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Morning After Week 9- Skid Continues in ATL
Cowboys lose third straight game, take on more injuries as Falcons coast to victory.
Bob Sturm
Nov 04, 2024
It was yet another disappointing day in a season that doesn’t appear to let up.
This franchise is down pretty bad right now, and those who were wise enough to forecast a substantial step backward in 2024 should probably collect their winnings. It appears I was guilty of believing in past quality offering hints at future success, and if anything seems unlikely right now, it is future success.
There doesn’t appear to be much of that left in this current group, which, of course, introduces the obvious conclusions.
We appear to be living in the last days of this particular Cowboys era.
The Dallas Cowboys needed a win in the worst way possible to stop that bleeding, and despite showing some positives, were never terribly close to threatening their opponent for that victory. Atlanta seemed pretty unstressed all day long as they continued their form of five wins in six weeks, pushing the battered Cowboys out of the way. Bijan Robinson was just as impressive and high-quality as we expected, and Kirk Cousins had a rather comfortable day picking out his targets on his terms and scoring whenever they felt slightly threatened. At 6-3, Atlanta has the feel of a team that will play in the postseason and likely win their division on the way.
The Cowboys, however, do not.
Dallas lost its third straight game on Sunday, something they have avoided wonderfully here in the last three years. In fact, it wasn’t long ago that we applauded the Mike McCarthy regime for having two impressive and distinguishing traits that I am sure you recall.
First, they were able to always win their home games and establish a real advantage in games played in front of their own fans. However, they are still winless at home this season (0-3) and now, absurdly, are racing Mike Tyson to see who can get a win at AT&T Stadium first (or at all).
Second, they almost never lost consecutive games. They were 11-1 from the start of 2021 until last December when they finally lost back-to-back games at Buffalo and Miami. Then, they lost consecutive games to the Saints and Ravens this year, and then again to the Lions and 49ers. But they had never lost three straight with McCarthy and Dak Prescott both at their posts.
Well, we can scratch both of those positives off the list now, as they lost yet again to these Falcons, 27-21, in a game that was both quite winnable and yet never really very close to being won. I hope that makes sense because, walking away, it did not seem that Atlanta is a vastly better football team. However, it would also be pretty disingenuous to say that the Cowboys were ever able to appear likely to win.
And that is kind of where we are right now. They are no longer able to rise up in the face of defeat and stop the spiral with a show of force. Rather, if losing is a disease, then this 3-5 football team better get treated quickly. Because there might not be much of an end in sight, other than the end of a coaching staff, and from the looks of those things, those veteran coaches might not protest too loudly. It is as if they know this current situation is on life support, too.
Dallas lost its fifth game of the season on November 3 this year and just to show you how that measures to a normal year of the Mike McCarthy/Dan Quinn Cowboys, here are the dates of the 5th loss from those last three seasons:
2021 - The 5th loss was on January 2nd, 2022
2022 - The 5th loss was on January 8th, 2023
2023 - The 5th loss was on December 24th, 2023
So, yeah, the last three seasons averaged about one loss per month. You will no doubt have a witty retort about the playoff losses, but the facts are pretty clear—this team was not a losing football team for about 36 consecutive enjoyable months. However, something changed in a very big way in 2024 (likely set into motion with the January 2024 playoff implosion against Green Bay), and now we are not sure when they will start winning games again—especially with the health situations of Dak Prescott and CeeDee Lamb now in doubt for the big showdown against Philadelphia headed for Arlington next Sunday. Prescott’s hamstring and Lamb’s shoulder will be discussion points all week, but it is starting to have a looming feeling that this might not be a year where things ever get right.
Everything that this team had going for it has quickly disappeared. They scored 117 more points in those three years than anyone else did. Its true, I promise. They also, at the same time for three full years took the ball away more than anyone else did in the entire league. Also, a true statement. They scored 1506 points and had 93 takeaways and they both led the NFL. It is darn near impossible to have either of those two distinctions, but both? Dallas had a window to winning it all that was as available to them as you might ever find. But, not only did they not use that window, they never even came close.
Now, it sure appears to be gone. The quality is gone. They are 23rd in total points scored – right behind the Bears and tied with the Jets – and 27th in takeaways. The underlying metrics tell us this is a team that is very poor and the “eye test” confirm it.
Nothing that happened in Atlanta should change our minds on the overall direction of the 2024 Dallas Cowboys. They are mistake-prone, inefficient, and have too many spots on the roster that do not appear to be strengths. They lack identity and are seemingly playing from two touchdowns behind in nearly every game they play.
On top of that, as if we need to kick a team when they are down, the vibes from the fanbase are full of apathy and disgust. This season has turned many off from what is normally their favorite time of the year. The team has offered one disappointment after another and the loyalists have started to feel nothing. It might not even hurt that much anymore. And perhaps the biggest insult I keep hearing? It has been pretty boring, too. They aren’t even losing in an exciting way. They aren’t terribly interesting. They can’t even get 11 men on the field on defense or 11 in the huddle on offense.
They look like they don’t know what they are doing anymore.
We can further detail the negatives—and trust me, with a report on the offense and a different one on the defense in the next few days, we will get to it—but I would rather write about a few positives that I would like to pull from Sunday to show you that there are things to note that might be the start of optimism ahead. In my best Bill Parcells mentality, I will zig when you expect me to zag. The old coach was always finding negatives in wins and positives in losses, just to keep us in the media off balance. He knew that there were plenty of people kicking his team when they lost, so maybe he could help build them up. Or, plenty would be pumping their tires when they won, so maybe he could keep them grounded. That always resonated with me, so maybe I can do it justice by making the second half of this piece about things I saw yesterday that did not endlessly frustrate me.
First, Rico Dowdle was truly discovered. Listen, nobody is saying he is Bijan Robinson, but Rico has been the best running back on this roster the entire season, and it really hasn’t been close. Yet, four times in the first seven games, Ezekiel Elliott was getting the majority or near-majority of the snaps, and nobody could explain how that made sense (other than the normal forces of nonsense that this franchise is famous for). However, in the most Cowboys way possible, Elliott apparently took care of this issue on his own and was left back in Dallas for missing meetings and being “distracted” this season.
Dowdle was given the full-time snaps—53 of them—after his previous high was 38 at Pittsburgh, which you may recall was his other excellent performance this year—and flourished. Dowdle ran well all day with 12 runs for 75 yards and also 5 catches for 32 more. 107 yards from scrimmage for Dowdle was just behind his 114 in Pittsburgh, but in both cases, it seemed that he could be a very productive option. According to RJ Ochoa, “It was the first time a Cowboys running back had at least 10 carries and had over 6.0 YPC in almost an entire year.”
Again, do we only discover this because the franchise is disciplining Elliott? What in the world was he doing on the roster? Why is he blocking progress? One guy was absolutely jumping in line, and it wasn’t based on merit. It was based on the front office (Jerry) deciding how he wants this roster to be. Rico is averaging 5.3 yards per touch this year and Elliott is at 3.4, yet they would run Elliott out there for two months? Blame Mike McCarthy for plenty, but if you think this is the coach’s doing, you are crazy. Dowdle has played hard and been a good company man (with the SF health story still incredibly flimsy from the team), and now, maybe, they realize that he is the closest thing they have to a quality back on the roster. His 56% success rate on runs (Elliott 34%) and 62% success rate on receptions (Elliott 40%) should tell us that those two should never be flipped by the front office’s favoritism. Good for Rico, and the offense looked better.
Jake Ferguson had his targets right for the first time in quite a while, too. Seven catches on 10 targets for 71 yards should be the norm for him. The final play of the third quarter was a brilliant third-and-10 call for a tight end screen that had nothing but turf in front of Ferguson. The ball was batted down, and this was a spot where Dak just had to make sure the ball gets there, but Ferguson has to get a better chip on Matthew Judon. Neither did well enough, but the tape is clear. This was a huge play missed, and if this offense has a functioning Ferguson and Dowdle in it, the group has a real chance. Then Dak started looking for running opportunities (which may or may not have led to another injury, which may not feel like positivity, sorry), and the offense rolled up 378 yards. I know the point production was way too low, but 378 yards is the third-best offensive day of the season.
DeMarvion Overshown appears to be stacking enough performances together for us to feel this is a core piece on this defense for years to come. I love his passion, his pursuit, and his nose for finding the ball. The defense is about to start getting pieces back, and I think he is a real weapon to build upon up front.
Finally, as we talk about important team leadership and culture building, I wanted to circle back to Dak and CeeDee. They are two heavily compensated players who are 100% assured of being the focal points of any coaching search moving forward. They will be here, and the new coach will have to answer questions about how to make this offense sing again under these two.
But for this thing to ever get better, these two have to be more than good players. They have to set the tone for everything. Yesterday, each provided talking points for their critics, and I wanted a moment on each here.
For Dak, he left the game with a hamstring pull and that is unfortunate for sure. His moment of controversy was being caught on camera with appears to be the quote, “we f-ing suck” and some are trying to label that as something more than the most obvious statement anyone would say on the sideline to a teammate as they stare at the field.
I’ll say this, be frustrated in his play, but this is a nothing-burger if you have ever spent two seconds near a professional bench. We could make a list of every QB who “tells it like it is” on his sideline, with my favorite one being Troy Aikman himself, but this is pretty small potatoes.
But I thought we learned something about CeeDee Lamb in this game. We already knew his quality, but what we don’t always talk about is his toughness. Out of Oklahoma, I had some concerns about his combination of lack of body armor and the way he plays, which brings him into harm’s way for punishment and injury. Could he be durable and play through things? Well, on Sunday, he landed hard on his shoulder and appeared to have the dreaded sprained AC joint in his right shoulder before halftime. Yet he wasn’t coming out of the game. You could see the pain, and it looked substantial. We can argue the wisdom in playing hurt like this, but it shows you he wants to be out there. Every catch would elicit a wince, but he proved to be a warrior as he dove on his shoulder to try to make another catch. Some clown on Twitter claimed it was a guy hunting stats, but I don’t tolerate that slander for a guy playing injured. That was a guy playing for the cause who wasn’t chasing money or numbers. He was doing it because it means something to him, and that gained my great respect yesterday. More importantly, the guys below him on the pecking order see that and take it to heart. That is leadership on what it means to play for the Star.
The reason I feel that way was in a story I wrote about Darren Woodson earlier this year. This is what being a warrior is all about in 2000:
I am not trying to sell you on this team because from here, it seems utterly forgettable. But, for those who want to look for signs of what is ahead, hopefully that handful will give you something and will have to do for now. Let’s hope some reinforcements arrive in time for dealing with the Eagles on Sunday.
Cowboys lose third straight game, take on more injuries as Falcons coast to victory.
Bob Sturm
Nov 04, 2024
It was yet another disappointing day in a season that doesn’t appear to let up.
This franchise is down pretty bad right now, and those who were wise enough to forecast a substantial step backward in 2024 should probably collect their winnings. It appears I was guilty of believing in past quality offering hints at future success, and if anything seems unlikely right now, it is future success.
There doesn’t appear to be much of that left in this current group, which, of course, introduces the obvious conclusions.
We appear to be living in the last days of this particular Cowboys era.
The Dallas Cowboys needed a win in the worst way possible to stop that bleeding, and despite showing some positives, were never terribly close to threatening their opponent for that victory. Atlanta seemed pretty unstressed all day long as they continued their form of five wins in six weeks, pushing the battered Cowboys out of the way. Bijan Robinson was just as impressive and high-quality as we expected, and Kirk Cousins had a rather comfortable day picking out his targets on his terms and scoring whenever they felt slightly threatened. At 6-3, Atlanta has the feel of a team that will play in the postseason and likely win their division on the way.
The Cowboys, however, do not.
Dallas lost its third straight game on Sunday, something they have avoided wonderfully here in the last three years. In fact, it wasn’t long ago that we applauded the Mike McCarthy regime for having two impressive and distinguishing traits that I am sure you recall.
First, they were able to always win their home games and establish a real advantage in games played in front of their own fans. However, they are still winless at home this season (0-3) and now, absurdly, are racing Mike Tyson to see who can get a win at AT&T Stadium first (or at all).
Second, they almost never lost consecutive games. They were 11-1 from the start of 2021 until last December when they finally lost back-to-back games at Buffalo and Miami. Then, they lost consecutive games to the Saints and Ravens this year, and then again to the Lions and 49ers. But they had never lost three straight with McCarthy and Dak Prescott both at their posts.
Well, we can scratch both of those positives off the list now, as they lost yet again to these Falcons, 27-21, in a game that was both quite winnable and yet never really very close to being won. I hope that makes sense because, walking away, it did not seem that Atlanta is a vastly better football team. However, it would also be pretty disingenuous to say that the Cowboys were ever able to appear likely to win.
And that is kind of where we are right now. They are no longer able to rise up in the face of defeat and stop the spiral with a show of force. Rather, if losing is a disease, then this 3-5 football team better get treated quickly. Because there might not be much of an end in sight, other than the end of a coaching staff, and from the looks of those things, those veteran coaches might not protest too loudly. It is as if they know this current situation is on life support, too.
Dallas lost its fifth game of the season on November 3 this year and just to show you how that measures to a normal year of the Mike McCarthy/Dan Quinn Cowboys, here are the dates of the 5th loss from those last three seasons:
2021 - The 5th loss was on January 2nd, 2022
2022 - The 5th loss was on January 8th, 2023
2023 - The 5th loss was on December 24th, 2023
So, yeah, the last three seasons averaged about one loss per month. You will no doubt have a witty retort about the playoff losses, but the facts are pretty clear—this team was not a losing football team for about 36 consecutive enjoyable months. However, something changed in a very big way in 2024 (likely set into motion with the January 2024 playoff implosion against Green Bay), and now we are not sure when they will start winning games again—especially with the health situations of Dak Prescott and CeeDee Lamb now in doubt for the big showdown against Philadelphia headed for Arlington next Sunday. Prescott’s hamstring and Lamb’s shoulder will be discussion points all week, but it is starting to have a looming feeling that this might not be a year where things ever get right.
Everything that this team had going for it has quickly disappeared. They scored 117 more points in those three years than anyone else did. Its true, I promise. They also, at the same time for three full years took the ball away more than anyone else did in the entire league. Also, a true statement. They scored 1506 points and had 93 takeaways and they both led the NFL. It is darn near impossible to have either of those two distinctions, but both? Dallas had a window to winning it all that was as available to them as you might ever find. But, not only did they not use that window, they never even came close.
Now, it sure appears to be gone. The quality is gone. They are 23rd in total points scored – right behind the Bears and tied with the Jets – and 27th in takeaways. The underlying metrics tell us this is a team that is very poor and the “eye test” confirm it.
Nothing that happened in Atlanta should change our minds on the overall direction of the 2024 Dallas Cowboys. They are mistake-prone, inefficient, and have too many spots on the roster that do not appear to be strengths. They lack identity and are seemingly playing from two touchdowns behind in nearly every game they play.
On top of that, as if we need to kick a team when they are down, the vibes from the fanbase are full of apathy and disgust. This season has turned many off from what is normally their favorite time of the year. The team has offered one disappointment after another and the loyalists have started to feel nothing. It might not even hurt that much anymore. And perhaps the biggest insult I keep hearing? It has been pretty boring, too. They aren’t even losing in an exciting way. They aren’t terribly interesting. They can’t even get 11 men on the field on defense or 11 in the huddle on offense.
They look like they don’t know what they are doing anymore.
We can further detail the negatives—and trust me, with a report on the offense and a different one on the defense in the next few days, we will get to it—but I would rather write about a few positives that I would like to pull from Sunday to show you that there are things to note that might be the start of optimism ahead. In my best Bill Parcells mentality, I will zig when you expect me to zag. The old coach was always finding negatives in wins and positives in losses, just to keep us in the media off balance. He knew that there were plenty of people kicking his team when they lost, so maybe he could help build them up. Or, plenty would be pumping their tires when they won, so maybe he could keep them grounded. That always resonated with me, so maybe I can do it justice by making the second half of this piece about things I saw yesterday that did not endlessly frustrate me.
First, Rico Dowdle was truly discovered. Listen, nobody is saying he is Bijan Robinson, but Rico has been the best running back on this roster the entire season, and it really hasn’t been close. Yet, four times in the first seven games, Ezekiel Elliott was getting the majority or near-majority of the snaps, and nobody could explain how that made sense (other than the normal forces of nonsense that this franchise is famous for). However, in the most Cowboys way possible, Elliott apparently took care of this issue on his own and was left back in Dallas for missing meetings and being “distracted” this season.
Dowdle was given the full-time snaps—53 of them—after his previous high was 38 at Pittsburgh, which you may recall was his other excellent performance this year—and flourished. Dowdle ran well all day with 12 runs for 75 yards and also 5 catches for 32 more. 107 yards from scrimmage for Dowdle was just behind his 114 in Pittsburgh, but in both cases, it seemed that he could be a very productive option. According to RJ Ochoa, “It was the first time a Cowboys running back had at least 10 carries and had over 6.0 YPC in almost an entire year.”
Again, do we only discover this because the franchise is disciplining Elliott? What in the world was he doing on the roster? Why is he blocking progress? One guy was absolutely jumping in line, and it wasn’t based on merit. It was based on the front office (Jerry) deciding how he wants this roster to be. Rico is averaging 5.3 yards per touch this year and Elliott is at 3.4, yet they would run Elliott out there for two months? Blame Mike McCarthy for plenty, but if you think this is the coach’s doing, you are crazy. Dowdle has played hard and been a good company man (with the SF health story still incredibly flimsy from the team), and now, maybe, they realize that he is the closest thing they have to a quality back on the roster. His 56% success rate on runs (Elliott 34%) and 62% success rate on receptions (Elliott 40%) should tell us that those two should never be flipped by the front office’s favoritism. Good for Rico, and the offense looked better.
Jake Ferguson had his targets right for the first time in quite a while, too. Seven catches on 10 targets for 71 yards should be the norm for him. The final play of the third quarter was a brilliant third-and-10 call for a tight end screen that had nothing but turf in front of Ferguson. The ball was batted down, and this was a spot where Dak just had to make sure the ball gets there, but Ferguson has to get a better chip on Matthew Judon. Neither did well enough, but the tape is clear. This was a huge play missed, and if this offense has a functioning Ferguson and Dowdle in it, the group has a real chance. Then Dak started looking for running opportunities (which may or may not have led to another injury, which may not feel like positivity, sorry), and the offense rolled up 378 yards. I know the point production was way too low, but 378 yards is the third-best offensive day of the season.
DeMarvion Overshown appears to be stacking enough performances together for us to feel this is a core piece on this defense for years to come. I love his passion, his pursuit, and his nose for finding the ball. The defense is about to start getting pieces back, and I think he is a real weapon to build upon up front.
Finally, as we talk about important team leadership and culture building, I wanted to circle back to Dak and CeeDee. They are two heavily compensated players who are 100% assured of being the focal points of any coaching search moving forward. They will be here, and the new coach will have to answer questions about how to make this offense sing again under these two.
But for this thing to ever get better, these two have to be more than good players. They have to set the tone for everything. Yesterday, each provided talking points for their critics, and I wanted a moment on each here.
For Dak, he left the game with a hamstring pull and that is unfortunate for sure. His moment of controversy was being caught on camera with appears to be the quote, “we f-ing suck” and some are trying to label that as something more than the most obvious statement anyone would say on the sideline to a teammate as they stare at the field.
I’ll say this, be frustrated in his play, but this is a nothing-burger if you have ever spent two seconds near a professional bench. We could make a list of every QB who “tells it like it is” on his sideline, with my favorite one being Troy Aikman himself, but this is pretty small potatoes.
But I thought we learned something about CeeDee Lamb in this game. We already knew his quality, but what we don’t always talk about is his toughness. Out of Oklahoma, I had some concerns about his combination of lack of body armor and the way he plays, which brings him into harm’s way for punishment and injury. Could he be durable and play through things? Well, on Sunday, he landed hard on his shoulder and appeared to have the dreaded sprained AC joint in his right shoulder before halftime. Yet he wasn’t coming out of the game. You could see the pain, and it looked substantial. We can argue the wisdom in playing hurt like this, but it shows you he wants to be out there. Every catch would elicit a wince, but he proved to be a warrior as he dove on his shoulder to try to make another catch. Some clown on Twitter claimed it was a guy hunting stats, but I don’t tolerate that slander for a guy playing injured. That was a guy playing for the cause who wasn’t chasing money or numbers. He was doing it because it means something to him, and that gained my great respect yesterday. More importantly, the guys below him on the pecking order see that and take it to heart. That is leadership on what it means to play for the Star.
The reason I feel that way was in a story I wrote about Darren Woodson earlier this year. This is what being a warrior is all about in 2000:
That story was all I could think about as Lamb tried to run back to the huddle with his arm throbbing. Lamb showed me something on an otherwise-poor day in Atlanta.
I am not trying to sell you on this team because from here, it seems utterly forgettable. But, for those who want to look for signs of what is ahead, hopefully that handful will give you something and will have to do for now. Let’s hope some reinforcements arrive in time for dealing with the Eagles on Sunday.
