National Football League

Defense wins for Dallas, but should offensive struggles be a concern?

Updated Dec. 20, 2021 8:32 p.m. ET

The Dallas Cowboys have now won their third game in a row after taking care of the New York Giants 21-6 on Sunday.

With the victory, Dallas strengthened its already iron grip on the NFC East and moved into the No. 2 seed on the NFC's playoff ladder.

But while the game's final tally represented a comfortable margin of victory, the team's on-field display was anything but that.

Dallas was locked in a back-and-forth dogfight with New York for the majority of the contest.

Despite collecting six turnovers, Dallas was only able to convert one of those into six points. The rest of its 15 points off TOs came from Greg Zuerlein field goals — from 26, 42 and 27 yards out — in the first half.

The team's touchdown woes continued in the second half. After consecutive drives that produced minimal results, Dallas finally broke through in the TD column again late in the third.

And still, the Giants had several chances of their own to climb back into contention in the fourth.

Dallas went three-and-out on its next possession. When the Cowboys got the ball back, Dak Prescott fumbled it, losing control after a rattling blind-side hit from Lorenzo Carter. That gave the Giants the ball on Dallas' 27-yard line, but the Cowboys' defense again saved the day, swooping in to collect another momentum-shifting takeaway.

Trevon Diggs was the hero this time, leaping in the air and flashing his natural receiving skills to make off with his 10th interception of the season — the same number of INTs the team's defense was able to muster as a unit last season.

The pivotal turnover marked Dallas' fifth of the contest, and on New York's next try, the Cowboys registered their sixth.

It was an emphatic finale to a dominant display designed by Dan Quinn.

On the other side of the ball, however, Kellen Moore's offensive scheme has struggled mightily to re-salvage the magic that was once the calling card of his regime.

And Prescott knows it.

"You'll take a win however you can get it," Prescott said post-game. "We have high standards and expectations for ourselves. The defense went out there and played their tails off. They got a lot of turnovers, and we've got to convert those into touchdowns. The defense is playing ridiculous. The front seven are all ball-hungry."

He went on to laud the play of his running back tandem.

"The offensive line was physical, and Pollard and Zeke did the rest."

But while they've been stellar in the ground game, Prescott himself has been the offense's weakest link as of late. And it's an entirely different output from the one he produced early in the season.

Through his first 10 games, Prescott threw for 2,932 yards (293.2 YPG), 22 TDs and seven INTs. In his last three contests, he's managed 666 yards (222.0 YPG), three TDs and three INTs. In fact, the offense has only scored five touchdowns over its last three games, while the defense has scored two. Cowboys wide receivers have just two receiving TDs over their last five contests as well.

As a result, Shannon Sharpe's rating of Dallas' offense Sunday dipped below zero.

"I don't know what's going on with Dak," he said Monday on "Undisputed."

"For the second week in a row, he turned the ball over, when all you're trying to do is run out the clock and get out of there. Last week it was a pick-six. This week, he got outside of the pocket and got stripped from behind. That has to be concerning. I like what the defense is doing. … But the question that I have is, when is the Cowboys' offense going to hold up their end of the bargain?

Skip Bayless was left unimpressed as well.

"Dak Prescott is still in a horrendous, inexplicable slump," he said. "He was having trouble throwing swing passes accurately. Backs are having to reach down at their feet. When I look at the stats and see that the three wideouts have 11 catches for 90 yards? I looked at the triplet at the beginning of the year and said, ‘It’s the best in the league.' Not [Sunday].

"My defense is now my offense. It just kept giving Dak gimmes."

The Cowboys' defense has picked up the slack in Prescott's wake. Quinn's group has 23 interceptions this season (most in the NFL), while registering 31 takeaways (tied with Colts for most in the NFL). The Cowboys have at least four takeaways in each of their last three games.

The troupe possesses elite talent at every level. Demarcus Lawrence's pass-rushing talent is exceptionally unique, Micah Parsons is a candidate for Defensive Player of the Year, and Diggs' 10 interceptions is the most by a Cowboy since Everson Walls nabbed 11 in 1981.

But still, if this team is going to compete and beat the NFL's elite, it's going to need more from Prescott.

As FOX Sports NFL Analyst Geoff Schwartz wrote: "Through six weeks, he was fourth in quarterback efficiency and looking like the player he's paid to be. Then came the calf injury. Since his return in Week 9, Prescott is 29th in those same efficiency numbers among QBs with at least 100 snaps. That is not going to cut it for the playoffs."

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