Sunday was another loss for the Dallas Cowboys where important players let them down.
The Dallas Cowboys did not win on Sunday. The Cowboys loss against the Atlanta Falcons was my second improper prediction for the team on the year (Dallas’ loss against the New Orleans Saints being the other).
In spite of the mess the Cowboys offered up against the Falcons, there were technically some positive things. Obviously there were negatives as well which is where our stock report comes in.
Here is the stock report following Sunday’s loss against the Falcons.
Stock Up: Carl Lawson
It has been a rough go for the Cowboys with Micah Parsons, DeMarcus Lawrence and Marshawn Kneeland all missing so much time. Someone has had to step up in their absence and on Sunday that someone finally appeared.
Hello Carl Lawson!
BOOM CARL LAWSON
(via @NFL) pic.twitter.com/C9ekXvbPlJ
— Blogging The Boys (@BloggingTheBoys) November 3, 2024
Lawson forced a fumble at this point in the game when the Cowboys really needed it. That the resulting possession did not yield any points is obviously very frustrating, but it was impressive to see from someone, literally anyone, nonetheless.
Stock Up: Rico Dowdle
There was an awful lot of drama that went into who was made active among Dallas Cowboys running backs on Sunday which is quite the indication of where this team is in and of itself.
Whatever the case, Rico Dowdle got a chance to shine and made the most with his opportunity. He only scored one touchdown, but it was quite the score to say the least.
DAK TO RICO IS MAGIC
(via @NFL) pic.twitter.com/OuAry7aUil
— Blogging The Boys (@BloggingTheBoys) November 3, 2024
This was obviously a reception, but all told Dowdle had 12 carries that went for 75 yards. He was the first Cowboys running back to average at least 6.0 YPC with a minimum of 12 carries since Tony Pollard did it on Thanksgiving last year. The last player to do it before Pollard, though? It was Rico Dowdle just 11 days before against the New York Giants. He has earned his place.
Stock Up: Jourdan Lewis
The Cowboys have a lot of problems on defense, but they never seem to have one wherever Jourdan Lewis is asked to work. It is refreshing to see a player like Lewis hustling and bustling so deep into his NFL career. This is his eighth NFL season, all with the Cowboys, and he has never not given the team his all.
Amid all the chaos and dysfunction, subpar effort does not go by on his watch and did not in Atlanta.
Stock Up: Osa Odighizuwa
There is a case to be made that Osa Odighizuwa had the best individual game by a Dallas Cowboys defender on Sunday against the Falcons. Seriously.
He was a monster from a pressure standpoint, even when facing double teams. You cannot win an NFL game all by your lonesome, but wow he sure did try.
Dallas Cowboys DT Osa Odighizuwa had a team-high 7 pressures against the Atlanta Falcons, coming off of 22 total pass rushes.
This is the most in a game by a single Cowboys defender since Week 1.
Additionally, 4 of Osa’s 7 pressures came within 2.5 seconds of the snap. This was… pic.twitter.com/TNKltaxGMm
— RJ Ochoa (@rjochoa) November 3, 2024
Several marks reached by Odighizuwa were the first from any Cowboys defender this season. This means that even the great Micah Parsons, who obviously has missed several games, has not touched the pressure work that Odighizuwa offered in Atlanta.
Stock Up: CeeDee Lamb
Similarly to Jourdan Lewis, CeeDee Lamb did not let any quit happen anywhere near his orbit. Discussions around Lamb were not that much fun when the season first began, but he made it a point on Sunday to completely empty the tank and he even fought through a shoulder issue near the end of the game to keep hope alive. That this happened even after Dak Prescott had been ruled out made it all the more impressive.
Conventional stereotypes are that when players get a big extension that effort drops from them. This was certainly not the case from Lamb as he did all he could to will the team back in it at the very end.
Stock Down: Donovan Wilson
We continue to have this same exact discussion every week. Donovan Wilson is a problem in coverage and is starting to become the focal point of what opposing offenses are trying to do. He was a very good player for some time with this team, but it appears that those days are well behind us. It may be time to consider another option.
Stock Down: Zack Martin
It is never fun to watch legends turn into mortals and that is unfortunately what we are seeing from Zack Martin nowadays. Even the longest-reigning and most-tenured world champions have to give up the belt eventually and Father Time is clearly knocking at the door here.
While Martin has obviously been closer to the end of his career than the beginning for some time now, that he is starting to get pushed around the way he did against the Falcons was eye-opening. It was a big deal entering this game that Atlanta had one of the worst pass rushes in the NFL and even they were able to have high levels of success here.
Stock Down: Dak Prescott
It was nice to see Dak Prescott get on the move in this game, but that was short-lived. This did not feel like the worst game we have seen this season from Dak, but it was certainly the most conservative in nature.
According to Next Gen Stats, Prescott had a career-low 3.7 air yards per attempt. What is going on here? What happened to the aggressive and attacking quarterback that we saw for so much of last year?
We can talk about how the offensive weaponry is low, but that doesn’t explain the overall timidity that we are seeing. It seems as if Prescott doesn’t trust anything around him and is retreating (metaphorically speaking) as a result.
Dak knows…. pic.twitter.com/xq5g4NAC2j
— Shan Shariff (@1053SS) November 3, 2024
Prescott has always been very measured in his actions and conscious of the stage he is always on as the quarterback of the Dallas Cowboys. Given his history there it was shocking to see that he got caught mouthing what he did by the FOX broadcast. If it is not obvious Dak appears to say “we (expletive) suck.”
This line came six weeks after Prescott challenged the world to “jump off if they wanted to” in terms of giving up on the team. The time for words is far in the rearview mirror here and the time for action might be behind us as well.
Stock Down: John Fassel
The Cowboys deployed one of John Fassel’s infamous fakes in this game and it blew up dramatically in their face. Not only did Dallas not convert on their fake punt attempt that was ultimately a pass from Bryan Anger, but they also then immediately allowed the Falcons to score a touchdown as a direct result.
John Fassel may not have been the one who ordered the fake, but he designed it and did so in a fashion that felt familiar to his fake attempt against Washington back on Thanksgiving Day in 2020. What’s more is that we saw yet another penalty from his kickoff return team, one that wiped away a big return from KaVontae Turpin.
Stock Down: Mike McCarthy
It is completely fair to place the blame for the fake punt call on Mike McCarthy given that he is the head coach, as well as the blunders that we saw in other instances.
McCarthy burned a timeout before calling a jet sweep (a failed one) to CeeDee Lamb on 4th and 1. The Cowboys also called a timeout right before Atlanta went for a fourth down themselves due to issues getting set, only for the Falcons to score a touchdown when the two teams came out of it.
We are seeing basic and fundamental mistakes from the Cowboys under McCarthy which is alarming. He is not in his first year with this team and is not a first-year head coach. If anyone should have his proverbial ducks in a row then it is him given his overall NFL tenure and time with this team specifically. It is bad, and he has a big hand in that.