The Dallas Cowboys were six-point underdogs on Sunday, and ended up covering the spread. So why does it feel like they soiled the good linen following their 13-9 defeat at the hands of the now 10-1 New England Patriots?
Fans are beside themselves, and it only is partially because of the referees’ abhorrent performance in another nationally-televised debacle. No, the Cowboys, facing off against the NFL’s best team, had so many miscues and poor decisions on the afternoon that it’s difficult – near impossible – to point blaming fingers anywhere but in the mirror. The Cowboys had more talent than the best team in the league on Sunday, but were so overmatched even owner Jerry Jones couldn’t hide his frustration with the way his club performed.
Jones made sure to let the media know his anger wasn’t only pointed at the Week 12 performance, but was rather a cumulation of a season full of misssed opportunities where the Cowboys have been flat-out, out-coached.
Team reporter David Helman captured an extensive quote from Jones emblematic of the fury raging inside most everyone invested in the team’s performance. He felt heated the Cowboys wasted early-season opportunities to make a game like irrelevant to their pursuit of bigger goals, a game in which he clearly thought his coaching staff was outwitted from the outset.
“The Jets set it up. Losing those games against New Orleans or Minnesota, they set this up. You shouldn’t ever come into a situation like this and have as narrow a window…
… It’s frustrating just to be reminded that some of the fundamentals of football and coaching were what beat us…
… There’s no question that (Bill Belichick) sw the ball was going to be hard to handle. There’s no question he put pressure on the people returning the kicks and the people handling the ball on special teams. There’s no question that he usedthat to really put some special emphasis on it. So yeah, I’m frustrated.”
The contract Jones was setting up was obvious. The other side was prepared for such things, the Cowboys were clearly not.
The Cowboys weren’t prepared on special teams and muted their own field position as well as gifted the Patriots the game’s only touchdown when they didn’t have max protect on during a torrential downpour. So concerned about their lack of ability to cover a punt correctly, they allowed perennial Pro Bowler Matthew Slater to sneak in and block a Chris Jones’ punt, setting New England up deep in Cowboys territory on a day when the offenses had to do the proverbial uphill march in both directions to school.
The Patriots knew the ball would be tough to field on kickoffs, and knew to pop the ball up in the air and force the Cowboys to try and field a soaked ball while on the run. Three occasions and Dallas never adjusted, fumbling the ball when returner Tony Pollard had to race out from his deep positioning in the end zone instead of ever being coached to move up to give himself a better shot to field the water balloons.
Things actually got worse.
“I think that every aspect of special teams, when you really look at it, have been problematic for us. There’s no question about that,” Jones saidm via team reporter David Helman.
“To me, special teams is 100% coaching. It’s 100% coaching. It’s strategy, it’s having players ready,” Jones said. “That’s why, today, Belichick — give him credit. They did a great job on special teams, and that was really, probably the determining difference. But special teams is nothing but coaching.”
In the fourth quarter, trailing 10-6 and after another failed drive, the Cowboys had a chance to catch the Patriots in their own special team’s miscue. New England only had 10 men on the field as they were planning an all-out assault to get another block. With no return man set up and no one covering gunner Ventrell Bryant, Dallas wasn’t equipped to run a fake and get the easy first down. Heck, they weren’t even equipped to punt it away quickly and down the ball to setup a long field.
Instead, they froze, Keith O’Quinn’s unit eating a delay of game penalty.
On the next, longer-field kick, Chris Jones still booted a decent one, only Bryant was called for illegal formation negating the Patriots starting at their 18.
Five penalty yards turned into 20 of field position as the subsequent, subsequent kick set up New England at their 38. The Patriots used the short field to march for their final points of the game and take a touchdown lead, 13-6, in the fourth quarter.
The point margin was clearly an issue for head coach Jason Garrett, who repeatedly made decisions to keep the game close.
Facing the NFL’s top defense the Cowboiys should have known that points would be at a premium. Instead of absorbing the situation and being aggressive on the handful of opportunities when in close proximity to the end zone, Garrett repeated made decisions to settle for three points instead of shooting for touchdowns. It absolutely burned the Cowboys in the end.
On Dallas’ second possession in a tie game, on 4th-and-3 from the Patriots’ 28, the club trotted out woefully inconsistent Brett Maher to attempt a 46-yard field goal into a heavy wind, when pre-game warmups proved the kick to be difficult. Instead of attacking, they played timid, kicking the field goal only to listen to a thud as it clanged off the left upright.
In the second quarter, down 10-0, they faced the similar down and distance and settled for three points.
Later in the quarter, they made it inside the Patriot’s 10-yard line, and kicked another field goal on 4th-and-5 to cut the lead to 10-6.
They routinely left four points on the board in a game they lost by four points. The three decisions on their own are defensible. As a whole though, never taking a shot seems cowardice, especially in the context of the Cowboys’ worst decision of the fourth quarter.
After the Patriots extended the lead to 13-6, Dallas marched down the field following their biggest play of the afternoon, by far, a beautiful touch pass from Dak Prescott into the arms of a sprinting Randall Cobb that went for 52 yards. Eventually at the New England 11, the club faced 4th-and-5 with just six minutes remaining in the contest.
The club had to know this was likely one of the last chances to punch the ball in, in a score situation where they had no choice but to eventually get a field goal.
A failed conversion would have pinned New England deep in their territority in a game where their only scoring drives were of lengths of 12 (touchdown), 3 (field goal) and 38 (field goal) yards, and they would be driving into the wind where Nick Folk had missed two field goals of his own already.
Instead, Garrett played it safe and took the three points, having Maher kick a third field goal.
Dallas would never threaten again. After the game, Garrett spoke of the decision, again through the team’s website via Rob Phillips.
“Just to give us a chance coming back the other way, fourth-and-7, you know, make it a four-point game,” Garrett said. “They go ahead and kick a field goal coming back, you still have a chance to be in the game. We would get it back with just under three, with a chance to go win it. So just felt good about that decision, at that time.”
The Cowboys had 2nd-and-7, but they didn’t call plays as if they had any intention of going for it on fourth down following Ezekiel Elliott’s three-yard gain on first down. They made two consecutive “last shot” attempts, instead of chipping away to get closer, including third down where Prescott could’ve scrambled to either move the chains or get so close a fourth-down try was obvious.
Dallas wasn’t supposed to win this game, but as Jones pointed out, they have missed several opportunities this season in games they were supposed to win. They needed a statement game that would have erased the club’s failure to defeat a winning team at any point in 2019. The game was right in front of them, and coaching miscues and timidity failed them once again, dropping the Cowboys to 6-5 on the season with just a one-game lead on Philadelphia, who has the NFL’s easiest schedule over the final five games.
Jones summed it up, this time via Jon Machota of The Athletic.
“It’s frustrating just to be reminded that some of the fundamentals of football and coaching were what beat us out there today.”
Amen.
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