Well, that was not fun. In a game where we expected the Dallas Cowboys to keep their playoff hopes alive, the team just wasn\u2019t up to the task as they fell to the Minnesota Vikings 34-26. At first, things looked promising, but it didn\u2019t take long for us to realize what was about to happen. This Cowboys team just didn\u2019t have it in them to show that they belong in the playoff hunt. Here are ten thoughts on this very unsatisfying Sunday night loss to the Vikings.<\/p>\n
Brian Schottenheimer stated he wanted the team to come out fast, and that is exactly what they did. The defense got off the field right away after a batted pass dropped into Quinnen Williams\u2019 arms. The offense took advantage and scored a touchdown on their first possession, although it took a little chicanery to extend the drive.<\/p>\n
When it appeared that the Cowboys\u2019 opening drive had stalled out, they were given new life thanks to a fake field goal. The play was orchestrated perfectly as holder Bryan Anger delivered an over-the-shoulder toss to Brandon Aubrey as he took off running to his right. The Cowboys\u2019 All-Pro kicker picked up the yards they needed before sliding to the turf.<\/p>\n
3. Defense couldn\u2019t make stops<\/p>\n
This late in the season, we just hoped the defense would be better. They\u2019re not. It was terrible. Statistically, the yardage total wasn\u2019t lucrative as the Vikings finished with just 327 total yards, the Cowboys\u2019 third-lowest number of yards allowed this season. But when Minnesota pushed, the Cowboys\u2019 defense couldn\u2019t make stops and gave up points quickly. The Vikings scored four touchdowns on the night, and three of those drives took less than four minutes. It happened so fast, the Cowboys\u2019 defense didn\u2019t even know what hit them.<\/p>\n
4. Offense underperformed<\/p>\n
The defense will take the brunt of the blame as they normally do, but the offense shouldn\u2019t get off scot-free. Despite putting together a handful of nice drives, the offense just couldn\u2019t finish them. The Cowboys\u2019 offense had ten total drives, and in nine of them, they were in Vikings territory; however, they only scored two touchdowns, while settling for four field goals. Three times they got squadoosh. They stalled because whenever they needed a play on third down, they continuously came up empty. The Cowboys were 2\/12 on third down in this game.<\/p>\n
5. A not-so-special special teams<\/p>\n
Things didn\u2019t go well on offense. Things didn\u2019t go well on defense. And sadly, things didn\u2019t go so well on special teams. After the successful fake field goal, it all went south. Aubrey uncharacteristically missed two field goals, which is always a bad sign that things are not going well. KaVontae Turpin let a punt bounce that rolled all the way back near the goal line. Even when Turpin had a nice return, they got flagged for a hold that negated the run. It was just bad on all three phases of the game.<\/p>\n
6. Gotta be more aggressive<\/p>\n
When the Cowboys started their opening drive with a fake field goal, this game looked like you\u2019d see Schottenheimer being aggressive on fourth down. But several times when the Cowboys\u2019 offense stalled out, he kept opting to trot Aubrey on the field. Normally, it would be hard to argue with his decisions, but the Cowboys\u2019 defense makes this a precarious situation. Settling for field goals wasn\u2019t going to cut it, and that should have made the head coach inclined to take more chances and leave the offense on the field.<\/p>\n
7. Another no-show for Pickens<\/p>\n
If you thought George Pickens\u2019 five-catch, 37-yard performance last week was disappointing, you were in for an unpleasant encore performance this week. Against the Vikings, Pickens finished with only three catches for 33 yards. For some reason, the team\u2019s exciting No. 2 receiver was a non-factor for the second-straight game. This offense was a lot more fun when they had two star receivers running around, but that wasn\u2019t the case on Sunday night.<\/p>\n
8. Third-string left tackle<\/p>\n
Dak Prescott was on his heels all game. Credit Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores for bringing the heat. Unfortunately, the Cowboys couldn\u2019t handle the pressure, leaving Dak to run for his life all game. The team was already without their starting left tackle, Tyler Guyton, but then lost backup tackle Nate Thomas after he suffered a shoulder injury. Third-stringer Hakeem Adeniji was called into action, but things went from bad to worse. Right away, Adeniji whiffed on a block and then got flagged for holding. The offensive line just couldn\u2019t give Prescott enough time to operate.<\/p>\n
9. Javonte pushes through<\/p>\n
Despite missing most of the first half with a shoulder injury, Javonte Williams still reeled off 91 rushing yards on 15 carries, averaging over six yards a carry. During his absence, the team\u2019s rushing game seemed lost as the duo of Malik Davis and Hunter Luepke wasn\u2019t cutting it. Fortunately, Williams returned and picked up where he left off. His performance put him over 1,100 yards on the season, making him the Cowboys\u2019 running back with the most rushing yards since 2019.<\/p>\n
The Cowboys absolutely needed this game if they were to make one last gasp for the playoffs. With this devastating loss, the team\u2019s playoff hopes are almost nil. They are eliminated from wild card contention, and if they are to win the NFC East, they\u2019ll need to win their last three remaining games while Philadelphia loses all three of its remaining games.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Well, that was not fun. In a game where we expected the Dallas Cowboys to keep their playoff…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":88849,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[102,32877,104,103],"class_list":["post-88848","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-cowboys-scores-and-results","tag-dallas-headlines","tag-dallas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88848","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88848"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88848\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88849"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}