DEN 30, DAL 16: Cowboys Get Shut Down, Streak Ended by Visiting Broncos

An anomaly or the end of the party? That’s the question for the Dallas Cowboys after one of their ugliest losses in recent memory. Their six-game win streak crashed and burned today in a 30-16 humiliation from the visiting Denver Broncos. The score was 30-0 in the 4th Quarter and Dallas’ points all came long after the game was decided.

It was a classic “bad day at the office” for Dallas; a game where about everything that could go wrong did. From dropped passes to missed throws on offense, big mistakes on defense, and one of the oddest special teams plays you’ll ever see, the Cowboys put an exclamation point on this defeat.

That said, hope was still alive at halftime. While they trailed 16-0 at the break, Dallas top-ranked offense usually has the juice to overcome that deficit.

The hope skyrocketed when the Cowboys forced a 3-and-out on Denver’s first possession of the 3rd Quarter, then Malik Turner blocked the punt and seemed to set Dallas up in the redzone. But in an obscure rule enforcement, because Nahshon Wright touched the ball and a Broncos player then recovered it, Denver kept the ball and then marched it for another field goal.

That sequence seemed to take the life out of the Cowboys’ sails. Subsequent drives died the same they had in the first half with dropped passes, sacks, and overthrows from Prescott on open receivers.

If not for garbage time touchdown passes from Dak to Malik Turner, the Cowboys might have suffered their first shutout since 2018. That year Dallas fell 23-0 on the road to the Indianapolis Colts.

One issue Dallas has to address before their next game is at left tackle. Terence Steele moved there with La’el Collins’ return and Tyron Smith’s continued absence and fell apart quickly. Broncos pass rusher Jonathon Cooper was a menace, abusing Steele to record two sacks and multiple other pressures.

The loss drops Dallas to 6-2, still on top in the NFC East but without the same confidence as a week ago. We’ll see if their lead decreases when the 3-5 Eagles host the Chargers later today.

The Cowboys will look to put this one behind them next week with another home game against the Atlanta Falcons.

Silver Linings

Micah Parsons had another huge statistical day with 10 tackles, 3 for loss, and 2.5 sacks. Those kind of numbers made him the NFC Defensive Player of the Week last week, so we’ll see if he can snag a second-straight award.

Ezekiel Elliott had 51 yards on just 10 carries, but the game got too out of hand to keep feeding him. He a

Malik Turner’s TD catches were his first as a Cowboy and only the second and third of his career. The last one came in 2019 when playing for the Seahawks.

Tony Pollard’s 54-yard kickoff return to start the game was nice.

That’s about it.