In the biggest disappointment for Dallas this season, the Denver Broncos beat up the Cowboys 44-24 in what can only be described as a complete dud.
America’s Team headed into Mile High as underdogs, but a blowout was far from the expectations after an impressive win over the Washington Commanders in Week 7.
Alas, the Boys were clearly outmatched by a rugged and disciplined Broncos team. This was a match-up of two teams on opposite ends of the football spectrum.
In a blowout, finger-pointing is inevitable, but this was a group effort through and through. The offense and defense both played at their lowest level, though the historically bad D was clearly the worst unit of the day.
To recap this one, let’s go through the offense, defense, and coaching performances that led to this critical mid-season loss.
Offensive Woes: Denver D Slams Door Against Run & Pass
It’s hard to fault the Dallas offense entirely when the defense gives up 44 points, and the Broncos unit is one of the best in football, but they were just not good enough.
To start the game, Dak Prescott & Co. got the ball off an opening turnover, and they failed to punch in a crucial seven points in favor of a chip-shot field goal. They need a touchdown there.
They followed that drive with two consecutive punts that put them in a 14-3 hole.
That drought was ended with a six-minute touchdown drive to former Bronco Javonte Williams, but that became the final meaningful score for Dallas.
Two interceptions and two punts followed that drive, while a third-quarter score and garbage-time Joe Milton III bomb to Jalen Tolbert added points to the inevitable final score.
Give the Broncos defense credit, but don’t excuse blame from Prescott, the offensive line, the play-calling, etc.
Defensive Disaster: Complete Obliteration For League-Worst Defense
If you were able to stomach watching this Cowboys’ defense for all four quarters, you deserve some kind of medal. That was as ugly as ugly gets.
They did force that opening drive turnover, as Trikweze Bridges intercepted Bo Nix, but the throw was terrible, and they weren’t able to replicate that kind of performance for the remainder of the game.
In the eight drives that followed that turnover, excluding the halftime kneeldown, the Broncos dominated Dallas for seven scores.
Dallas gave up nearly 200 yards on the ground, despite Jerry Jones’ insistence that the run defense was fixed by Kenny Clark, and Bo Nix went for 247 yards and four passing touchdowns.
It was, in no uncertain terms, a demolition. The Cowboys’ defense was punished today.
Coaching Mismatch: Rookie HC Clearly Out-Done By Sean Payton
We knew this was a possibility, but it was worse than I expected.
Brian Schottenheimer, a rookie head coach, seemed to either be too cautious or too excessive in his playcalling, which resulted in almost no rhythm for the entire game.
Sean Payton, on the other hand, had his guys ready to go and firing on all cylinders. The offense was humming, and the decision-making was on point.
It was just a mismatch between two head coaches on opposite ends of the NFL coaching spectrum.
All in all, it was a very disappointing result for a team that seemed like it was coming together after a very rough start. That narrative has been proven wrong, and barring something unexpected, you can’t reasonably call this group a contender.
The offense has to be perfect to keep up with the defense, and that is hard to do in this league; the defense is rarely just mediocre; the coaching staff is young and untested in hard matchups like this one.
Dallas moves to 3-4-1 heading into Week 9, where they will take on the Arizona Cardinals.
Was this helpful?
2 Comments