is it time to save us from ourselves? I consider Zack Martin one of the greatest players in Cowboys history. He should be in the Hall of Fame someday. But he’s clearly hurting and not himself. Is it time to sit him out a game or two and let him get healthy? Obviously, he doesn’t want to sit, and the team will only be worse without him, but I hate seeing this great player struggle, especially when they’re losing anyway. – Steven Morris/Louisville, KY Mickey: That sounds like a very compassionate thought on your part, and Zack is battling through that shoulder injury, because it’s not like him to miss the padded practice on Thursday that he did this past week. But you must factor in who would be taking his place, and at this time the guy would be T.J. Bass, a second-year guard who came into the NFL as a rookie free agent last year with just three starts under his belt as an injury replacement. Also, must consider increasing the lack of experience on the offensive line if Martin isn’t out there, and with youngsters starting at left tackle and center, and now then at right guard might be creating a worse problem. Now if he’s injured to the point he can’t play, then that is another story. Tommy: Obviously if Zack Martin is hurt enough to the point where it would be detrimental for him physically to be playing, then you absolutely sit him. If this is just your normal mid-season banged up though, then he’s the best option you have at right guard even though time is starting to catch up to him. You’re absolutely right that it’s not fun seeing great players struggle, but all great players have and will struggle throughout their career. This is just, unfortunately, seeming like the time in Martin’s career where you start to see those signs build up. Cowboys’ Jake Ferguson takes blame in stadium sunlight debacle, has faith in backups after losing Dak Prescott – Jordan Dajani, CBS Sports Prescott’s security blanket has faith in his entire quarterback room. Despite the slow start to the second half of the season, the Cowboys still have confidence. Tight end Jake Ferguson voiced his support for Rush and Lance when speaking with CBS Sports this week. “I have all the faith in the world in those two,” Ferguson said. “I tell everybody, my first NFL touchdown was from Cooper Rush. The way those two approach the game, the way they approach each day getting into the facilities … the meetings, the practices, whatever it may be, the walk-throughs. Those guys are approaching it full steam ahead with supreme confidence. And my job as 1/11ths of the offense is not only to do my job at the best level that I can, but also to give them that confidence that, ‘Hey, I can throw the ball to 87 if I need to …’” One of the big storylines to come out of the Cowboys’ loss to the Eagles was the sun. Yes, the big ball of fire in the sky. With Dallas playing in the late afternoon, the sun was peeking through the windows of AT&T Stadium, which caused some problems for CeeDee Lamb in the end zone. After missing a touchdown catch due to the glare, Lamb told reporters he is “one thousand percent” in favor of blackout curtains being used for Cowboys home games. Ferguson, who was somewhat a part of this now infamous “sun drop,” actually took responsibility for the fiasco that it has evolved into. “You know, I wasn’t standing where CeeDee was. I wasn’t seeing what he was seeing,” Ferguson said. “In my eyes, I think I should have caught that ball. If you watch the video back, you can kind of see me in the area. If I reach my hands out and catch that ball, the whole country isn’t having this conversation. So in my eyes, I should have caught that ball. In my eyes, I also should have finished the route. I stopped in the route and came back. I shouldn’t have done that, I should keep stretching it. But like I said, in my eyes I should have caught that ball.” 10 Cowboys head coaching candidates to replace Mike McCarthy – David Howman, BloggingTheBoys.com We all know how Black Monday will go this year, so let’s look at possible replacements. This begs the question of who might replace McCarthy when, not if, the job becomes available. Looking around the league, there are quite a few hot names in the coaching world that could be contenders in Dallas. While there will surely be some interest among fans in plucking a coach from the college ranks (Deion Sanders, anyone?), Jerry Jones has been pretty adamant that such a move can’t work in the modern NFL. Without further ado, and as the regular season keeps on rolling, here are 10 names to watch as potential candidates for the top job with America’s Team. Ben Johnson Current role: Lions offensive coordinator The skinny: Ben Johnson has been the hottest head coaching

Brett Davis-Imagn Images Should the Cowboys consider getting ahead of things a bit (lol) and sign Rico Dowdle to an extension? Disaster is a fair word to describe the Dallas Cowboys 2024 season. After entering the season with lofty expectations, the Cowboys are all but eliminated from the playoff race as we sit in at the second week of November. It’s been a while since the Cowboys have had to endure a season like this. 2020 was a bad year, but Dak Prescott’s injury in Week 5 gave Dallas a chance to have some optimism things would have gone differently if he was healthy. While Prescott suffered a season-ending injury again this season, it was very clear that even with their star quarterback, the Cowboys were not going anywhere this year. While this season has not produced many positive developments, a few players have exceeded expectations and given Dallas some hope for the future. One of those players has been 26-year-old running back Rico Dowdle. Dowdle, who many believe would serve as Dallas’ true number one running back this year, has been given fewer opportunities than expected but has produced at a high level when he’s been on the field. On the season, Dowdle has carried the ball 83 times for 374 yards, an average of 4.5 Y/A, and recorded career-highs in first down runs (21) and rushing success rate. (55.4) Rico Dowdle looking good todaypic.twitter.com/y5MiMUe7sK — Tom Downey (@WhatGoingDowney) November 10, 2024 #Cowboys Rico Dowdle among all running backs for Week 9 (pre-MNF): • 58.3% success rate – (4th)• +3.0 rush EPA – (4th)• 6.3 yards per carry – (2nd)• 3 rushes of 10+ yards – (T-2nd) Rico needs a minimum of 20 touches a game. (via NFL Pro) pic.twitter.com/fcAEThb1A8 — Brandon Loree (@Brandoniswrite) November 5, 2024 There is a clear difference in explosiveness between Dowdle and the Cowboys’ other running backs. The 26-year-old has an 8.5% explosive rush rate, which isn’t anything all that special, but when you consider how much the Cowboys have struggled to run the ball this season it’s much more impressive. Dallas’ other two primary running backs, Dalvin Cook and Ezekiel Elliott, have explosive rush rates of 0% and 2.1% respectively. Dallas’ run game as a whole is going to need a complete overhaul this spring, but adding multiple running backs and offensive linemen in one single offseason may not be a realistic option. While he may not be one of the top running backs in the league, Dowdle has proven he is capable of being a valuable piece of an effective rushing attack. It would benefit the Cowboys greatly to lock him up long-term to take one thing off their offseason to-do list. If the Cowboys were to sign Dowdle to an extension, it wouldn’t break the bank. Devin Singletary, a similar runner production-wise to Dowdle, signed a three-year, $16.5M deal with the New York Giants last offseason. Dallas could likely lock up Dowdle with a similar type of offer only costing them $5-6M a year. Signing Rico Dowdle to an extension isn’t going to be the singular move that thrust Dallas back into Super Bowl contention next season. However, it would help lessen their load this offseason and would allow them to pair him with another free agent or draft pick at the position.