Dallas Cowboys: Three Thoughts from Week Fourteen
The Dallas Cowboys are coming off a gut wrenching loss against the New York Giants. Here are some other thoughts from Week Fourteen. Dec 11, 2016; East Rutherford, NJ, USA; New York Giants running back Rashad Jennings (23) is tackled by Dallas Cowboys corner back Brandon Carr (39) and Dallas Cowboys linebacker Anthony Hitchens (59) during the second quarter at MetLife Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports The Dallas Cowboys are coming off of a serious gut check after getting defeated by the New York Giants in New York. Now the Cowboys at 11-2 will attempt to get their offense back on track as they look to wrap up a first round bye and another NFC East title.The Cowboys will face the surging Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Week Fifteen so the team will need to be playing at a playoff caliber level. This contest will say a lot about both of these franchises as they get ready for the postseason.
Playoff caliber defensive performance from Dallas
This defense deserved a win here, as this was easily their best performance of the season. Cowboys linebacker Sean Lee had an especially productive game with 11 tackles as he seemed to be everywhere on Sunday.
Rookie cornerback Anthony Brown proved that he belongs under the bright lights of NFL football after recording an clutch interception while having an overall stellar night.
He should be a big factor going forward as the Cowboys continue to rebuild their secondary. Free agent acquisition Benson Mayowa recorded a sack and a timely forced fumble.
These defensive players or “Orphans” as Rod Marinelli likes to refer to them hit hard, and play football the right way. If the Cowboys won, a game ball should have gone to the entire defensive unit.
Hopefully this play continues as Dallas moves on to face their final three opponents in the regular season.
Dec 11, 2016; East Rutherford, NJ, USA; Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott (4) throws out of his own end zone against the New York Giants during the fourth quarter at MetLife Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports
A cause for pause with Rayne Dakota Prescott
All of the talk around the Cowboys this week is that of their young quarterback Dak Prescott. Seemingly overnight he went from an MVP candidate to the main concern of Cowboys fans. Prescott’s play has slipped in recent weeks but this is only because of the defenses he has faced.
The last two contests against the Minnesota Vikings and New York Giants have been extremely physical and taxing on this football team as a whole. Both the Vikings and Giants defenses have played playoff caliber football in December and have leaned on their defenses for the better part of the 2016 season.
Prescott continues to have some of the best production at the quarterback position regardless of the opponent. Dak is third overall in the NFL at the quarterback position when it comes to his quarterback rating. The only two players ahead of him are Atlanta Falcons quarterback, Matt Ryan and New England Patriots quarterback/ overall NFL legend, Tom Brady, that is pretty impressive.
The list of starting quarterbacks behind him is staggering and includes everyone from Aaron Rodgers and Drew Brees to Derek Carr and Ben Roethlisberger. Now sure, Prescott does not have a lot of attempts throwing the ball, but typically that is what is supposed to happen when a team has the number one running back in the NFL.
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At 23 years old in his rookie season, Dak has amassed 3,139 passing yards, 20 touchdowns, a 65.8 completion percentage, 218 yards running the football, five rushing touchdowns, and is averaging 4.5 yards per rushing attempt. The really mind blowing stat is that he has only thrown four interceptions, and out of the two that came on Sunday, only one was Prescott’s fault.
There is no doubt in my mind, if Cowboys star wide receiver, Dez Bryant does not fumble the football at the end of the game, Dak would have led this team on a game winning, fourth quarter drive. After all he has done that all season, his fourth quarter heroics have been legendary at times, against potent NFC East rivals.
Another way to look at things, this is the Cowboys second loss of the season with Prescott at the helm and neither have really been his fault. Prescott does not get enough credit especially as a driving force behind this teams attitude towards football. Cowboys veteran quarterback, Tony Romo has played well in the past, but the key word there is in the past.
When Romo was put back into the football game in 2015, even before his injury against the Carolina Panthers, he was off and Dallas barely beat a struggling Miami Dolphins team. Prescott has given this team not only new energy, but has been one of the architects of this 11-2 season.
The Cowboys with Prescott under center are multi-dimensional with how they win games, and not only that but they limit their mistakes. Dak should remain the starter for the rest of the season and into the playoffs because at the end of the day he is the prime factor that got this team to where they are, not to mention it is harder to find a more efficient and capable quarterback in the NFL today.
Dec 11, 2016; East Rutherford, NJ, USA; New York Giants wide receiver Odell Beckham (13) runs in the game winning touchdown against the Dallas Cowboys in the second half at MetLife Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Robert Deutsch-USA TODAY Sports
What exactly went wrong on Sunday
The main concern going into this week’s contest was the Giants ability to shut down the Cowboys running game. In Week Fourteen New York did just that and forced the Cowboys passing attack into a lot of bad situations. Lets not forget the weather did not help either, I was at this particular game and it was colder than it was in Minnesota. Both games ranged from 34 to 29 degrees Fahrenheit except the Giants have an outdoor stadium while the Vikings utilize a dome.
Plus the field was covered in a layer of ice and snow prior to the first possession, which made it tough to really dig your foot in the ground and push off. Now there are no excuses when it comes to football as on any given Sunday you can find yourself on top of the world or at the bottom of the barrel but with that said there was not much either team did to win this game.
It was a defensive battle from start to finish and the stats show exactly that. The difference in the two teams time of possession was one minute and forty-four seconds, so neither team really had the upper hand here. The first roadblock to a victory really came with the missed field goal from Dallas kicker, Dan Bailey.
The game was slow and both offenses struggled against hungry defenses but the kicking game was pretty much assumed to be productive no matter the situation at this point in the season. The problem was, this was a very long kick in inclement weather. Nothing about this was easy and Bailey still hit the ball perfectly as it traveled right down the middle of the field.
The icy conditions forced that ball to come down a bit faster than it would in Big D or anywhere else for that matter. The ball ended up bouncing off of the middle of the uprights which would leave the score going into half time 7-10. In the second half of the game both defenses showed up again as Dallas would go onto have one of their best performances of the season.
Timely takeaways kept Dallas in the game until the very end. The final play of the Cowboys last drive was an easy completion to Dez who had several defenders trailing him. Now much similar to the Terrence Williams situation in Week One, we had an unexpected turn of events.
Bryant would fumble the ball after being hit from a Giants defensive back, and considering this never happens, shocked even Giants fans at the stadium. Dak threw the ball perfectly into 88’s hands, he just could not hold onto the ball. Is it as infuriating as the Williams debacle in Week One? Slightly less so because it was a good defensive play that caused this to happen not a bone-headed mistake.
On one of Prescott’s interceptions Bryant slipped and the ball found its way right into the defensive backs arms. It was a costly game for Bryant however all star wide receivers have bad games and he will get passed this. All in all a good defense shut down the Cowboys run game which caused some miscues for the Cowboys passing attack.
