I haven't been truly bummed out over a Cowboys loss in over 3 years, but this one really hurts because we could have easily won this game, and it was a confirmation that our season really is over unless the rest of the division just flat out sucks every week along with us.
Our defense let us down today....big time. Weeden is limited and we all knew that, but if someone had told us we could have 28 points for this game - take it or leave it - we all would've jumped all over that deal and taken those 28 points. The way our defense had played the previous 2 weeks, we would have absolutely loved our chances to win this game in that scenario.
Instead, we had a defense that from the middle of the 2nd quarter onward could not stop the run or Julio Jones. Every run went for 8 yards or more it seemed, and apparently, we didn't get the note that Julio Jones is their best player and one of the most dangerous receivers in the league. Guys like that are gonna make plays no matter what you do, but damn......at some point you gotta start bracketing the guy and taking him completely out of the game.
It got so easy to get him the ball that for most of the afternoon, they didn't even attempt to throw it someone else! That's just pathetic.
There are 2 plays I would love to have back today. One was the first Weeden pick when we had all the momentum on our side and Atlanta had no answer for us, and the other is the Witten false start in the 3rd quarter when we started the drive on their 47. Those 2 plays not becoming negatives could've changed the outcome.
With that said, ultimately what cost us was the defense, and Weeden's limitations eventually catching up to us. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I only recall 2 intermediate throws for the entire game - one to Williams that was tipped and almost picked, and the 2nd to Witten when he was open and Weeden made a poor throw. Atlanta eventually figured out that we didn't trust him to throw the ball further than 8 yards down the field, so they loaded the box to stop the run and covered the underneath stuff, and from that point on, our goose was cooked.
Still, we might have been able to hold on had this defense played decently, but they were absolutely terrible and we had no chance to win a game like this with the defense performing that poorly.
The Saints game is the only winnable game I see over the next 4 or 5 weeks. Weeden's limitations will prevent us from doing anything significant, and teams will know this.
As sad as it is to say, our season is over. We won't survive the next 7 weeks. We're simply much too limited to do so.