The Cowboys were a heavy favorite coming into today's matchup against the Washington Commanders.
But the inability of the offense to find any type of rhythm or momentum led to the worst performance of the season by Dak Prescott, as well as the Dallas offense and special teams unit.
1st quarter
The first quarter of today's game was one of the worst first quarters the Cowboys have ever played.
The offense struggled to get going.
Special teams' errors gave the Commanders an early lead.
A holding call during the kickoff negated a great return by KaVontae Turpin.
Bryan Anger fumbled a snap allowing the Commanders to start a drive in the redzone.
Then, Turpin muffed a punt reception and gave the ball back to the Commanders after what would've been a three-and-out.
DAL 0 — WAS 7
2nd quarter
The second quarter started about as badly as the first one ended.
Just over two minutes into the second quarter, Dak Prescott threw a ball in the direction of Michael Gallup that was almost intercepted. On the following play, he attempted almost the exact same thing, but Washington capitalized that time.
Commanders cornerback Kendall Fuller intercepted the pass intended for Noah Brown and ran it 29 yards the other way to put another touchdown on the board for the Commanders.
The point-after attempt was no good.
Luckily, the Cowboys' offense found a bit of a rhythm at the end of the second quarter.
A 14-play drive ended with a 15-yard pass from Prescott to CeeDee Lamb that put six points on the board for the Cowboys.
Brett Maher's extra point attempt was wide left and no good.
DAL 6 — WAS 13
3rd quarter
The Commanders and Cowboys took turns with three-and-outs for most of the third quarter. That streak was broken by the Commanders who scored on their fourth drive of the half.
DAL 6 — WAS 20
After another three-and-out by the Cowboys, the Commanders used five plays to move 56 yards down the field. That drive ended with a 29-yard field goal by Joey Slye.
DAL 6 — WAS 23
After the Commanders scored another field goal, increasing their lead to a 20-point margin, the Cowboys finally pulled their starters out of the game.
Cooper Rush took over as quarterback with 5:19 left in the 4th quarter, but he continued the pattern of three-and-outs for the Cowboys.
The Cowboys never found a rhythm.
They also never found the end zone again, or a way to score any additional points for that matter.
The game ended with a score of 26 — 6 in favor of the Commanders.
Game Notes
The Cowboys were unable to get anything going offensively in the air or on the ground. They ended the game with 182 yards of total offense and only 10 first downs.
The Cowboys had the ball for 23:48 while the Commanders held possession for 36:12.
Dak Prescott ended the game with his lowest passer rating of the season (45.8). He also tied his season low in completions with 14 out of 37 attempts, but he had a season-low completion percentage (37.8%) and total passing yards (128).
Dak is also now tied for the most pick-6s in the NFL. He has a total of three that have all come since week 15.
The Dallas Cowboys will face the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the NFL Playoffs Wild Card Round next weekend.
