The Dallas Cowboys must think they’ve already won the NFC East, because they looked like a team with nothing to play for today. The result was an embarrassing 23-0 loss to the Indianapolis Colts.
The Cowboys were shut out for the first time since the 2003 season, which was Jason Witten’s rookie year.
Dallas squandered a major time-of-possession advantage in the first half, finishing three drives with a blocked field goal, punt, and a failed 4th-and-1 play near the Colts’ goal line. Indianapolis capitalized on their own drives and took a 10-0 lead into halftime.
The Colts got the ball back to start the third quarter and drove down for another touchdown. Down 17-0, Dallas responded with a weak drive and a punt. The game felt out of reach even then, with the Cowboys just looking flat from that point forward.
Ezekiel Elliott had 87 rushing yards 41 receiving for some empty production. Amari Cooper won’t be winning any awards this week, held to just four catches for 32 yards.
Dak Prescott completed 62% of his passes for 206 yards. He was sacked three times and threw a late interception; an overthrown ball got tipped by the receiver and picked off on the team’s final offensive series.
While the offense was especially bad today, the defense wasn’t much better. Dallas surrendered 139 yards rushing yards and two touchdown to Colts RB Marlon Mack, who hadn’t had a 100-yard game since October. Andrew Luck wasn’t sacked and went virtually untouched the entire day.
The Cowboys could have taken the NFC East with a win, but they didn’t come close. Hopefully this serves as a wake-up call with the postseason only a few weeks away.
Other Notes
- With the Redskins defeating the Jaguars today, Dallas will have to wait until next week to try to clinch the NFC East. The Cowboys needed losses by both Washington and Philadelphia if they didn’t win themselves. The Eagles are visiting the Rams tonight.
- The Cowboys will get some softer competition to finish the year, hosting the Buccaneers next week and then going to play the Giants in Week 17.
- With the Bears defeating the Packers today and moving to 10-4, they will likely stay the #3 seed in the playoffs. That means Dallas, assuming they do win the NFC East, will almost certainly be hosting the 5th-seeded Seahawks in the first round.
- Jaylon Smith led the Cowboys with 11 tackles, but neither he or Leighton Vander Esch were making the big plays that we’ve grown accustomed to.
- Xavier Woods had the highlight play on defense, delivering a perfect hit to dislodge the ball from Colts TE Eric Ebron and stop a potential big gain.
- Blake Jarin and Dalton Schultz combined for seven catches for 68 yards; another week of increased TE production from what we’ve seen must of the year.
- Fullback Jamize Olawale doesn’t get many opportunities on offense, and he may not get more after dropping an open touchdown on the team’s second drive of the day.
Giddy headed fans are shocked. They were so ready to say Uper Boel after a very lick filled 5 game run. Well. The offense sucks just like it did before and throughout the streak. It’s all on this clown QB. He misses throws. Misses guys open, fails 3rd down conversions constantly and takes sacks with all day to get rid of the ball. Go ahead and blame the offensive line and the defense but those were not the problem. It was an inept QB who.wouldny do anything with the ball even with 5 plus seconds of protection even from a patchwork line. What a clown.
Amen! Dude is killing us with his inaccurate high low throws holding on to the ball too long not reading defenses! You’re right about the luck filled streak! Philly game could have easily been a blowout! The worst thing about it is we are going to have to get use to it because Jerry believes in him and the coach!
I know Dak has struggled this season and somewhat last season. But you can’t convince me that a guy who was the rookie of the year and had an outstanding rookie season is the whole problem. COACHING is the biggest problem in my mind. The talent is there on Offense and Defense. The HC and the OC are the big problems to me. Proof of this was firing all the Asst. position coaches and replacing them with unqualified people, like the OL Coach who changed the blocking style, hiring a poor backup QB to replace a QB Coach who developed Romo and Prescott in his first year, and the list goes on. We need smart, aggressive and talented coaches to replace these people.
Well believe it. QB is the most important player and when he isn’t good, that’s real bad for the team. If you believe in him because of that silly rookie of the year than you should also believe in the coach. He won coach of the year that season too. That must mean he’s a good coach, right? Well, that was a silly award as well. Oh and Jerry also won executive of the year that same year.
Not what I meant. What I was trying to say was that if Prescott had been coached correctly after his first season, he may have continued to develop. Now I think his confidence is shot and the poor former backup QB they have coaching him is no help at all. As for Garrett, I tried to stay positive and support him but when a HC is still making poor decisions in games after 7 or so years I just don’t think he’s ever going to be a great HC. And Linehan is a nightmare. But it all starts at the top, so basically we are screwed.
Dak is pretty bad! He had a field goal blocked, he dropped a TD pass on the goal line, he couldn’t get a rushing first down with about one yard to go inside the five yard line. To top it off he allowed a Colt runner to get about 139 yards and T.Y. Hilton to run wild. I’m giving him a pass on the numerous offensive and defensive holding calls. I’m calling him out for his sloppy tackling though. Garrett should have benched him before the end of the first quarter!
I wish I could upvote this more than once. Bravo!
Elindio42 well said in Matt and Tony put that in your sock and suck on it. You two guys can’t be Cowboy fans and you don’t know football. Daks had some pretty bad games yes, but his good far outweighs his bad. Not pulling the race card but the Cowboys in all the years I’ve watched them since the early 70s have had only one other black quarterback and that was Quincy horrible Carter. Dak Prescott is not even near what Quincy Carter was and we ought to be grateful that this guy is resilient and has talent that needs to be developed further like any other quarterback in the NFL. Find me a quarterback in the league who has not Missed on throws this year. Tom Brady, Drew Brees, Philip Rivers, Pat Mahomes, Baker Mayfield, Derek Carr, Cam Newton , and yes Carson Wentz to name a few. Guys get over it every quarterback misses wide open throw sometimes and maybe Dak Prescott misses a few more but look at his time in the league and who he has around him. Yes he has to be responsible for some of it however he can’t go outside the coaching that Jerry Jones has hired. He has to wait till the offseason and pay for things like that himself which is fine and I think you should do it. But if you’re not a true Cowboy fan stay the hell off of this stream. I can probably guarantee you’re not perfect at the job you do as well and your boss gives you a pass in some areas of you coming to work late, treating a customer bad, just to name a few things. Sweep around your own front door before you try to sweep around somebody else’s. Give this guy time in the maturation process that everybody else has been given.