Ok, Cowboys Nation. After a night’s sleep, how are we feeling?
Our Dallas Cowboys went into Buffalo with the expectation of leaving with an 11-3 record to extend their winning streak to six games.
Instead, Bills’ RB James Cook had the game of his life and the defense played lights-out to send the Cowboys home with a bad taste in their mouths after a 31-10 defeat.
In the wind and rain, the Cowboys appeared to wish they’d never left the hotel.
They looked a step slow off of the snap, and never gave themselves a chance to stay in the game.
I questioned the decision to defer after winning the coin toss, and that decision immediately put the Cowboys in a 7-0 hole they would never climb out of.
While most fans and analysts are using this loss as a reason to give up on the season, I’d like to look at it differently.
There were plenty of underlying factors that contributed to this loss, and I’d like to discuss those today.
Desperate Teams Are Dangerous
Despite being hounded on X/Twitter by Eagles fans reveling in the Cowboys’ loss, I did not, in fact, “run my mouth” all week about the Bills.
I’d like to think I’m fair and mostly unbiased when it comes to my analysis of not only the Cowboys but their opponents as well.
I was one of the most reasonable Cowboys’ content creators this week, acknowledging that the Bills were a dangerous team.
Like a wounded animal, the Bills have to play like their playoff lives depend on success the rest of the season because, well they do.
The Bills, now 8-6 on the season, remarkably were the 11th seed in the AFC with a 7-6 record in the competitive AFC.
By comparison, if the Bills played in the NFC they would lead the NFC South or fall into the sixth seed in the conference.
Dallas clinched a playoff berth before kickoff thanks to a win by Detroit and losses by Atlanta and Green Bay.
It was obvious the Cowboys just didn’t match the Bills’ intensity, and that lack of oomph ultimately led to their demise.
Injury Added to Illness
It’s no secret that a stomach bug has been making the rounds at The Star for the past couple of weeks.
It affected players like Dak Prescott and Micah Parsons last week but ramped up this week to infect 10 Cowboys players.
Some notable names affected were Brandin Cooks and Jalen Tolbert on offense and Stephon Gilmore on defense.
On top of the illness making the rounds through the team, there were also some key injuries before and during the game.
After watching the Bills rush for 266 yards on 49 attempts, the biggest injury this week was Johnathan Hankins.
Hankins had his ankle rolled up last week, resulting in a mild high-ankle sprain that will sideline him for at least a couple of games.
Practice squad DT Carl Davis wasn’t the answer, and in case you haven’t been paying attention this year, first-round pick Mazi Smith isn’t ready for the speed of the NFL game.
The next big blow when it comes to injuries happened during the game.
All-Pro RG Zack Martin took a knee to his quad while pass blocking, and immediately left the game.
What I thought was a good old-fashioned froggy turned out to be so severe that the muscle was not responding to stimulation.
Martin was ruled out of the game after just 10 offensive snaps, ceding the rest of the snaps to backup rookie undrafted free agent TJ Bass.
One of the catalysts to the Cowboys winning five straight games and seven of the last eight was finally having the starting five on the offensive line healthy and playing together.
That was disrupted on just the second drive of the game, and Dallas immediately went 3 & out.
A healthy Zack Martin and Johnathan Hankins change the outlook of this game, and both being back by the playoffs can provide us some peace of mind.
Sometimes It’s Not Your Day
I feel like this game had so many similarities to the Week 3 loss at Arizona earlier this season.
So many of the mistakes and missed assignments were uncharacteristic of the team we have seen play since the loss at San Francisco.
Mike McCarthy got this team to turn a corner after a slow start to the year, especially on offense.
Dallas is the most-penalized team in the NFL through 14 games but only committed five penalties for 48 yards on Sunday afternoon.
The timing of the penalties and how they were called magnified those five penalties.
Three very questionable personal foul penalties on the Cowboys extended three of the Bills’ first four drives, leading to touchdowns on all three drives.
On a 3rd & 4 from the Cowboys’ six yard line, Josh Allen was forced out of the pocket by DeMarcus Lawrence.
Allen threw an incomplete pass to Stefon Diggs, but a flag was thrown on Lawrence for roughing the passer.
He didn’t hit Allen late, he didn’t use excessive force, and he didn’t make contact with his head.
Two plays later, the Bills led 7-0 instead of 3-0 and never looked back.
The next head-scratching penalty came two drives later after the Cowboys’ defense forced their second straight 3 & out.
Sam Williams came close to blocking the punt, and made contact with the punter.
Personally, I think it should have just been a penalty of the five yard variety, but the official thought it was enough to call roughing the kicker.
With a new set of downs, Allen drove his team down the field and ended the drive with an 18 yard touchdown pass to James Cook for a 14-0 lead.
The final questionable call came on the Bills’ next drive.
A big sack by Mazi Smith put the Bills in a long 2nd & 19 situation.
Allen rolled out to the left under pressure and fired a pass downfield to his receiver.
The pass was high, and Khalil Shakir jumped up and stretched out his arms.
Jayron Kearse was in perfect position and used his shoulder/chest to hit Shakir as the ball arrived.
Incomplete pass, but a flag flew for unnecessary roughness on Kearse for hitting a defenseless receiver.
Instead of a 3rd & 19, the Bills got a new set of downs to drive down the field and score to make it a 21-3 game.
Illness, injuries, weather, and questionable calls are all things that happen to every NFL team on a weekly basis.
When all those factors come into play at the same time, it’s a perfect storm of misfortune that any team would find difficult to overcome.
At the end of the day, the Dallas Cowboys are 10-4 and still in contention for the NFC East title plus an outside shot at the number one seed in the conference.
I will not let one uncharacteristic game in two months change my perspective on what the team has done this year.
Neither should you.