It may not have been very pretty, but the Dallas Cowboys were able to keep their playoff hopes alive by defeating the Atlanta Falcons at Mercedes-Benz Stadium Sunday afternoon. It’s a place that wasn’t kind to them a season ago, but they were able to overcome their demons and secure a much-needed victory.
This is a game that ended up being a lot closer than it probably needed to be. Missed opportunities and mental mistakes once again plagued this Cowboys team, but they continued to scratch and claw their way in a hostile environment to put another “W” in the win column.
With the game still fresh in our minds, I thought it would be a good time to share with you what I believed was The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly for the Dallas Cowboys yesterday against the Atlanta Falcons. As always, please feel free to share your own thoughts and opinions in the comment section located at the end of the article.
The Good
It should come to no surprise after the way he’s played these last couple weeks, but I decided to go with Running Back Ezekiel Elliott for the good this week for the Dallas Cowboys. I could have easily gone with Linebacker Leighton Vander Esch because he was definitely deserving as well, but for me Zeke edged him out by a narrow margin.
Ezekiel Elliott put the team on his back Sunday afternoon and led them to a victory, just like he did a week ago against the Philadelphia Eagles. He pretty much was the Cowboys offense yesterday, accounting for more than 200 total yards by himself. He not only finished the game as the leading rusher with 122 yards on the ground and a touchdown, but the leading receiver as well with seven catches for 79 yards.
Zeke has been absolutely dominating here recently and hopefully he can keep it up with the division rival Washington Redskins coming to town on Thanksgiving. It’s a game that will likely determine the outcome of the NFC East division.
The Bad
He may have made the game-winning field goal, but Kicker Brett Maher’s inconsistency here lately is the bad this week for the Dallas Cowboys in my opinion. His missed extra point attempt against the Falcons came very close to costing them the victory, and I wouldn’t be surprised if we see a few kickers brought in Monday on a tryout basis.
Over the past several years we’ve kind of been spoiled by having Dan Bailey, one of the most accurate kickers to ever play the game. I believe the Cowboys made the right decision to move on from Bailey earlier this year, especially after seeing the way he’s struggled with inconsistency himself in Minnesota. But, Maher’s recent struggles is starting to become more and more of a concern.
We’ve seen too many instances this season where a missed or made field-goal impacts the outcome of the game one way or another. This week they were fortunate enough to come out on top, but just imagine how the NFC division race would look if Maher would’ve made the one in Washington instead of clanking it on the upright.
The Ugly
I could’ve easily went with the penalties or mental mistakes in this section this week for the Dallas Cowboys, but I ultimately decided the ugly against the Falcons was Cornerback Chidobe Awuzie being victimized once again. Opposing quarterbacks continue to throw his direction and unfortunately they’re finding quite a bit of success.
I hear a lot of fans around Cowboys Nation wanting to see Jourdan Lewis get a shot at starting on the outside over Awuzie, but I don’t think that’s the right move at this time. I still think Awuzie is playing at a high level, but unfortunately he’s just been the victim of some really good catches by receivers he’s covering at the time.
Both this week against the Falcons and last week against the Eagles we saw Awuzie with tight coverage on Julio Jones and Alshon Jeffrey, but unfortunately it wasn’t enough to prevent the completion from happening. That’s just been the way things have gone for him this season. If he can learn to get his head around and locate the ball, he would find much more success and not be targeted as much.
We have to chop this up as resilience to some degree, they could have quit caved in but they succeeded. Over the weekend I seen a lot of great quarterbacks who missed a lot of easy throws especially Carson Wentz. Russell Wilson playing against the Packers missed a lot of easy throws and my reason for saying this is the criticism of Dak with the Deep ball. Missing easy throws is a part of the quarterbacks game and I don’t care how great you are you going to miss some throws. Yes consistency is very important and that does need to improve in that area, but be patient I think this kid’s going to be okay when we get coaching that will bring forth the greatness of the talent that’s inside somebody. Speaking the truth in love, Kellen Moore is not the person to help Dak Prescott at the quarterback position. I hope we all can agree to that! Jeff Fisher had Jared Goff and with Jeff Fisher at the helm he sucked. Bring in Sean McVay a brilliant mind and Jared Goff is looking like an awesome talent that will succeed in the National Football League. There are other great coaches that are brought up great people such as Sean Payton with Drew Brees, I saw his stats Drew Brees that is on yesterday and when he was in San Diego he was a mediocre quarterback. When he left to go to Miami where he failed the physical then later he got traded to the Saints with Sean Payton the writing’s on the wall the guy is an awesome soon-to-be Hall of Fame quarterback. I’m not saying that Prescott’s going to be a Hall of Fame quarterback, but I think he will succeed far beyond the naysayers even so-called Dallas Cowboy fans to be a great quarterback with the right scheme and coaching. Like I said before if he doesn’t measure up and be great next year and minimize some of his mistakes I think the Cowboys should move on from him, but until that happens let’s give this guy full support. Chidobe awuzie a needs to get some help over the top he’s being a person that quarterbacks will pick a part in the future. Jeff Heath, my personal opinion he can’t tackle anybody and we need to get rid of them. Happy Thanksgiving everyone bring on the Redskins and I know we’re going to win again.
The bad was the injuries to the interior of our D line, agree totally on awuzie but is brown any better? I would say the entire WR corps for only contributing @120 yards plus a pretty awful offensive game plan drawn up by Linehan. The good is Columbia/Houck coaching up the O line, and you forgot Xavier woods who led the team in tackles
You’re right, Brown sucks. Why can’t these guys be like the old timers. Defense never wore gloves and could grab jerseys with no problems. Now QBs can escape defender’s hands and make throws as opposed to wearing no gloves grabbing that jersey they would be stopped. Jeff Heath, please get rid of this guy. He can’t tackle at all in space. Golden tate made him look stupid in space trying to tackle him when he played with Detroit. Still not happy with Linehan. He needs to use RPO a little more and I believe it will help the offense immensely.
Well said, I agree with all these points. Maher has the leg and showed great accuracy during his 16 straight makes. Seems that game tying field goal in Washington he missed messed with his confidence. I’m hoping he can find it again after this game winner. In regards to Chido, I have been high on him since seeing how well he finished out last year. He’s been in good position on a lot of the catches opposing WRs have made against him including the touchdown that Julio caught that Chido got a hand on. My biggest observation with him is he seems to be playing a lot less physical with WRs at the line this year and not trying to jam them at the line. I’ve noticed this has caused him to allow more separation, especially on the in routes. I’m hoping it’s just that the ankle still isn’t 100%. If we see Lewis, I wouldn’t mind it in the slot where brown has been hit or miss most of this season.