Always the horses, seldom the jockey...
Daily Commentary on the Dallas Sports Scene - By Bob Sturm - Sportsradio 1310, The Ticket - The Athletic Dallas - The Athletic - Bob Sturm
"I witnessed every single snap of the Mike McCarthy era in Green Bay. It isn’t often that the two teams that I follow most closely in the NFL overlap, but this is probably the most significant one in a long, long time (no disrespect to Randall Cobb intended). They have one of the most historic and intense rivalries in the entire sport, and given that I was born in Wisconsin and raised on Packers football only to eventually earn a job following the Cowboys for a living in 1998, I may be in a unique position."
The Morning After - Nothing Changes Because Nothing Changes
During the good times, you never appreciate how difficult it is for your heroes to make you happy. You don't know how taking down their rivals was next to impossible, because they made it look pretty simple. You had Troy Aikman, Emmitt Smith, and Michael Irvin and the other team didn't. Simple. You win. You had Roger Staubach, Tony Dorsett, and Drew Pearson. Easy. You win again.
They made football look easy, even when it wasn't. If they didn't win the whole thing each year, they sure came close, it seemed. You didn't have to slay the dragon all of those years. You were the dragon. The NFL was your kingdom and Dallas Cowboys Football would live forever.
Over two decades later, we still have the tall tales of their conquests. We still have the momentos and the memories of those banners and trophies that make the franchise what it is today - one of the biggest brands on the planet. The mere value of the organization is such that there is nothing for sale that the franchise cannot afford 10 times over. This is verified by frequent projects that are erected all over North Texas that show the rest of the NFL that a sporting franchise doesn't have to stop at mere football. It can showcase art, architecture, and grandiose wealth in such a way that would make small countries jealous of resources and surplus.
But, as your grandmother would tell you, there are some things that money cannot buy. Evidently, conquering the NFL again is one of them. Given that this organization will continue to wander the wilderness for at least a 22nd season without so much as a trip to a NFC Championship game - let alone another Super Bowl - we can surmise that buying another "Sky Mirror" will have to suffice, rather than a new chapter of NFL dominance. When locals who already have their own children have never actually seen you crack the NFL's version of the "Final Four", then we realize the truth - that the current state of affairs continue to reveal that while the trophies will always sparkle, the need to expand the trophy case may once again be put on hold.
And so it goes for the Dallas Cowboys. Just when you think they cracked the code to find their way back, they come back to earth in a thud that makes you want to think about something else.
Lucky for you, it is Christmas. You literally have the greatest distraction day of the year available to you. Unless you were hoping to unwrap a nice playoff berth this morning.
That is not going to be possible. Once again, with everything to play for, this team proved they cannot win a home game when needed. Sure, they did take down three home wins this season. In September, they defeated the New York Giants. In November, the Kansas City Chiefs were taken down. And again, on the final day of that same month, they beat the Washington Redskins.
Unfortunately, they also lost to the Rams, Packers, Eagles, Chargers, and now Seahawks on home turf, which meant they went 3-5 at home. Playoff teams almost never go 3-5 at home and the Cowboys insured that stat will be safe because they are not going to the playoffs. If you want to feel extra depressed, you should know that yesterday was the 75th time the Cowboys have played a home game at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, and during that spell they are a mere 39-36 overall (including playoff games). Take away that 7-2 in the opening season of the stadium in 2009 (the final full season of Wade Phillips), and since the first year of the Jason Garrett era the Cowboys hold a home record of 32-34. That would seem to be awfully problematic.
If you are wondering just how problematic, here you go. Since 2010, the Cowboys rank 24th in the NFL in home win percentage. They are better than just the Raiders, Bears, Rams, Redskins, Titans, Jaguars, Buccaneers, and Browns. But, when 5 franchises - the Patriots, Seahawks, Packers, Ravens, and Steelers are winning 70% or more of their home games, and you are winning 48% of yours, you see where the biggest issue sits.
They have constructed the greatest stadium that money could buy and allow the opponents to win more often inside it than they do. If any truth best describes the modern era of Dallas Cowboys football, this might be it.
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So, there they were. Yet again, in a spot where maybe they could pull their disappointing season from the fire. The Cowboys held a halftime lead, but as soon as the 3rd Quarter began, the Cowboys 2nd offensive snap turned into a Seattle go-ahead Touchdown with an ill-advised throw from Dak Prescott to Ezekiel Elliott was tossed well over his head and into the path of an oncoming defensive back. 30 yards later, Justin Coleman is jumping into the Salvation Army pot and the Seahawks are ahead for good.
The offense was not done giving the ball away, however. After the first turnover where Dez Bryant allowed the ball to be punched away and after the second turnover where Dak airmailed a pretty simple pass to Coleman, they killed the buzz of the stadium late in the third quarter with a third turnover. This time, on 2nd and 12 from the Seahawks 25 - in a spot where the Cowboys were poised to take a lead, Prescott's short pass to Bryant on a crosser made the receiver reach back to catch it, but both hands were on the ball. We can debate whether the throw or the catch was more to blame, or we can offer the common-sense approach to the tandem this year: They both share the blame like they do the entirety of 2017. Anyone who wishes to isolate one's role from the other is grasping at straws and missing the very essence of the sport.
Dak Prescott has been very poor at times this season when so much was put on his shoulders. He did not quiet the critics who feared he was a product of the game situation for this team. If they keep him ahead of the score and ahead of the chains, he would be fine. But, put him in a spot where he had to do what QBs frequently must do - make lemonade out of lemons - they would reveal him to be rather limited at the highest level. He has taken a major step back this year and has to get guys like me who were very impressed with his football IQ a few weeks back to reevaluate our thoughts moving forward.
Dez Bryant has been poor for large swaths of the last three years. We have discussed why this is and the many logical reasons and excuses why he no longer measures close to the other elite receivers in the game. But, after a 3-year span of 3,935 yards and 41 touchdowns, he signed one of the richest contracts his position has ever seen. Since then, he is about to complete another 3-year span, which with 1 game to go, has 2,012 yards and 17 touchdowns. That no longer leads the industry - not even close. In fact, it is 15 yards more in that span than Terrance Williams and 58 yards less than Sammy Watkins. It ranks 42nd in the NFL which sounds about right, unfortunately. And nobody disputes his special play in the red zone leading to touchdowns galore, but he isn't even the top 20 in that stat over those three years and once again trails guys like Sammy Watkins, Kyle Rudolph, and Kenny Stills in touchdowns over that span (let alone DeAndre Hopkins who might tell you how important QBs are to his stats).
So, was that pass Dak's fault or Dez's fault? It doesn't matter. The organization counts on both of them and they both failed this season - despite their intentions.
To be fair, they aren't alone. Ezekiel Elliott is the golden boy who nobody who resides locally seems interested in holding accountable for his role in this season. He has been portrayed as a complete victim, despite his repeated behavior WHILE BEING INVESTIGATED. I'm sorry, but I won't be able to get past that fact for a long time that while the NFL is looking into your actions for discipline, you give them more actions to consider. It all seems incredibly dense, to be honest.
If that wasn't enough, when he returned to the field - with 200-yard projections dancing in his head - he forgot the part of his job that made some want to draft him so high. He is excellent at pass protection, we were told. He will always get that blitzing defender blocked. Well, unfortunately, with the season hanging from a thread, he busted on several blitzes yesterday. Apparently, the mental reps were not available in Cabo and he came back looking completely ill-equipped to know what the Seahawks had planned to rock Dak Prescott on 3rd downs. If Prescott looked a little rattled, it might have something to do with his RB not knowing who to block on no fewer than 3 different blitzes.
So, the moment that will forever be paired with this disappointing loss will go back to the 1st and goal at the 3-yard line in the 3th Quarter. Because of the three giveaways - all three put into the endzone as Seahawks touchdowns, by the way - the Seahawks were up 21-12. But, there was still time. Just get this 1st and goal into the end zone and perhaps everything will be fine. Surely, between the aforementioned touchdown makers - Dez Bryant and Ezekiel Elliott - the Cowboys would get this lead down to 21-19 with plenty of time to save the day.
Instead, neither would touch the ball. Dak kept the ball on the RPO keeper for a yard. Then, on 2nd down, they decide to pass the ball on the rollout, but Jason Witten is called for a massive holding penalty because pass protection has been an issue all day long. Now, it is 2nd down from the 12. You are now out of running territory. On 2nd and 12, Byron Bell gets rolled like Chaz Green by Frank Clark and Dak goes down again. 3rd and goal from the 23 means no chance, and the day was made awful by a Dan Bailey missed FG from short range.
Perhaps, Dan Bailey's year is actually the perfect metaphor for the season. I am losing track now.
But, with the season on the line, neither Ezekiel Elliott nor Dez Bryant factor in. How this happens is anyone's sad guess. The Cowboys turned the ball over three times and come up short in a game that means everything.
Unfortunately, we have seen butchered offensive execution and self-inflicted wounds so often in the Jason Garrett and Scott Linehan era that we sometimes minimize their roles. But, as Troy Aikman said yesterday, if Dak Prescott is making decisions that you don't agree with as coach, then it is up to you to take those decisions back from him. This isn't that complicated unless you make it so.
And, repeatedly, under Jason Garrett, the Cowboys make the simple appear complex. You could do worse than him as your head coach, but I am under the belief that it seems time to consider doing better.
But, as always, the case when discussing Cowboys football, every time you try to follow the trail to the true culprit, the trail continues to a bigger culprit. Is it your QB? Or is it his boss? Is it your OC? Or is it his boss? Is it your head coach? Or is it his boss? Oh, yes. Here we are again looking at Jerry Jones again.
The more things change, the more they stay the same. We will not blame Tony Romo for this one or Wade Phillips or Dave Campo or Quincy Carter. Only one thing ties 22 years of Cowboys disappointment together and the stubbornness to try a different route.
Instead, we line up each July for another trip of speeding directly into the same concrete wall by January that this organization has so steadfastly defended all these years.
In fact, we just inducted that concrete wall into the Hall of Fame to verify that all the methods were correct.
It is so maddening and yet so familiar. Nothing changes, and therefore, nothing changes.
Go do something else today. It is Christmas.
And this Dallas Cowboys mess will be right where we left it tomorrow morning.
Oakland Raiders quarterback Derek Carr (4) fumbles the ball into the end zone after getting shoved by Dallas Cowboys safety Jeff Heath (38) during the fourth quarter of a game in Oakland, Calif., on Sunday, Dec. 17, 2017. (AP Photo/Ben Margot)
The Morning After
At the end of just about every football game, we have a winning team and a losing team. The winning team feels great joy or relief that it emerged with the only thing that seemed important at the beginning of the proceedings.
The losing team did not accomplish its mission. No matter how close it came and no matter the brief smiles expressed along the way, the overwhelming takeaway from the energy investment will be failure and regret.
And with both teams feeling that their season was hanging by a thread, and that victory was the only way to avoid a free fall to the end, we saw a magnificent contest Sunday night in Oakland.
No, it was not aesthetically pleasing to the eye at all points. No, coaching clinics on how football is supposed to be played are not likely to be based on this contest. And no, it will not rank among the most important games on the way to the Super Bowl.
But for me, Cowboys-Raiders was about as memorable a game as you can possibly offer. And for the Cowboys to survive it -- however much Lady Luck had to intervene -- suggests that perhaps the coffin is not completely closed on 2017 after all.
The Cowboys won in a game that had more talking points than most months offer in the NFL. They survived a game that was asking to be won but threatening to be lost for the entire second half. And, quite possibly, the person who was most responsible for winning the game was the man who had the most riding on the outcome: Jason Garrett.
Garrett is finishing his seventh full season as head coach of the Dallas Cowboys and his eighth overall. He has built something here in Dallas, but it is difficult to properly know what that actually is. Is it a powerful young team that will be a contender for several years in the NFC, or is it an underachieving bunch that will always let you down the moment you begin to build expectations? In other words, is the sum total of the Jason Garrett Cowboys a basic run to 8-8 each season with variations that eventually cancel each other out back to the center of .500 football?
At 66-52 now, the Cowboys are much better than .500, but they also do not quite edge into the top 10 of the league since Garrett's tenure began. They have been "good," but probably not quite "very good," while "great" sits several streets down from them. They are in better shape than they were, but you could argue that three weeks ago, the Cowboys should have considered going in a different direction if the season did not quickly take an altered path.
To the credit of Garrett's staff, they quickly sorted things after the Thanksgiving debacle and have now run off three consecutive wins against the Redskins, Giants and Raiders. Perhaps the caliber of the opponents should be taken into consideration, but after not scoring in double figures the three weeks prior, there should be no real reason to look this gift horse too closely in the mouth.
But Sunday night, we saw a great example of what you pay a coach to do. A head coach in the NFL has many tasks, but one reason why you would ever consider paying him as much as the Cowboys pay Garrett is to figure out how to win the game. Garrett seldom seems like the best coach on the field and, frankly, there have been more than a few occasions when you could not believe how badly he was outcoached by the guy across the field.
Not in Oakland. I thought there were some moments when Garrett knew he had to win this game and decided that fortune would favor the bold. We don't believe in outcome-based analysis when we can handle it, and we also don't know how different this column might be if your fake punt scheme is unsuccessful, but it did work -- and the Raiders were clearly as stunned as anyone watching this game.
A trick play is only a trick play if it catches the opponent napping, and if Jimmy Johnson would have been the head coach for a fake punt on fourth and 11 from his own 24, the statue would already be standing this morning. Just to be clear, procedurally, the play was very likely Chris Jones seeing something that was authorized in meetings and not an actual call from Garrett's headset, but when preparation meets opportunity in the NFL, games are won or lost. And when they are won, we hold the coach up for having his guys ready to win the game. That fake punt was one of many moments when the Cowboys had their opponents caught with their proverbial pants down, and it ended up leading to a massive swing in the game.
In fact, two drives later, with the game tied 17-17 late in the fourth quarter, the Cowboys had another opportunity to demonstrate an aversion to risk. Instead, they rolled the bones out there once again and decided to go for it on a fourth down at their own 39-yard line. Dak Prescott burrowed his way to what appeared to be a first down, but the guesswork of the officials makes that more of a rough estimate than an exact science. So to then see the referee, Gene Steratore, use a folded piece of paper to determine the measurement -- and possibly the entire game -- shows you that it is a game of centimeters more than inches. Steratore has a way of showing up at crazy games, as you may remember him as the head referee in the "Dez Caught It" playoff game at the end of the 2014 season, along with many others.
Evidently, the paper was wide enough to assure Steratore that the ball had made the 40, and the Cowboys' drive would survive long enough for Prescott to hit a big pass to Dez Bryant down the sideline on a second-and-8 call, taking them down to the 5-yard line. The Cowboys were unable to punch the ball in from the 5 with three straight gives to Alfred Morris -- Rod Smith is my short-yardage back in situations like that, but the staff must disagree -- and the Cowboys had to settle for a field goal from short range and believe their defense could get a stop to win 20-17. Not getting a touchdown from that close of a range seemed to be asking for a painful ending to the last-gasp effort of keeping their season alive.
The defense then came about as close as it possibly could to succumbing to the Raiders in the final 98 seconds. First, Anthony Brown dropped yet another interception in a spot where that would have absolutely declared the game over. He is an interesting young player with some positive attributes, but he has consistently left you wanting more when the ball hits him in the chest late in games. They did force Oakland into a fourth-and-10 from its own 30-yard line, but Michael Crabtree -- no stranger to last-moment performances in his long career -- was able to coax Jourdan Lewis into a 55-yard pass interference penalty (the single-longest penalty call in the NFL this entire season!) and move the Raiders right down to the red zone with plenty of time to punch it in, or, at worst, force overtime.
On second and 3 from the 8-yard line, Jeff Heath gets in front of a pass in the end zone to Crabtree with 39 seconds left. This puts Oakland in a spot where it needs a fresh set of downs more than it needs to worry about the touchdown. There is still all sorts of time, and Oakland has no worries if it can move the chains one more time ...
... which makes the final outcome all the more confusing. Derek Carr, the Raiders' $125 million quarterback, has the game at his fingertips once he breaks contain to his right and slips away from DeMarcus Lawrence's grasp. He was on the run and easily picked up the first down, and he easily could have stepped out at the 3, or maybe even the 2-yard line. Instead, as Heath is trying to close him down, he decides to reach for the pylon in desperation. But why? There is no reason to be so desperate with more than 30 seconds to play, a timeout in hand, a first down gained and the sideline right there. Why did Carr go all-in for no real reason?
A momentary lapse of reason, we must surmise. Carr reached out for the pylon and the ball left his grasp. When it did, it went forward and out of the end zone. Touchback was the easy call, and the game ended in the most unlikely of ways.
If you are the Raiders this morning, you are wondering if your quarterback just made one of the dumbest decisions in the history of your franchise's quarterbacking decisions. That was not the type of thing that makes you happy you made him one of the richest players in the league. There was no reason for him to risk the game on one moment when he still had plenty of moments in reserve.
But he did. And because of that, the Cowboys' season lives.
That, and the fact that Cole Beasley denied a pick-six by touching Sean Smith's chinstrap. And the width of a folded piece of paper. And Chris Jones' run on a fake punt.
The Cowboys won the game Sunday night despite another 0/0 game. These are becoming way too common down the stretch for the defense, as "0/0" means the defense recorded zero sacks and zero takeaways. There had been only one such game in the past five years before the past 30-day stretch, when the Cowboys have done it three times (vs. the Eagles, Chargers and Raiders). They would have done it a fourth time against the Giants in Week 14 if not for a few garbage-time picks. That is a very disconcerting reality about this defense.
However, the Cowboys got the win. We don't totally know how they got the win, but they did.
It was part playmaking, part coaching and part pure football luck. When Steratore gives you the call, you take it and don't look back.
I was asked where the Cowboys go from here. Well, I assume they go to the front door to let Ezekiel Elliott back into the facility and get ready for their final two games. Anything can happen down the stretch, and the Cowboys still need some help.
But after winning that ridiculous game Sunday night, we wonder if things are starting to align for them at just the right moment.
Dallas Cowboys head coach Jason Garrett exits the field after losing to the Philadelphia Eagles 37-9 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas on Sunday, November 19, 2017. (Vernon Bryant/The Dallas Morning News)
The Morning After
You would like to have a nice, long list of excuses ready. Perhaps you can blame the refs or the league or the weather or something a little more creative.
You would like to think if the teams met on the same field in one week the results would go the other direction.
You would like all of that to be true.
But honestly, three hours of football at the Death Star on Sunday night seemed to reveal some completely different findings -- the Cowboys and Eagles are teams going in completely different directions right now, and the difference between the two does not appear to be terribly close.
The Cowboys were stomped on Sunday night. There is really no nice way to put it.
After somehow finding themselves in the lead at the intermission, the Eagles decided that the game was over by putting the ball in the end zone on three consecutive drives to start the second half, with drives totaling 75, 90 and 85 yards. They never got the ball in a better position than their own 25-yard line and ran 24 plays right down the Cowboys' throats to the tune of 250 yards (10.4 yards per snap during that stretch). The Cowboys responded to that fireworks show with a punt, another punt and, finally, a sack and fumble that was returned for the Eagles' fourth touchdown of the second half.
And like that, it was over.
The Cowboys were humbled offensively in Atlanta the week before. This is likely an appropriate time to point out that the absences of Ezekiel Elliott and Tyron Smith have been felt at a more severe level than this author had hoped. The belief that the "next man up" could at least keep the Cowboys' offense from looking like an expansion team's first try at playing football appears to have vanished into thin air.
They can't move the ball at all.
Against Atlanta, they had a season low in yardage (233 yards) and in yards per snap (3.94). They had a week to work on it and were returning home to take on a division rival. How would they do? Well, against Philadelphia, they again set a season low in yardage (225 yards) and in yards per snap (3.57). Instead of giving up eight sacks and committing two turnovers, they decided to get a little more creatively symmetrical and go with four sacks and four turnovers.
It would be disingenuous to avoid talking about the quarterback position in this game, because as the night went along, it was painfully clear that the team with the quarterback who performed at a higher level was going to win the game. Carson Wentz did not play the best game of his career or even this season or this month. The fact is that Wentz is everything the Eagles could have dreamed of him being halfway through his second season and more. He is exactly what the Cowboys thought he was when they examined him so carefully at the Senior Bowl in January 2016, when they were so heavily linked to him.
They loved him, we heard. They would take him if he fell to No. 4, we heard. But they didn't love him enough to trade up to get him. They still had Tony Romo, and the price to move from No. 4 to No. 2 would be too steep, anyway. They would take the running back, and soon enough you will see why.
Well, the Eagles felt they should trade up for Wentz. They felt so strongly they traded up twice to go get him. First, they pulled the trigger to move from No. 13 to No. 8 in the first round with the Miami Dolphins on March 9, 2016, in a trade that also moved two Chip Kelly guys -- linebacker Kiko Alonso and cornerback Byron Maxwell -- to South Florida. Then, on April 20, they pulled the trigger to jump in front of Dallas, too. They sent pick No. 8 and four others (including their 2017 first-rounder -- the pick that ended up being Deshaun Watson) to Cleveland to go get Wentz at No. 2.
They had to know that they were giving up so much to get him that perhaps there would be nobody left to play with him. Luckily, they were able to sell off some other assets from the Kelly era (including the amazing Sam Bradford heist) to salvage picks and decided to get very aggressive in the market. They also had to know that jumping the Cowboys to get Wentz was a great way to make sure he was playing for you, rather than against you, when the rivals butt heads for the next decade or so.
The Cowboys stood pat. They had their guy, too. They would get their quarterback of the future later. Romo would be fine for years, anyway. You know the story from there. They wanted Paxton Lynch and Connor Cook and ended up with Dak Prescott, who then had Romo break in front of him and went on to roll right through his first 24 games at a very high level before Elliott's six-game suspension began. Since that started two weeks ago, the Cowboy have scored one touchdown on the 23 offensive drives they have recorded.
One. Two games, one touchdown. That isn't going to compete well against the NFC team that was in last year's Super Bowl and the NFC team that, perhaps, is headed to this year's Super Bowl.
Prescott and the offense couldn't take advantage of their chances. Both quarterbacks had a rough first half, but when Wentz got going, Prescott and his receivers had no answers. The argument I made a few weeks ago that Prescott would be fine and would feed off this challenge looks like it was beaten out of him in Atlanta. He had a few moments in these two games, but overall, his uncanny ability to find a moment on each drive to prolong the march has disappeared. He turned the ball over more than ever before and he made decisions that get you beat.
In this space two weeks ago, we talked about how the Cowboys did something against Kansas City that was uncharacteristic, to say the least. At their own 13, facing a third-and-15 late in the second quarter, they decided to try to go find the play and Prescott gunned a 21-yard pass in traffic to Dez Bryant. Two plays later, they were in the end zone. This risk-averse team had just shown the interest in being aggressive and rolling the dice and trusting its quarterback to make a great throw at a great moment.
So, here we go to last night. Same spot on the field. Same down and distance, pretty much (third and 17 from their own 18-yard line). If I was thinking it from my seat, and the Cowboys were thinking it as they discussed the next call, you had to know that Jim Schwartz and the Eagles were thinking about it, too. The Cowboys called the exact same look and the exact same basic route concept from Bryant, who was aligned opposite the trips right and working against a defense that basically knew the ball was headed to him. If we will champion the throw against Kansas City, it would be with the idea that this is the type of play that can get you beat, but wow, you got away with it. I don't know if you can go right back to that premise in your very next home game. Same situation, you try the same thing, and the Eagles can' t believe you are going to try that again. Prescott did -- this time the ball was not as well-placed -- and if Ronald Darby didn't pick it off, Malcolm Jenkins would have.
Brutal decision. The Eagles lined up seven guys in their secondary who were waiting for you to try that Kansas City throw against them. And you actually threw it there, anyway?
In a 7-6 ballgame early in the second quarter, that is rookie quarterback stuff that will get you beat. Luckily, he doesn't do that type of stuff very often, but that was as disconcerting a decision he has made that I can recall. There is no reason to force the ball, or the issue. You are in a one-point game at home with the entire night left to go. You can't lose sight of the risk vs. reward. He did. Badly. I understand wanting to be the hero, but if you start playing "hero ball" when it isn't there, that is how teams end up with losses that were unforced. Desperation gets you beat in this league.
Now, back to Wentz, who was likely concussed early in the game when he was knocked from Maliek Collins to the knee/thigh of DeMarcus Lawrence in that same second quarter. He went on a stretch where he looked very poor up until halftime. But coming out of the half, he was fantastic.
Wentz threw just nine passes in the second half, mind you. For 88 yards. But during that second half, he missed only two throws -- both on first down. Meanwhile, he faced six third-down situations and converted five of them with some remarkable throws. One went for a touchdown to Torrey Smith that also had a defensive holding call. One went to Brent Celek on a third-and-1 that gained 28 yards. Two conversions went to Alshon Jeffery, and one was a keeper, where Wentz did it himself. The one time they didn't move the chains, he came and fired another touchdown to Jeffrey on a fourth-and-5. So, on third or fourth downs in the second half, Wentz was 6 for 6 for 82 yards, two touchdowns and a nice, perfect passer rating of 158.3.
You aren't going to beat him when he does that.
One team had the better quarterback and strategic setup for the game. The Eagles were inside the Cowboys' playbook and knew what the Cowboys were doing before they did. Dallas is comfortable with that most weeks because they know they are good enough offensively to run right at you and you not be able stop it.
But the Eagles can. Especially without Elliott and Tyron Smith. Meanwhile, the beat goes on for the defense, which was gashed for a season-worst 215 yards on the ground by an Eagles offense that had no runner with more than 13 carries or 91 yards. It was an ensemble effort that ground the Cowboys' defense without Sean Lee into a fine powder. The Eagles' 6.52 yards per carry was the worst of the season but similar to the 6.4 the Packers got and the 5.4 the Rams got -- also games the Cowboys played without Lee.
And yet, personnel issues are all over this league. The Eagles have dealt with plenty themselves, so they don't wish to hear about your fine left tackle (Jason Peters) or linebacker (Jordan Hicks) or even the running back (Darren Sproles) who is missing. Save it for someone who is totally healthy in this league. Which is pretty much nobody.
In the history of the Death Star, the Cowboys have been beaten three times by 20 or more points: last night by 28; by 24 in 2015 against the Patriots; and by 23 on Thanksgiving 2014 against the Eagles. In fact, six of the worst eight home defeats since 2000 have come against the Eagles (2000, 2001, 2002, 2004, 2014 and 2017).
This one seemed avoidable. Alas, it surely wasn't. The Eagles are on their way to something bigger. The Cowboys are on their way to nowhere if they don't get a hold of their season, fast. This is why you pay your head coach $6 million per year. He has to have solutions. Offensively, for sure. Defensively, you would hope.
Unfortunately, it seems clear that Jason Garrett doesn't really have any solutions to speak of when this team is even slightly shorthanded. And that, as this season now appears to hang by a thread, is a massive problem.
