ARLINGTON, Texas – With 14:47 left here on this first day of fall and afternoon turning into early evening, this was going to be my lead:
"Speechless in Arlington."
And why not?
The Cowboys were well on their way to getting drubbed a third consecutive time here at the erstwhile friendly confines of AT&T Stadium. They were trailing by 22 points, this on the heels of that 44-19 spanking at the hands of a New Orleans Saints team only able to score one touchdown and 12 points, and at home at that, in a 15-12 loss to the Eagles on Sunday. And on the heels of finishing off last season with that confounding 48-32 playoff loss to the Green Bay Packers.
The Cowboys were well on their way to giving up 274 yards rushing to the previously winless Baltimore Ravens – 151 of those courtesy of running back Derrick Henry and another 87 of those courtesy of quarterback Lamar Jackson – while knowing full well that is exactly what Baltimore's game plan was going to be. Run, run, run, as if the Ravens were some latter-day Forrest Gump.
They were well on their way, three games into the 2024 season, to giving up a combined 72 points in back-to-back home outings, opposing quarterbacks completing just 11 passes (Derek Carr) and 12 passes (Jackson). But that's all those guys had to do since their teams combined for 464 yards rushing in the past two games.
And with only that many minutes remaining in Game 3, the Cowboys had scored but one offensive touchdown over the past 175 minutes, 4 seconds of football, going all the way back to just 5:15 left in the second quarter of the opening 33-19 victory over Cleveland.
Think about that. That's just four minutes short of going nearly three full games, 176 minutes, without scoring an offensive touchdown.
What really was there to say?
Hooray for kicker Brandon Aubrey, who came within three feet of tying Baltimore kicker Justin Tucker's NFL record of 66 yards for the longest field goal in history with his franchise-long 65-yarder for half of the Cowboys' points to that point. Those went along with his 52-yarder, stretching his record to start a career by making 15 of 15 attempts from 50-plus yards.
But a mere footnote, right?
Yet in those final 10 minutes, 41 seconds, the Cowboys turned words not fit to print describing their performance into "congruency," their play so disparent that with 2:36 left to play head coach Mike McCarthy was saying, "We had a chance."
Say what? A chance? Kidding me?
But you had to see it to believe it. Yep, the team having gone 1-1 after two games in 2024 causing me to ask on Friday, "Just who are these guys?" The ones we, along with maybe only half the 93,566 folks here and a near national TV audience, were ready to bury three games into the 2024 season. But then the Cowboys staged a near "immaculate resuscitation."
Inexplicably, and only further confusing these contradictory evaluations, there the Cowboys were, one stop on a third-and-6 at the Baltimore 25-yard line from forcing a punt to earn a final possession with a chance to either tie or win the game they were losing so badly for nearly 58 minutes.
Why, they had scored touchdowns on three consecutive possessions, thanks in part to recovering one of two onside kicks and coming up with a three-and-out for only the second time in Baltimore's 11 possessions. And they were on the precipice of producing another three-and-out, holding Jackson on first down to a four-yard gain and shutting down Herny for no gain on second down, Micah Parsons bowing up for one of his five tackles.
Timeout, Dallas. Plenty of time left. Get a stop. Force a punt. And still have the 2:00 warning to work with. The Ravens lined up three wide receivers. Cowboys are in man-to-man coverage. Got to worry about Henry running right at them. Got to worry about Jackson keeping. That's what happens when the defense is so inept for nearly 50 minutes of the 60-minute game.
Instead, Baltimore, with three receivers lined up to the right, and Zay Flowers, he of only two catches in the game, runs a quick out to his right, Jackson completing the pass a step before Trevon Diggs comes barreling in, a half-an-arm length away from breaking up Jackson's nine-yard completion, just his 12th of the game and Flowers' longest of the day.
First down. Ballgame.
"Yeah, that was just (messy) on my part," Diggs said, though having to sift through the two-receiver traffic heading to his right. "I got to make that play regardless. … At the end of the day, regardless of what it is, I still have to make that play. I'm supposed to show up when it's time, so that's on me."
That sealed the "incongruent" 28-25 loss, having sprinkled one quarter of good on three quarters of totally unacceptable. That dropped the Cowboys to 1-2, below .500 for the first time since opening the 2022 season with that 19-3 loss to Tampa Bay, and only the third time since opening the 2021 season with another loss to Tampa Bay, this one 31-29. The Cowboys finished all those three of those seasons with a 12-5 record, having won two of three NFC East titles.
And back-to-back losses for only the second time in the past 54 regular season games?
The Cowboys continue to struggle stopping the run. They have now given up 456 yards rushing over these past two losses when adding in the Saints' 190, though the Eagles in that 15-12 win holding them to just 89, just 3.0 yards a carry. Gap control and setting the edges on the outside continue to be Dallas' problem. Tackling has been poor. Recognition awful. The middle of the defensive front soft.
"I think right now we've got people just trying to be Superman," Parsons says. "People just got to own jobs, bro. I don't even ever want to be Superman. We don't need no Supermans at all. We just need 11 guys playing together, and right now it's just not in unison."
And this has turned into a Baltimore thing too. The Cowboys have now lost six of the seven times they have faced the Ravens. And this becomes the fourth time the Ravens have rushed for more than 200 yards against the Cowboys: 250 in 2000, 265 in 2008, 294 in 2020 and now another 274. That's a combined 1,083 yards in four of those losses. That's .62 miles for perspective
And when all that happens, hard to get pressure on opposing quarterbacks. No sacks. One Parsons QB hit. A reason why Jackson was able to complete 12 of 15 passes for 182 yards. And when combining Derek Carr's 11 of 16 for 243 yards, that's 23 of 31 for 425 yards, three touchdowns, one interception and a whopping QB rating of 134.81.
Hard to win. Hard to play just one quarter of quality football. Hard to pressure offenses when the Cowboys offense goes nine consecutive quarters in the first three games of the season scoring just one touchdown. That ain't going to cut it. Not today. Not in two months of yesterdays. And not in 14 more tomorrows.
And now, there's just four days to make improvements but just one full practice before facing the Giants up there on Thursday night after at least sprinkling that hope on three quarters of a lost cause.
"I mean, for me it sucks," Parsons summarizes. "It's a long year. I wish I'd never experienced something like this. "
For sure.
But at least that's a mouthful.
