While Thursday night's loss didn't effect the Cowboys playoff chances all that much, it certainly killed the psyche of this fanbase. And by the looks of it, this football team just wants the season to be over as well.
For the third straight week, the Cowboys were completely outplayed. They looked flat, unprepared, and downright pathetic.
The Cowboys ultimately fell to the Chicago Bears 31-24, and now sit at 6-7 on the season.
There needs to be a complete reset of this coaching staff, and potentially some major turnover on the roster. But that's a discussion for another day, let's get into the game notes from this awful performance.
- Shockingly, the Cowboys opened up this game with arguably their best drive of the season. Going for 17 plays, 75 yards, almost 9 minutes of possession and a touchdown on their opening drive, the Cowboys went up 7-0 and looked to be on their way to an impressive performance. One that would remind everyone why they were considered preseason NFC favorites. Instead, it would be the final time their offense would even look competent the rest of the night.
- Dak Prescott had, in my opinion, his worst game of the season on Thursday. He flashed at times, as someone of his talent will do, but overall he was just off the whole night. His accuracy was lacking, and he didn't get much help from his offensive teammates either. Prescott is better than he's played the last three weeks, but he needs to get back to consistently playing like himself going forward. If you're looking for positives, he led a really nice touchdown drive to close the third quarter, but it was too little too late.
- While the offense struggled mightily, the story of this loss was really the defense. Once again this unit looked lost. They can't tackle, they can't get off the field on third downs, they give up big plays despite their entire mantra being “no big plays,” and they commit third down penalties to give the opposing offense extra chances. Tonight was their worst performance of the season, even though they did finally force some turnovers.
- The Bears offensive line has been pretty shaky all year, leading me to expect this Cowboys defensive line could get after Mitch Trubisky and force him into some big mistakes. Instead, the Bears protected Trubisky rather well all night, and Trubisky looked much more like his 2018 self. Killing the Cowboys with his legs on both scrambles and designed quarterback runs, Trubisky made light-work of the Cowboys defense during this loss.
- Normally I try to call out individual players or position groups in these posts, but this was total organizational failure. Brett Maher missed a field goal, as we all expect him to do. This defense was dominated up the middle, as they should be when you consider the lack of resources the front office has poured into the interior defensive line and safety position. The shot callers in Dallas continue to do the same things year in and year out, and yet we are surprised by the lackluster results. The Cowboys desperately need new blood in their decision making ranks, but unfortunately I doubt Jerry Jones will make too much of a shakeup this offseason. Sure, Jason Garrett is likely gone, but will Jones target yet another retread or former member of the organization? Cowboys Nation should hope not.
