The Dallas Cowboys first road game of the 2017 season didn’t exactly pan out the way they had hoped. The Cowboys were handed their first defeat of the season at the hands of a dominant Denver Broncos team with a final score 42-17. Dallas will have to quickly compose themselves because they will be on the road once again next week when they travel to take on the Arizona Cardinals for Monday Night Football.
To say that the Denver Broncos dominated all three phases of the game would be an understatement. Offensively, defensively, and special teams for the Cowboys just looked off-kilter the entire game and it was just an all-around poor performance, especially from a team with so much talent.
Unfortunately, not everything can be sunshine and unicorns week in and week out for the Dallas Cowboys, but I don’t expect them to be down long. I think we’ll see a bounce back performance against the Cardinals next week, at least I hope so.
Having said all that, let’s dive into this week’s edition of The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. As always, please feel free to use the comment section at the end of the article to voice and of your thoughts and opinions on the topic.
The Good
There wasn’t a lot of good for the Dallas Cowboys against Denver Broncos. But, if you’re looking for the lone bright spot, it has to be DeMarcus Lawrence’s performance. Lawrence might just be the one player for the entire Dallas Cowboys team that showed up in Denver to play.
DeMarcus Lawrence opened the season against the New York Giants with a 5 tackle, 2 QB sack performance and followed that up with another 5 tackle, 2 sacks, and one forced fumble game against the Broncos. Lawrence is finally healthy and playing like a man possessed. It’s probably no coincidence that he’s in a contract year, but I think he is probably the only player that really showed up against Denver Sunday afternoon.
The Bad
I hate to kick a man when he’s down, but Nolan Carroll was being picked on early and often Sunday afternoon by the Broncos offense. It was obvious the Broncos were targeting him and the best thing that might have happened to him was the injury. It’s a harsh thing to say, but probably true.
I don’t know about you, but I think Carroll is one of the worst CBs currently on the Cowboys roster. I think the only reason he still remains a starter is because the young CBs have struggled with injuries early in the season, which has slowed their development. Hopefully, Orlando Scandrick can return next week and Chidobe Awuzie can get healthy and take over.
The Ugly
I started to put this in the bad category, but obviously went a different direction. I think the ugly Sunday afternoon for the Dallas Cowboys was their tackling on defense. There were several instances where they had a chance for a tackle for loss or a tackle for a short gain, but they let the offensive players slip through their fingers.
C.J. Anderson is the first 100 yard rusher the Dallas Cowboys defense has allowed since Alfred Morris in 2015. Anderson was simply running through the arm tackles and having Cowboys defenders bounce off of him the entire game. The Dallas Cowboys absolutely to have to clean up their tackling and I’m sure defensive coordinator Rod Marinelli will be on their case after watching film from the Broncos game.
That was a bad a performance as I can remember from this team. They should all be thoroughly ashamed of themselves for the way they played yesterday. No discipline, seeming lack of energy. They looked confused in all areas of the game. Nolan Carroll should never line up for us again. He is terrible. If I have to watch our secondary get torched, I would just assume it be the kids with a chance to grow in the future. This game was a total embarrassment for all involved, players, coaches, etc…. I am getting just a bit tired of hearing what a guru Marinelli is supposed to be defensively, cause the “coach em up” process is looking pretty tired.
If they’re not ashamed of their performance, I certainly am. It was tough to watch. They can afford to play like that again this season. They have a tough schedule this year and need to be prepared each and every week. Hopefully they can bounce back against the Cardinals Monday night.
Well lets talk about the problems with Dallas. The problem starts with Jerry and Stephen Jones. Jerry Jones thinks he knows what he is doing being GM and he still doesn’t have a clue how to do it. Stephen Jones is a penny pincher. He wants something for nothing. Dallas had a chance to add CB Joe Haden and S T.J. Ward and passed on both. One of these guys would have helped the Cowboys secondary immensely, but as usual Jerry and Stephen sat back and watched them sign else where. This story is going to repeat itself this year because Dallas has not done enough to improve this secondary. Jerry and Stephen need to open the check book and get this secondary some help real fast. As for Jason Garrett throwing Prescott under the bus for this loss it B.S. Maybe if Garrett knew how to coach it would be different, but Garrett sucks at being a HC and he always has. He is Jerry Jones “yes man” and that is the only reason Garrett still has his job. The whole organization is to blame for this disgrace, not just one guy. Prescott is ten times the QB Garrett ever was in my opinion. I have just lost a great deal of respect for this team’s management when they put the blame for this loss squarely on one guy.
I was in agreement with them passing on Joe Haden and TJ Ward. Both players are in their decline and it’s obvious. I heard that Jason Garrett threw Prescott under the bus, but I wasn’t interested in hearing anything they said after their performance. The Cowboys have done a next job building a really good roster. Unfortunately, they just didn’t show up to play against the Broncos. It’s as simple as that.
They have an awesome roster at offense. The defense has really mediocre players (besides Sean Lee and Jaylon Smith) that haven’t raised their level, the scheme of Marinelli hasn’t worked well while being in Dallas. So basically the boys are trying to win every game by scoring a lot of points and keeping the defense out of the field. It is not that easy whenever they face a first level defense. And if they have a mediocre offense they will beat us like last night.
The defense isn’t terrible. They are in the midst of a rebuild and have a lot of inexperience on the defensive side of the ball. The Broncos game is going to get blown out of proportion, but nobody really showed up to play for the Cowboys. I am expecting a bounce back game against the Cardinals next Monday from everybody.
Very little of the problem yesterday was from Dak IMO, except that bonehead throw on the goal line late that went pick 6. The game was over by that point anyway.
Garrett and Linehan – knew – that Denver would load up the box in an attempt to stop Elliott. They did go spread set to start the game, but then on the few chances they had to run, they played right into it by running between the tackles.
Aikman has said on broadcasts that his teams faced 8 fronts all the time, and they went at them. But circumstances here said you needed to change up. Denver was determined to stuff Elliott, and if that team gets that on you at home in the 1st quarter, the place explodes. They all feed off it. Now you are in long downs against a very good pass defense.
Linehan acts like Elliott cannot beat defenders to the edge. Nonsense. You come in to that game with multiple pitch & stretch plays, and you keep attacking it. You activate McFadden and give him a few attempts with it, after Elliott made Denver run side to side. Much better than what they did.
They got lucky with the rain delay – free halftime – made no adjustments in offensive strategy.
Garrett, looked like the coach of old… ;^)
Russ, I agree with everything you said. I was also add that I would’ve liked to seen Elliott being utilized in the passing game to get the ball in his hands. Just little dump off passes or have him slip the line to keep the Broncos defense honest. It was a peculiar coaching attempt by the Cowboys staff. Hopefully they will just all learn from it and be able to move on though.
I feel it’s more of an aberration than a defensive blueprint outing also. In short, they have speed and game breakers on offense, and fans want to see flexibility and range in how that is used week to week.
I also think that teams expecting playoff berths, hold some of their repertoire back until the stretch run. All very well, but not worth absorbing an avoidable L for.
And the OL gets a big ding IMO. Facing 8 on the road, should reduce run yardage from 5 to 4 or 3 per, not to zero. They got whipped by defenders who wanted it more. I also expect that will not be a pattern, they are prideful and will reset.
There is probably also a cohesion issue for 8 to 10 games, as Collins and Green work in to their jobs.
I think it’s also important to remember that the Dallas Cowboys played pretty poorly in the first two games last season as well before they got things together. I’m pretty sure that they will bounce back this week against the Cardinals
One thing they could do is find out what shoes grip on that grass in Denver. So many players slipping and falling. Another thing they need to do is throw the slant like Aikman and Irvin used to do. I realize the first int was a slant but Dez has to catch that ball. He was open and he needs to make cb’s come up to defend that so he can run by them to get open on passes down field. The online had their pride stepped on yesterday, but they should come back strong and the defense has to tackle better. Hopefully this is just a wake-up call
Great observations Daniel. I agree with everything you said.
Lawrence looks a little heavier to me, with no loss in agility. It appears he has found the right weight to give him a good combo of quicks and power. That bull rush yesterday that caused the fumble, marvelous.
So now you really have an overload of LDE’s. Lawrence is making a case that it is his job. Do you want to screw with that by moving him back to RDE? If not, does that put Irving mostly at LDT? What about if Taco gets nothing done at RDE? They have too many LDE’s.
Meanwhile, if there is a RDE it might be Tapper. Or they also get Moore back now, who was big in preseason. Collins – invisible yesterday, except he scooped up (then fumbled), the fumble that Lawrence caused. Need to fall on that.
Grenade from the Aggrieved ~ Shop Lawrence, right now. He’s at his highest value… ;^)
It’s doubtful that the Cowboys trade any of their pass rushers. I think we will see Lawrence at LDE, Collins and Paea at DT, and possibly Moore at RDE. Then once Irving returns you can play him all across the DL to find the best mismatch. Could be next to Lawrence at the 3-tech with Collins at the 1-tech or at either DE position. It’s a good problem to have, but hopefully they can find the right combination.
Total team failure, I was searching for the best o line in the NFL yesterday, 2nd, Dak and Dez really have to get on the same page, 3rd Dez needs to work with a route running specialist or something because outside of slants and fade’s what other routes does/ can he run?? Dez is my favorite wr so I’m pulling for him.
Prescott and Bryant weren’t really the problem. Yes, they can work on their bond more, but they have faced some pretty good secondaries to start on the 2017 season. Unfortunately, probably not going to see him run a lot of different routes. Those are the ones he’s most comfortable with and the ones Scott Linehan keeps calling. I don’t like all the 50/50 passes thrown his way. You need some easy completions to get him going.