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By Jon Machota 2h ago
There was a lot to unpack from the Cowboys’ Thursday night season opener in Tampa Bay. While they start the year 0-1, it wasn’t all bad. There’s plenty to build off of heading into this Sunday’s Week 2 game at the Los Angeles Chargers.
“I loved their fight,” Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy said of his team the day after their 31-29 loss to the defending Super Bowl champion Buccaneers. “I thought that our guys stuck to the game plan. They went for it. I thought the adjustments and communication on the sideline was outstanding. I thought our energy and our play style was what we were looking for. I was real excited about the momentum swings in the game and how we responded to it because that’s what big-time games are about. You got to battle through the adversity of it, and our guys handled that very well.
“We responded almost every time they threw something at us. We were very, very comfortable and confident at the end of the game, and that’s kind of where we are, and we got to get over that next hurdle. We got to win those next games. It’s about victories over capabilities. That’s the theme here, if you’re wondering.”
To begin looking forward, here are eight positives and eight negatives for the Cowboys entering Week 2.
Positives
1. Dak Prescott. There’s almost never going to be a game where a quarterback doesn’t want at least a few throws back. There weren’t many for Prescott in his first game in 333 days. He was accurate almost the entire way. His best throw might have been the only one that was intercepted, as he put a nice ball between three defenders but it bounced off CeeDee Lamb’s hands. For anyone worried about potential rust, Prescott quickly put those thoughts to bed, finishing 42 of 58 for 403 yards, three touchdowns, one interception and a 101.4 passer rating. The Cowboys can’t have Prescott throwing that often every week, but it was a good sign that he showed he can in his first game back. And more importantly, he showed that he can do it while taking some pretty big hits.
“I think if you take a step back and look from the perspective of maybe someone on the outside,” McCarthy said, “you could say, ‘Boy, that was an unbelievable performance.’ And I think it was a great performance. I think any time you have two big-time quarterbacks, and obviously a Tom Brady, and what he’s accomplished speaks for itself. I’m sure it was a fun game to watch. It was a great game to compete in, to be a part of the competition. But that, to me, that’s Dak Prescott.
“That’s the man we work with every day. So I wasn’t surprised at all, the way he played. He competes at everything. He was totally into the game plan going into it, and exercised it. I was very happy for him personally, just to see him back out there. But that’s the guy that we see each and every day.”
2. Amari Cooper. He was Prescott’s favorite target against the Buccaneers. Cooper caught 13 of the 16 passes thrown in his direction for 139 yards and two touchdowns. Prescott’s passer rating when targeting Cooper vs. Tampa Bay: 142.4. Cooper made headlines entering Week 1 when he said he believes he’s the NFL’s best wide receiver, he just hasn’t proven it yet. He didn’t prove that he’s the best against the Buccaneers, but he proved he certainly belongs in the conversation as one of the best.
“I feel like I can clean some stuff up,” Cooper said after the game. “Obviously I had a lot of catches, but I always focus on the ones that didn’t go my way that could’ve helped the team. There were some big plays that I left out there, some important plays that I left out there that I need to clean up.”
Cooper said there was a play on their final possession when he broke in on an option route when Prescott was expecting him to break out. Cooper took the blame for the error.
“(Prescott) did not go to me on that play,” Cooper said, “but he wanted to go to me on that play.”
3. Trevon Diggs. He spent most of Thursday night covering three-time Pro Bowl wide receiver Mike Evans. Evans caught the first slant that Brady threw in his direction. He didn’t catch another ball while Diggs was defending him the rest of the night. Brady targeted Diggs five times for only one completion (10 yards) and an interception for a passer rating of 0.0.
To compare, here were Brady’s stats against Dallas’ other four defensive backs.
• Anthony Brown: 7 of 8 passing, 121 yards, one touchdown, 158.3 passer rating.
• Jayron Kearse: 3 of 4 passing, 31 yards, no touchdowns, 96.9 passer rating.
• Jourdan Lewis: 6 of 11 passing, 74 yards, one touchdown, one interception, 68.0 passer rating.
• Damontae Kazee: 1 of 3 passing, 19 yards, no touchdowns, 56.2 passer rating.
The Cowboys are in good shape at No. 1 cornerback. We’ll get to the other issues later in this post.
4. Takeaways. Dallas had four against Tampa Bay. Can the Cowboys keep up this pace all season? It’s highly unlikely. The Miami Dolphins led the NFL last season by averaging 1.8 takeaways per game. The Pittsburgh Steelers led the league at 2.38 per game in 2019. The Chicago Bears were the NFL’s best in 2018 at 2.3 per game.
The Cowboys have come a long way since they finished with an NFL-worst 11 takeaways in 2015. Between 2016 and 2019 they never totaled more than 21 or less than 17. In McCarthy’s first year as head coach in 2020, that number climbed to 23. With better talent and everyone being on the same page, which was a significant issue last year, that number could climb to the high 20s or even low 30s. And it probably has to for this defense to make up for some of its shortcomings. Again, we’ll get to those a little later.
5. Connor McGovern. The third-year interior offensive lineman played well as the starting right guard in place of Zack Martin. Tampa Bay is a tough matchup up front for any offensive lineman and McGovern more than held his own against standout defensive tackles Ndamukong Suh and Vita Vea. There was rumored interest from other teams in McGovern before the start of the season. It’s easy to see why the Cowboys weren’t interested in moving him. He’s one of the team’s top five offensive linemen. Following the coaching staff’s grading meeting on Friday, McCarthy specifically mentioned how he thought McGovern played “very well.”
6. Micah Parsons. He didn’t have a huge game-changing sack, forced fumble or interception in his first NFL game. Considering his talent, those big plays are expected to come in the near future. But Parsons was productive in his 51 defensive snaps, most of any Cowboys front seven defender. He blitzed eight times, knocking down Brady once. He finished with seven total tackles and two missed tackles.
“I thought it was a good start for him,” McCarthy said. “I think he’s beyond his years. He’s still a rookie. It was the first time he played in an NFL game and also the communication responsibility he has to handle. That’s a new experience. I don’t care where you played or how much time you get in the preseason. I thought he got off to a good start. … He’s got a very bright future. I’m very confident that he’ll continue to grow. I thought he looked comfortable.”
7. Cedrick Wilson. The Cowboys’ No. 4 wide receiver caught all three passes that Prescott threw in his direction at Tampa Bay for 24 yards and a first down. Prescott’s passer rating was 100.0 when targeting Wilson, second-best among all Cowboys pass catchers. Wilson becomes even more significant with Michael Gallup expected to be out several weeks because of a calf strain suffered in the second half.
When the Cowboys go three wide against the Chargers, Wilson is expected to be the third wide receiver on the field with Cooper and Lamb. Prescott said recently that it has stood out to him how receivers like Wilson have stepped in during practice and the first-team offense hasn’t skipped a beat. We’ll soon see if that continues in full games. Wilson, a sixth-round pick in 2018, was very productive in his two seasons at Boise State, catching 139 passes for 2,640 yards and 18 touchdowns in 26 games. Wilson had a career-high five catches for 107 yards and two touchdowns at Seattle last season in Week 3.
8. Good game for Kellen Moore. The Cowboys offensive coordinator called a good game Thursday night. Many have been critical about the team’s inability to establish the run, but it didn’t make much sense to continue to run Ezekiel Elliott or Tony Pollard into that front seven if nothing was there. That’s arguably the best front seven in football and the Cowboys have arguably the best wide receiving trio. Getting the ball out on the perimeter to exploit one-on-one matchups with high percentage short passes was the right call.
Negatives
1. La’el Collins’ suspension. This was by far the biggest negative to come out of the weekend. Collins has been suspended without pay for the next five games for violating the NFL Policy on Substances of Abuse. He will be eligible to return to the Cowboys’ active roster on Monday, Oct. 18, following the team’s Week 6 game at New England. McCarthy was hesitant to address the suspension on Friday afternoon because an appeals process is taking place.
“It’s really something I can’t speak on right now,” McCarthy said. “I know the timing is a bit awkward, but it’s something that I really can’t talk about right now. … Nothing of surprise. Just, once again, the timing of it. It’s a bit awkward, but it’s just something I can’t speak on right now.”
The Cowboys have to prepare to be without Collins and that’s a major blow. He’s one of their top three offensive linemen, along with Zack Martin and Tyron Smith. Because of injuries, the three haven’t been on the field together since Week 16 at Philadelphia in 2019. Oddly enough, since Collins signed with the Cowboys following the 2015 NFL Draft, the Cowboys are only 25-26 when all three start a game together.
Judging by McCarthy’s comments on Friday, it doesn’t sound like moving Martin to right tackle will be the first or second option. The plan will be to go with veteran Ty Nsekhe at right tackle and have second-year tackle Terence Steele ready to go behind him.
“Both Ty and Terence have worked both left and right tackles,” McCarthy said, “so I feel very comfortable playing with those guys. Ty has got a ton of experience and Terence is clearly one of our most improved first-year players going into the second year. You look at all of the experiences he had last year. Feeling really good about those guys.”
2. Michael Gallup injury. As mentioned above, he’s expected to miss multiple weeks. Even though he’s often listed as the third wide receiver when talking about the Cowboys’ offense, Gallup could be a No. 1 or No. 2 on a lot of teams. He was a major factor early on Thursday night. He caught four of his seven targets for 36 yards and three first downs. While Wilson will be the next man up at wide receiver, this could also mean more two tight end sets with Blake Jarwin and Dalton Schultz. It could also mean more opportunities in the passing game for backup running back Tony Pollard.
3. Red-zone issues. Settling for three field goals on four red-zone trips isn’t a new issue for the Cowboys. They scored touchdowns inside their opponent’s 20-yard line only 50 percent of the time last year, ranking 29th in the NFL. They were middle of the pack in 2019 at 57 percent. They haven’t been in the top 10 since finishing seventh at 60 percent in 2017. They were fifth during Prescott’s rookie season at 66 percent.
So what’s the issue? Is it because they have struggled to have the same success running the ball? Do they lose confidence when they get in close to their opponent’s goal line?
Ten seconds into the first answer of his postgame news conference, Prescott mentioned how they have to be better in the red zone.
“We’ve got to be better at it,” he said. “We can’t settle for field goals. We got to score touchdowns, especially with the talent we have. Whether it’s running or throwing, we’ve got to find a way. We’ve got to create some scheme, a little bit more scheme and we’ll go out there and execute better as well. We left some plays out there.”
The three plays he mentioned:
• Third-and-3 from the 13 when he threw behind Lamb on the left corner route in the end zone with 6:42 remaining in the second quarter. Prescott wishes he would’ve thrown a better ball.
• Second-and-goal from the 5 when he threw to Elliott in the right flat with 10:30 left in the third quarter. Prescott thought he needed to get the ball to Elliott quicker. Elliott made the grab but was forced out at the 2.
• The very next play when Prescott pitched to Elliott on what should have been a touchdown run to the left. Jarwin didn’t get the block he needed and Elliott failed to make safety Andrew Adams miss.
“We have to score (touchdowns),” Cooper said, “especially against a team like the defending Super Bowl champions. When we have the opportunities to score, we have to score. That’s the thing about this league, field goals aren’t going to win. Touchdowns are going to win football games in this league. That’s one of the things we have to clean up.”
4. Running-game issues. The 2016 Dallas running game might not have had much success Thursday night. This year’s Cowboys ground attack certainly wasn’t going to get the job done. The pitch to Elliott that was just mentioned above is the one that stands out most. That was the perfect call. Jarwin needs to set the edge with his block and Elliott needs to be able to make one man miss if Jarwin doesn’t.
“We had a clean play there,” McCarthy said. “We got to execute the second-level blocking better, and I think it surprised them a little bit. That should be a race to the pylon, and I thought it was a good play call and we just didn’t, our execution wasn’t what it needed to be.”
This is going to be a pass-first team. There are too many talented perimeter weapons and Prescott is too good of a passer for them not to heavily utilize the passing game. But the running game has to bring the consistency that they can count on from week to week or this team isn’t going to finish above .500.
5. Greg Zuerlein. No one should be stunned that Zuerlein struggled after having very little work leading up to Thursday night. His offseason back surgery meant no training camp work and only one game of preseason to get all the way back up to speed. It was a bad situation going into the season. Maybe the Cowboys should’ve carried another kicker. I understand how valuable the roster spots are, but so were those missed kicks in Tampa Bay. These types of misses from 31 yards and then on an extra point can’t keep happening or the Cowboys will have to look for outside help.
“I think it’s like anything,” McCarthy said, “this is why you have training camp. I’m not going to make excuses, and he would be the first one not to. It’s a veteran operation, but I think they’re only going to be better moving forward. Frankly, I think the 60-yarder was partly me showing the confidence that I have in him. He’s made those kicks throughout his career, and I’m confident he’ll continue to make them moving forward.”
6. Anthony Brown. It was easy to see Thursday night why the Cowboys were so interested in drafting a cornerback with the 10th overall pick. Patrick Surtain II or Jaycee Horn would’ve been the pick had they both not been drafted right before Dallas went on the clock. Brown is probably a better fit as a No. 3 corner. The Cowboys would’ve preferred second-round pick Kelvin Joseph to progress throughout training camp and the preseason and win the No. 2 job. But that never happened. Brown outplayed him. Maybe he’ll be fine against quarterbacks who aren’t the greatest of all time. But Thursday night certainly provided some reason for concern.
7. Not much impact from Leighton Vander Esch or Jaylon Smith. Smith played 16 defensive snaps vs. Tampa Bay after averaging 68 snaps per game last year. Vander Esch played 14 defensive snaps against the Buccaneers. He has averaged 50 snaps per game during his NFL career.
McCarthy said the linebacker rotation will depend on the game plan.
“I think they understand if you look at the big picture,” McCarthy said. “We took 24 defensive players into the game. We had projections of how we wanted to play guys, and we knew it was going to be a challenge with the climate and the humidity. I think we really hit the target as far as getting the distribution of playing all the guys on defense.
“So, yeah, personally, I can’t speak on their behalf, if they weren’t frustrated, I’d be disappointed. These guys have played a lot of football throughout their whole career. It’s our focus to be better as a whole as a defense and frankly, the more players you play, the better off you’re going to be.”
8. Not enough QB pressure. A big part of that is Brady. He’s extraordinary at getting the ball out quickly. He was only knocked down twice and he was never sacked despite throwing 50 times. The Cowboys averaged just under two sacks per game last year. They have to do a better job at getting pressure or Justin Herbert could put up Brady-type numbers next Sunday. The second-year Chargers quarterback was sacked only twice by Washington’s loaded front seven and he managed to throw for 337 yards, one touchdown and one interception in a 20-16 Chargers’ win in Week 1. Herbert threw three-or-more touchdown passes in six games during his exceptional NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year season.
There was a lot to unpack from the Cowboys’ Thursday night season opener in Tampa Bay. While they start the year 0-1, it wasn’t all bad. There’s plenty to build off of heading into this Sunday’s Week 2 game at the Los Angeles Chargers.
“I loved their fight,” Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy said of his team the day after their 31-29 loss to the defending Super Bowl champion Buccaneers. “I thought that our guys stuck to the game plan. They went for it. I thought the adjustments and communication on the sideline was outstanding. I thought our energy and our play style was what we were looking for. I was real excited about the momentum swings in the game and how we responded to it because that’s what big-time games are about. You got to battle through the adversity of it, and our guys handled that very well.
“We responded almost every time they threw something at us. We were very, very comfortable and confident at the end of the game, and that’s kind of where we are, and we got to get over that next hurdle. We got to win those next games. It’s about victories over capabilities. That’s the theme here, if you’re wondering.”
To begin looking forward, here are eight positives and eight negatives for the Cowboys entering Week 2.
Positives
1. Dak Prescott. There’s almost never going to be a game where a quarterback doesn’t want at least a few throws back. There weren’t many for Prescott in his first game in 333 days. He was accurate almost the entire way. His best throw might have been the only one that was intercepted, as he put a nice ball between three defenders but it bounced off CeeDee Lamb’s hands. For anyone worried about potential rust, Prescott quickly put those thoughts to bed, finishing 42 of 58 for 403 yards, three touchdowns, one interception and a 101.4 passer rating. The Cowboys can’t have Prescott throwing that often every week, but it was a good sign that he showed he can in his first game back. And more importantly, he showed that he can do it while taking some pretty big hits.
“I think if you take a step back and look from the perspective of maybe someone on the outside,” McCarthy said, “you could say, ‘Boy, that was an unbelievable performance.’ And I think it was a great performance. I think any time you have two big-time quarterbacks, and obviously a Tom Brady, and what he’s accomplished speaks for itself. I’m sure it was a fun game to watch. It was a great game to compete in, to be a part of the competition. But that, to me, that’s Dak Prescott.
“That’s the man we work with every day. So I wasn’t surprised at all, the way he played. He competes at everything. He was totally into the game plan going into it, and exercised it. I was very happy for him personally, just to see him back out there. But that’s the guy that we see each and every day.”
2. Amari Cooper. He was Prescott’s favorite target against the Buccaneers. Cooper caught 13 of the 16 passes thrown in his direction for 139 yards and two touchdowns. Prescott’s passer rating when targeting Cooper vs. Tampa Bay: 142.4. Cooper made headlines entering Week 1 when he said he believes he’s the NFL’s best wide receiver, he just hasn’t proven it yet. He didn’t prove that he’s the best against the Buccaneers, but he proved he certainly belongs in the conversation as one of the best.
“I feel like I can clean some stuff up,” Cooper said after the game. “Obviously I had a lot of catches, but I always focus on the ones that didn’t go my way that could’ve helped the team. There were some big plays that I left out there, some important plays that I left out there that I need to clean up.”
Cooper said there was a play on their final possession when he broke in on an option route when Prescott was expecting him to break out. Cooper took the blame for the error.
“(Prescott) did not go to me on that play,” Cooper said, “but he wanted to go to me on that play.”
3. Trevon Diggs. He spent most of Thursday night covering three-time Pro Bowl wide receiver Mike Evans. Evans caught the first slant that Brady threw in his direction. He didn’t catch another ball while Diggs was defending him the rest of the night. Brady targeted Diggs five times for only one completion (10 yards) and an interception for a passer rating of 0.0.
To compare, here were Brady’s stats against Dallas’ other four defensive backs.
• Anthony Brown: 7 of 8 passing, 121 yards, one touchdown, 158.3 passer rating.
• Jayron Kearse: 3 of 4 passing, 31 yards, no touchdowns, 96.9 passer rating.
• Jourdan Lewis: 6 of 11 passing, 74 yards, one touchdown, one interception, 68.0 passer rating.
• Damontae Kazee: 1 of 3 passing, 19 yards, no touchdowns, 56.2 passer rating.
The Cowboys are in good shape at No. 1 cornerback. We’ll get to the other issues later in this post.
4. Takeaways. Dallas had four against Tampa Bay. Can the Cowboys keep up this pace all season? It’s highly unlikely. The Miami Dolphins led the NFL last season by averaging 1.8 takeaways per game. The Pittsburgh Steelers led the league at 2.38 per game in 2019. The Chicago Bears were the NFL’s best in 2018 at 2.3 per game.
The Cowboys have come a long way since they finished with an NFL-worst 11 takeaways in 2015. Between 2016 and 2019 they never totaled more than 21 or less than 17. In McCarthy’s first year as head coach in 2020, that number climbed to 23. With better talent and everyone being on the same page, which was a significant issue last year, that number could climb to the high 20s or even low 30s. And it probably has to for this defense to make up for some of its shortcomings. Again, we’ll get to those a little later.
5. Connor McGovern. The third-year interior offensive lineman played well as the starting right guard in place of Zack Martin. Tampa Bay is a tough matchup up front for any offensive lineman and McGovern more than held his own against standout defensive tackles Ndamukong Suh and Vita Vea. There was rumored interest from other teams in McGovern before the start of the season. It’s easy to see why the Cowboys weren’t interested in moving him. He’s one of the team’s top five offensive linemen. Following the coaching staff’s grading meeting on Friday, McCarthy specifically mentioned how he thought McGovern played “very well.”
6. Micah Parsons. He didn’t have a huge game-changing sack, forced fumble or interception in his first NFL game. Considering his talent, those big plays are expected to come in the near future. But Parsons was productive in his 51 defensive snaps, most of any Cowboys front seven defender. He blitzed eight times, knocking down Brady once. He finished with seven total tackles and two missed tackles.
“I thought it was a good start for him,” McCarthy said. “I think he’s beyond his years. He’s still a rookie. It was the first time he played in an NFL game and also the communication responsibility he has to handle. That’s a new experience. I don’t care where you played or how much time you get in the preseason. I thought he got off to a good start. … He’s got a very bright future. I’m very confident that he’ll continue to grow. I thought he looked comfortable.”
7. Cedrick Wilson. The Cowboys’ No. 4 wide receiver caught all three passes that Prescott threw in his direction at Tampa Bay for 24 yards and a first down. Prescott’s passer rating was 100.0 when targeting Wilson, second-best among all Cowboys pass catchers. Wilson becomes even more significant with Michael Gallup expected to be out several weeks because of a calf strain suffered in the second half.
When the Cowboys go three wide against the Chargers, Wilson is expected to be the third wide receiver on the field with Cooper and Lamb. Prescott said recently that it has stood out to him how receivers like Wilson have stepped in during practice and the first-team offense hasn’t skipped a beat. We’ll soon see if that continues in full games. Wilson, a sixth-round pick in 2018, was very productive in his two seasons at Boise State, catching 139 passes for 2,640 yards and 18 touchdowns in 26 games. Wilson had a career-high five catches for 107 yards and two touchdowns at Seattle last season in Week 3.
8. Good game for Kellen Moore. The Cowboys offensive coordinator called a good game Thursday night. Many have been critical about the team’s inability to establish the run, but it didn’t make much sense to continue to run Ezekiel Elliott or Tony Pollard into that front seven if nothing was there. That’s arguably the best front seven in football and the Cowboys have arguably the best wide receiving trio. Getting the ball out on the perimeter to exploit one-on-one matchups with high percentage short passes was the right call.
Negatives
1. La’el Collins’ suspension. This was by far the biggest negative to come out of the weekend. Collins has been suspended without pay for the next five games for violating the NFL Policy on Substances of Abuse. He will be eligible to return to the Cowboys’ active roster on Monday, Oct. 18, following the team’s Week 6 game at New England. McCarthy was hesitant to address the suspension on Friday afternoon because an appeals process is taking place.
“It’s really something I can’t speak on right now,” McCarthy said. “I know the timing is a bit awkward, but it’s something that I really can’t talk about right now. … Nothing of surprise. Just, once again, the timing of it. It’s a bit awkward, but it’s just something I can’t speak on right now.”
The Cowboys have to prepare to be without Collins and that’s a major blow. He’s one of their top three offensive linemen, along with Zack Martin and Tyron Smith. Because of injuries, the three haven’t been on the field together since Week 16 at Philadelphia in 2019. Oddly enough, since Collins signed with the Cowboys following the 2015 NFL Draft, the Cowboys are only 25-26 when all three start a game together.
Judging by McCarthy’s comments on Friday, it doesn’t sound like moving Martin to right tackle will be the first or second option. The plan will be to go with veteran Ty Nsekhe at right tackle and have second-year tackle Terence Steele ready to go behind him.
“Both Ty and Terence have worked both left and right tackles,” McCarthy said, “so I feel very comfortable playing with those guys. Ty has got a ton of experience and Terence is clearly one of our most improved first-year players going into the second year. You look at all of the experiences he had last year. Feeling really good about those guys.”
2. Michael Gallup injury. As mentioned above, he’s expected to miss multiple weeks. Even though he’s often listed as the third wide receiver when talking about the Cowboys’ offense, Gallup could be a No. 1 or No. 2 on a lot of teams. He was a major factor early on Thursday night. He caught four of his seven targets for 36 yards and three first downs. While Wilson will be the next man up at wide receiver, this could also mean more two tight end sets with Blake Jarwin and Dalton Schultz. It could also mean more opportunities in the passing game for backup running back Tony Pollard.
3. Red-zone issues. Settling for three field goals on four red-zone trips isn’t a new issue for the Cowboys. They scored touchdowns inside their opponent’s 20-yard line only 50 percent of the time last year, ranking 29th in the NFL. They were middle of the pack in 2019 at 57 percent. They haven’t been in the top 10 since finishing seventh at 60 percent in 2017. They were fifth during Prescott’s rookie season at 66 percent.
So what’s the issue? Is it because they have struggled to have the same success running the ball? Do they lose confidence when they get in close to their opponent’s goal line?
Ten seconds into the first answer of his postgame news conference, Prescott mentioned how they have to be better in the red zone.
“We’ve got to be better at it,” he said. “We can’t settle for field goals. We got to score touchdowns, especially with the talent we have. Whether it’s running or throwing, we’ve got to find a way. We’ve got to create some scheme, a little bit more scheme and we’ll go out there and execute better as well. We left some plays out there.”
The three plays he mentioned:
• Third-and-3 from the 13 when he threw behind Lamb on the left corner route in the end zone with 6:42 remaining in the second quarter. Prescott wishes he would’ve thrown a better ball.
• Second-and-goal from the 5 when he threw to Elliott in the right flat with 10:30 left in the third quarter. Prescott thought he needed to get the ball to Elliott quicker. Elliott made the grab but was forced out at the 2.
• The very next play when Prescott pitched to Elliott on what should have been a touchdown run to the left. Jarwin didn’t get the block he needed and Elliott failed to make safety Andrew Adams miss.
“We have to score (touchdowns),” Cooper said, “especially against a team like the defending Super Bowl champions. When we have the opportunities to score, we have to score. That’s the thing about this league, field goals aren’t going to win. Touchdowns are going to win football games in this league. That’s one of the things we have to clean up.”
4. Running-game issues. The 2016 Dallas running game might not have had much success Thursday night. This year’s Cowboys ground attack certainly wasn’t going to get the job done. The pitch to Elliott that was just mentioned above is the one that stands out most. That was the perfect call. Jarwin needs to set the edge with his block and Elliott needs to be able to make one man miss if Jarwin doesn’t.
“We had a clean play there,” McCarthy said. “We got to execute the second-level blocking better, and I think it surprised them a little bit. That should be a race to the pylon, and I thought it was a good play call and we just didn’t, our execution wasn’t what it needed to be.”
This is going to be a pass-first team. There are too many talented perimeter weapons and Prescott is too good of a passer for them not to heavily utilize the passing game. But the running game has to bring the consistency that they can count on from week to week or this team isn’t going to finish above .500.
5. Greg Zuerlein. No one should be stunned that Zuerlein struggled after having very little work leading up to Thursday night. His offseason back surgery meant no training camp work and only one game of preseason to get all the way back up to speed. It was a bad situation going into the season. Maybe the Cowboys should’ve carried another kicker. I understand how valuable the roster spots are, but so were those missed kicks in Tampa Bay. These types of misses from 31 yards and then on an extra point can’t keep happening or the Cowboys will have to look for outside help.
“I think it’s like anything,” McCarthy said, “this is why you have training camp. I’m not going to make excuses, and he would be the first one not to. It’s a veteran operation, but I think they’re only going to be better moving forward. Frankly, I think the 60-yarder was partly me showing the confidence that I have in him. He’s made those kicks throughout his career, and I’m confident he’ll continue to make them moving forward.”
6. Anthony Brown. It was easy to see Thursday night why the Cowboys were so interested in drafting a cornerback with the 10th overall pick. Patrick Surtain II or Jaycee Horn would’ve been the pick had they both not been drafted right before Dallas went on the clock. Brown is probably a better fit as a No. 3 corner. The Cowboys would’ve preferred second-round pick Kelvin Joseph to progress throughout training camp and the preseason and win the No. 2 job. But that never happened. Brown outplayed him. Maybe he’ll be fine against quarterbacks who aren’t the greatest of all time. But Thursday night certainly provided some reason for concern.
7. Not much impact from Leighton Vander Esch or Jaylon Smith. Smith played 16 defensive snaps vs. Tampa Bay after averaging 68 snaps per game last year. Vander Esch played 14 defensive snaps against the Buccaneers. He has averaged 50 snaps per game during his NFL career.
McCarthy said the linebacker rotation will depend on the game plan.
“I think they understand if you look at the big picture,” McCarthy said. “We took 24 defensive players into the game. We had projections of how we wanted to play guys, and we knew it was going to be a challenge with the climate and the humidity. I think we really hit the target as far as getting the distribution of playing all the guys on defense.
“So, yeah, personally, I can’t speak on their behalf, if they weren’t frustrated, I’d be disappointed. These guys have played a lot of football throughout their whole career. It’s our focus to be better as a whole as a defense and frankly, the more players you play, the better off you’re going to be.”
8. Not enough QB pressure. A big part of that is Brady. He’s extraordinary at getting the ball out quickly. He was only knocked down twice and he was never sacked despite throwing 50 times. The Cowboys averaged just under two sacks per game last year. They have to do a better job at getting pressure or Justin Herbert could put up Brady-type numbers next Sunday. The second-year Chargers quarterback was sacked only twice by Washington’s loaded front seven and he managed to throw for 337 yards, one touchdown and one interception in a 20-16 Chargers’ win in Week 1. Herbert threw three-or-more touchdown passes in six games during his exceptional NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year season.
