The Cowboys have a lot of work to do before taking the field again in San Francisco.
In no way, shape, or form does it feel like the 2024 Dallas Cowboys are sitting at 3-3 on the season, on their bye week, and tied in the win column with the Philadelphia Eagles. The way they have gotten here has been much more about historic low points than anything close to the regular-season highs that became the standard under Mike McCarthy. It’s a team that was stagnant in the offseason leading into McCarthy’s contract season and is showing major signs of regression in just about every facet of the game.
The head coach that asked when it became easy to win 12 regular season games before this season began was just responsible for the worst Cowboys loss of the Jerry Jones era. McCarthy became the first head coach in Dallas to lose his first three home games of the season since Wade Phillips in 2010 (who was fired after a midseason loss to McCarthy’s Packers), somehow giving the home AT&T Stadium crowd that included Jones celebrating his birthday the team’s worst performance of the season. Things already looked grim in a 44-19 loss to the Saints and 28-25 loss to the Ravens that was hardly as close as that score would indicate, but what the Lions did to the Cowboys is hard to even compare to those back-to-back losses from earlier in the year. They willingly lined up offensive tackles as receivers more than once to simply have fun at the Cowboys’ expense and earn their biggest win by point differential since 2011.
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To win 12 games now, these Cowboys would have to win nine of their remaining 11 games, five of which are against playoff teams from a season ago starting with a San Francisco 49ers squad that’s beaten the Cowboys three straight times by an average margin of over two touchdowns. The Cowboys’ week eight game on Sunday Night Football will be one of four remaining opportunities for them to play on primetime, the thought of which any Cowboys fan can only shutter at right now. Even the team’s bye week began with more embarrassment thanks to Jones threatening to have local Dallas radio hosts fired over their line of questioning about the 47-9 debacle at the hands of the Lions. It hasn’t gotten any better as former Hall of Fame players on both sides of the ball are also calling out the problems they see with the Cowboys publicly, like Troy Aikman’s thoughts on the route running seen from the receivers or DeMarcus Ware noting a lack of effort on defense.
With last week’s opponent representing the NFC in last year’s championship game and looking like they play a different sport entirely compared to the Cowboys, there are officially a million and one ways to describe how far off the pace the Cowboys are when it comes to being a real championship organization. Ask any Cowboys fan that was actually alive the last time they won a Super Bowl that one day they’d be completely outclassed in every way possible by the Detroit Lions, and see how it goes.
Their complete lack of activity in the offseason has left an already-thin roster dealing with debilitating injuries unable to overcome both a lack of true talent on the field nor schemes that put the players they do have in the best position to win.
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The early going of this season is hardly the first time the Cowboys have been accused of being late to react to trends around the league or not using all avenues of player acquisition to field the best roster possible. A big part of why this year feels so much worse though is some of the more unexpected issues that have come up for a team with few options at this point to fix them. If being accused of being slow is nothing new, doubling down on this way of business by rendering a full season nothing more than an 18 week evaluation of what the Cowboys have in place around franchise players Dak Prescott and CeeDee Lamb is an entire new low. This team feels pinned to the mat and relatively incapable of getting up in time to save the season.
The Cowboys front office knows that roster attrition and players departing in free agency or retiring will come up again at the end of what already feels like a lost season, and with it an entirely new set of on-field problems will arise – especially if the losses continue to pile up and the expected mass exodus of coaches leaving The Star occurs shortly after. McCarthy is far from the only coach at the end of his contract in Dallas, with several other position coaches and staffers also working for their job. The “competitive nature” of this situation has become nothing more than fodder for dysfunction after just six games.
What are some of the things the Cowboys were counting on this season that have not come true yet? Here are five of them that go a long way in explaining how the reigning NFC East champions have so much work to do even reaching the top of their division again this season.
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Future Hall of Fame right guard Zack Martin showing his age
Mike McCarthy’s mission ever since taking over the Cowboys has been to make the team more physical in the trenches. Most of this effort has gone into the defensive side of the ball, as the beginning of his tenure saw the Cowboys offensive line remain an overall strength of the team. Dallas did not use a top-100 pick on an offensive lineman until McCarthy’s third year with Tyler Smith. That changed drastically this offseason when the team not only used their first-round pick on Tyler Guyton, but the 73rd overall pick on Cooper Beebe, and threw both rookies into starting roles at left tackle and center right away.
The Cowboys trusted their nearly impeccable track record of developing young OL talent to bring along Guyton and Beebe, with equal trust that the other positions occupied by Smith at left guard, Zack Martin at right guard, and Terence Steele at right tackle would be assured. All of these players have high-level starting experience under their belt. The most surprising player struggling out of this group has been Martin, who arguably had the worst game of his career against the Lions.
In his defense, the Lions defense had everything working for them once their own offense handed Detroit a massive lead, but the interior push allowed by Martin really gave the Cowboys offense no chance. Any positive momentum taken from a win at the Steelers that saw the Cowboys run the ball better than they had all season was gone, and pressure in Prescott’s face made passing the ball even more impossible.
Opposing defensive coordinators are far from scared of Martin right now, once a player that was guaranteed to wipe out whoever the defense matched up against him with stunning regularity. Beebe has had his growing pains at center, and most recently the Cowboys had to pull Smith from the interior where his best position is guard and play him at left tackle over Guyton because of injury. The domino effect created by not having at least one starter that doesn’t have to be worried about to some extent on the line has made the Cowboys offense have to work harder than ever for every yard. Nothing at all comes easy for this offense, and when that includes Zack Martin not regularly winning his reps, it is a problem beyond what the team planned on addressing mid-season.
Better football may very well still be on the horizon for Martin after the bye, but the Cowboys are facing the reality that Father Time has caught up to their 2014 first-round pick, adding right guard of all positions to their already long list of needs.
Not having Trevon Diggs and DaRon Bland together at cornerback
Another position that was expected to be a strength for the Cowboys coming into the season was cornerback, where Mike Zimmer and Al Harris were poised to get a starting tandem of Trevon Diggs and DaRon Bland both healthy together. The hype machine that is offseason practices and training camp had fans running wild with possibilities of how the defense would pick up right where it left off creating takeaways on the backend, while being better fundamentally against the run in the front seven.
A lot of things have to go right for a defense to generate turnovers. The Cowboys leading the league in back-to-back years from 2021-22 under Dan Quinn was remarkable, and something that hadn’t been done since the 1973-74 Steelers. The Cowboys’ consistency at taking the ball away under Quinn was a huge part of the overall team success, but simple regression to the mean in this key area was inevitable at some point. When that time did come, the Cowboys would have to rely more on just being a stout, fundamental defense compared to a big play one, and thought they made the right hire to do so with the veteran Zimmer.
Zimmer’s defense has been plagued by injuries, most notably up front where they were without Micah Parsons, DeMarcus Lawrence, and Eric Kendricks against the Lions. These weaknesses in the trenches have made it impossible for Dallas’ secondary to have real opportunities to take the ball away. Even with Diggs and Bland expected to reunite after the bye when Bland can return against the 49ers, the defense will need to change up a lot to actually force opposing quarterbacks to put the ball in harm’s way. Playing with the lead would help a ton, but isn’t something the Cowboys offense feels prepared to help out with anytime soon. Getting a better pass rush can be expected at some point after Parsons and Lawrence return, but neither were playing up to their own high standards prior to injury either.
All of the upside that comes with having two cornerbacks adept at taking the ball away in Diggs and Bland has been zapped from the Cowboys defense. Players like Jourdan Lewis and Amani Oruwariye have actually stepped up admirably at times in Bland’s absence, but overall this is a secondary that will continue to get picked on if offenses can set up shot plays with their run game, abuse the Cowboys with pre-snap motion, and give QBs plenty of time to throw.
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The Cowboys have not done well transitioning defensive coordinators under McCarthy and having immediate success. Hiring a coordinator whose specialty is defensive backs, pairing him with Al Harris who was promoted to assistant head coach, and letting the duo work with players the caliber of Diggs, Bland, Lewis, and rookie Caelen Carson (also out with injury since Week 3) was supposed to help fix this. Instead, injuries and general poor play all around have weakened the ability for the Cowboys defense to take matters into their own hands and help this team win games.
Tyler Guyton not following in the footsteps of recent first round picks at LT
Going back to the offensive line, the Cowboys have not been spoiled by Tyler Guyton immediately playing up to the level they’ve come to expect for first-round picks. Guyton is making the transition from collegiate right tackle to NFL left tackle, and not just any left tackle, but the one following future gold jacket wearer Tyron Smith in Dallas. The Cowboys traded back to make Guyton the 29th overall pick in this year’s class, marking their latest first-round pick on the line since Travis Frederick was 31st overall in 2013.
Guyton is actually the latest-drafted first round tackle in Cowboys history. As the back end of the first-round approaches, teams begin to dip into second round grades on their board, and in a historically weak draft class overall it’s even harder to hold Guyton to the same standard as a Zack Martin or Tyler Smith or Travis Frederick because of this. The uptick in speed of the NFL game has been a noticeable struggle for Guyton, who is late with his footwork getting to proper depth and relying on his upper body to lunge at rushers that then get him off balance to push their way to the QB.
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The long-term projection for Guyton is still very much that he can be a franchise tackle for the Cowboys. This being such a make-or-break year for many other faces on offense though, not including Prescott who the Cowboys made their commitment to at the 11th hour before the season began, any uncertainty about keeping the franchise QB upright from the left tackle position is concerning. Guyton’s holding penalties have also been drive killers for an offense that lacks big play ability to overcome these self-inflicted wounds.
Tyron Smith hasn’t exactly looked like his old self for Aaron Rodgers and the Jets offense, but the reality is the Cowboys have work to do developing Guyton to be the player they need, and every rep he gets to do so is another potential weak spot for defenses to attack.
Brandin Cooks being a no-show in four games, then going to injured reserve
It feels like ages ago that the Cowboys offense was dynamic thanks in large part to CeeDee Lamb at WR1 and Brandin Cooks as a high-end WR2. It was just last season!
Particularly in home games, this duo helped light up the scoreboard with Cooks averaging just shy of 15 yards a catch with five touchdowns from the then-friendly confines of AT&T Stadium. Cooks has not played since the team’s 20-15 win at the New York Giants due to a knee procedure that took place shortly after the game. In the four games he did play to start the year, Cooks had not caught more than two passes or a touchdown since week one. In his last two games, Cooks was targeted ten times and caught just three of them.
The Cowboys offense has had absolutely no ability to stretch defenses vertically this season. Cooks’ role has been reduced to running short to intermediate routes and becoming a still target for Prescott to fit tight window throws into. Jalen Tolbert or Jalen Brooks have looked better in this role in more limited opportunities than Cooks, whose allowed defensive backs to stick to him and fight through his hands at the catch point.
Without Cooks being a contributor, the pressure on Lamb to be the team’s only consistent receiving threat has been too much to overcome. Lamb is the only receiver that shows some flashes of creativity in route running to get the ball in a variety of ways, snagging a one-handed crossing route for 27 yards against the Lions and previously being used out of the backfield.
The Cowboys will be without Cooks for at least two more games against tough defenses in the 49ers and Falcons on the road. If there is any hope at all left for the season upon his return, the Cowboys need to do everything they possibly can to find the Brandin Cooks of a year ago and get back to having at least two capable receivers with experience, rather than forcing Tolbert and Brooks further up the pecking order.
Mike McCarthy’s scheme/play-calling taking a gigantic step backwards
Last but certainly not least, we begin and end with Mike McCarthy’s impact on this year’s team in Dallas. It is often said that the average fan that watches games on TV should not be too quick to judge NFL coaches, as they only see a microscopic view of the work they put in for three hours on game day compared to the preparation throughout the week. Just calling it like it’s been seen though, there have been more sideline shots of McCarthy that show a seemingly disinterested coach than one fired up to keep his job anyway possible beyond 2024. And when it comes to that preparation apparently happening behind the scenes leading up to game day, the word “prepared” is far from how any Cowboys observers would describe this team right now.
Starting last season, McCarthy tied his job status with the Cowboys directly to their offensive success in the biggest way possible, taking over as play-caller. The immediate results were better than ever expected. The Cowboys did not miss a beat being one of the best scoring offenses in the NFL like they were under Kellen Moore, but also did so playing more of the complementary style that McCarthy covets. Now, the only thing McCarthy’s offense complements is the ability for opposing teams to run away and hide with games against Dallas. The Cowboys had two turnovers, and two three-and outs on four straight possessions in the first half against the Lions, which Dan Campbell’s team turned into 20 straight points and a 20-3 lead that grew to 27-3 all before halftime.
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Ineffective first down runs that put the Cowboys behind the chains early have been a staple. Worse yet, even second down and long run plays have forced Prescott into playing hero ball on third down behind a suspect OL with inadequate weapons. Every throw is into a tight window. Yards after the catch hardly exist. Pre-snap motion that is simply the lifeblood of every other potent offense around the league comes and goes, with it being a big part of the reason the Cowboys won in Pittsburgh but then absent at home versus Detroit. Paired with the Cowboys inability to defend motion themselves, this has been a deadly combination for this team’s ability to even stay in games so far.
Route concepts are calling for receivers to run into each other, or play with a generally poor sense of spacing all around. Spreading players out wide and expecting them to regularly beat NFL defenders to the spot as a way to find open space to operate is not a dependable enough strategy to score touchdowns. The Cowboys have been to the red zone seven times in their last two games and scored one touchdown, which took a dramatic four plays from the one-yard line at the Steelers. Prescott and Lamb can’t get on the same page and any small miscommunication even early in the game seemingly takes the two highest paid players on this side of the ball out of contention.
It is all frustrating and frankly still confusing how the Cowboys offensive scheme can look this limited just one year removed from being much more dynamic under the same play-caller, and one fighting for his coaching life at that. If there is a fan base that knows this type of scheme will only end in heartbreak against top competition, regardless of how much Prescott tries to keep this team in games, it is Cowboys fans. It has been a while since it was the head coach of the team in charge this much of the approach on offense though, and the cascading effect of failing to even possess the ball at times is creating a lost season in Dallas.
The Cowboys are the third worst team in the league with a negative six turnover differential, only behind the Raiders and Titans who both have the farthest thing from a franchise QB in place. This is a big part of the reason midseason calls for McCarthy’s job have already reached fever pitch, at the remarkably low point of a week seven bye.