ARLINGTON, Texas – Around 2:30 p.m. Friday, the dark injury cloud hovering over these Dallas Cowboys just grew darker.
Bleak comes to mind.
Became one of those oh-no moments. Maybe even a "You got to be kidding?"
Found out Cowboys veteran middle linebacker Eric Kendricks, their leading tackler by a margin of 14, was going to miss Sunday's game against the high-flying Detroit Lions. We're talking not only the guy who wears the green-dot helmet, the one relaying the defensive calls to the other guys, but also the one who makes the pre-snap adjustments.
Not good.
Then DaRon Bland – still on injured reserve but having practiced all week until missing Friday's walk-through practice – was being listed as questionable, but discovered only because "highly questionable" is not an official designation. That, too, was not good at all. Same for his original backup, Caelen Carson, totally still highly questionable.
On top of all that, we already knew the Cowboys still were going to miss their top-4 defensive ends, thus meaning all told they would be without seven potential starters on this defense, not to mention having then to start two guys with practice-squad pedigree and at least play three more.
All this on defense.
This against the Lions' No. 3 ranked offense, averaging three yards short of 400 a game and one averaging 151.3 yards rushing a game. Plus, they were averaging a scotch less than 27 points a game and, coming off a bye, had scored 42 in their previous outing against Seattle.
My initial thought: Big trouble on the horizon. The Cowboys were going to have to score in the high thirty-somethings to have any chance of winning this game.
Evidently, Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy was tracking my thoughts, saying here Sunday evening in the aftermath at AT&T Stadium, "We needed to score points coming into it was the mindset."
Like forty-something.
Well, the Cowboys didn't. Scored just nine. Fewest since the final, meaningless game of the 2022 season when scoring six in a loss to Washington. Didn't even score a touchdown, first time that's happened since that 2022 season-opening 19-3 loss to the Buccaneers. And that's only happened three other times since that 6-10 season of 2020 when it occurred twice.
So when trying to figure out how in the hell we got to Lions 47, Cowboys 9, make sure you start right here with a malfunctioning offense, the Cowboys now having lost all three home games to start the 2024 season and four straight if we include the season-ending playoff loss to Green Bay.
What the what?
"Humbling, humbling for sure. That's the NFL. And humbling within the game, humbling for sure," Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott said, but when it came to if all this was "concerning," he went on to say, "I'm not a guy to hit the panic button."
That's good because considering the bye has arrived, dwelling on this now for two weeks could be devastating. Especially if they stew on the fact that this 38-point loss matches the fifth worst in the Cowboys' 65-season history, the previous four coming between 1960 and 1988. And it matches the worst since Jerry Jones bought the team in 1989, once in 2008 and another time in 2010. That second one was seismic, the 45-7 defeat to McCarthy's Green Bay Packers dropped the Cowboys to 1-7 and was the last straw of Wade Phillips' Cowboys head-coaching career.
Now, the good thing in this one, if there is even one, is that no matter how bad, this only counts as one loss. No matter that it occurred on Jerry Jones' 82nd birthday, leaving him saying afterward, "I think it was just the feeling of the team having fun at our expense, Detroit having fun at our expense."Regardless, the Cowboy are still treading water at 3-3, one game behind Washington (4-2) in the NFC East and a half-game behind Philadelphia (3-2) with, as Dak pointed out "five division games left to play."
The 38-point margin of defeat is embarrassing, especially at home. So are the lopsided statistics, not only the Lions (4-1) totaling 492 yards – last time the Cowboys gave up more was 503 to Jacksonville in a 40-34 overtime loss in 2022 – but also 184 yards rushing and two touchdowns. You know what that means? In the Cowboys' three losses, they have now given up 648 yards rushing and nine rushing touchdowns. That's an average of 216 yards rushing and three rushing touchdowns per game.
And like in the 44-19 loss to New Orleans, when the Saints scored touchdowns on their first six possession, the Lions scored on their first nine (five touchdowns, four field goals), and weren't stopped until 4:23 was left when the Lions mercifully brought in the backups at quarterback and running back.
But let's unpack why this game turned so lopsided so soon, the Cowboys unable to solve two persistent problems while building that 3-2 start to the season: scoring touchdowns and scoring touchdowns in the red zone.
Why, the Cowboys won the coin toss, and knowing they were shorthanded on defense, said give me the ball. And they marched right down the field, yep, right into the red zone, first-and-10 at the Detroit 18-yard line. Sort of a "here we go" start to the game. Then the smoke screen to CeeDee Lamb (seven catches, 89 yards) nets only two yards. Next play, a Dak lob into the end zone for CeeDee, giving him his "jump ball," was too high. And his third-down pass under intense pressure fell incomplete, though no matter since the Lions declined a holding penalty on Zack Martin.
Dang it, field goal, but a 3-0 lead. No red zone TD. Again, now six of 14.
And even though the Lions needed just five plays to take a 7-3 lead, no biggie, just march right back down the field and score a touchdown, right? And the Cowboys did march right down again, 63 yards to a third-and-5 at the Lions' 7-yard line, but only that thanks to Lions cornerback Amik Robertson's touchdown-saving tackle of a rumbling Jake Ferguson.
Then this, and maybe a game-damning play: Dak spots CeeDee running open in the back left corner of the end zone. But so did Detroit safety Brian Branch, who instinctively snuffed out what was about to take place, coming off his responsibility of covering Jalen Tolbert hanging out near the line of scrimmage, presumably Dak's safety outlet just in case. Branch jumped the route, snatching Dak's pass in the end zone for a touchback.
"The guy made a great play," Dak said, going on to take complete blame for the pick. "I anticipated a little too much. That's where the ball's got to go, should go on that play. I can stare that guy (Tolbert) down to the flat a little bit longer, hang on my back foot, maybe take a hit and then put it in the back corner.
"Then I'm sure it's a touchdown."
Well, once again, no touchdown, this red zone quickly turning into a Twilight Zone for the Cowboys, now six of 15 when it comes to scoring touchdowns once reaching inside the 20-yard line.
By time the Cowboys got the ball back again early in the second quarter, they were down 10-3, and after a three-and-out, the Lions just "got" the Cowboys on a trick play, quarterback Jared Goff pitching the ball to running back David Montgomery, who handed the ball to Amon-Ra St. Brown, who in turn pitched the ball back to Goff, who found tight end Sam LaPorta running all by his lonesome with Cowboys linebacker DeMarvion Overshown in hot pursuit for a 52-yard touchdown pass untouched. Just like that, 17-3, and the onslaught was on.
And while Goff came into the game having completed his previous 19 straight passes, he only needed to complete 18 of 25 for 352 yards, piling up a 153.8 QB rating following his 155.8 mark in his 292-yard, two-touchdown performance in the win over Seattle.
This means in the three home losses so far, the opposing quarterbacks have only needed to complete 11 passes (Derek Carr, Saints), 12 (Lamar Jackson, Ravens) and 18 (Goff) to beat the Cowboys. Unreal in this day and age of the pass, the three needing a total of 43 completions to win three games.
That's it.
And conversely, Dak said, "We've got to score touchdowns. … You can't beat teams like this, can't beat great teams kicking field goals."
And sure as heck can't beat 'em when knowing on Friday you have a beat up defense.
