Key stats and the exact moment it was over for Cowboys in Week 14

The Cowboys fell to the Chicago Bears in Week 14’s Thursday Night Matchup. Jason Garrett’s rope seems to be running out.

The end is near, for someone anyway. Once again, the Cowboys have averted taking control of their own division and increasingly hilarious playoff chances after losing in Chicago, 31-24. The final score belies how poor and out-of-reach this game was for the Cowboys, who fall below .500 for the first time in 2019.

It was over when . . .

. . . Mercurial Mitch Trubisky took a read option 23 yards to put Chicago back up 17 points early in the fourth quarter. He didn’t have to worry about getting hit because Cowboys defenders weren’t able to tackle the entire game.

Game balls

CB Jourdan Lewis

In the brief moments where it seemed like this game would go a vastly different direction, Jourdan Lewis did his best WR impression, toe-tapping along the sideline while snagging his second pick of the season. As a team, it was the Cowboys fifth interception, which currently ties them for fewest in the league.

WR Amari Cooper

It was a quiet start for the team’s biggest receiving threat, but he eventually managed to shake loose, catch a touchdown, and set a milestone. His 83 receiving yards were the most he’s recorded in a month, since Week 9 vs Minnesota.

RB Ezekiel Elliott

Again, Ezekiel Elliott seemed to be on the verge of breaking out, before the flow of the game neutralized him completely. He took 19 carries for 81 rushing yards, found the end zone twice. Elliott also set a new season-long run of 31, with his two longest runs of the season coming in the last two games.

Key Stat: 171

In 12 drives, the Cowboys recorded 408 total yards of offense against Chicago. 237 yards were recorded on their first, 11th and 12th drives. The other nine generated only 171 yards, and zero points.

Quick Hits

  • Week 14 followed an eerily similar script to last Thursday, where the Cowboys peaked after their first drive of the game. They went up 7-0, and things slowly unraveled, as Chicago proceeded to score 24 straight points. It was alarming on multiple fronts, and proved to be yet another example of this team wasting its talent and potential.
  • The Cowboys’ opening offensive drive was perhaps their most dominant performance all year. They turned back the clock to 2016, chewing up 75 yards on 17 plays before Elliott plunged into the end zone from two yards out. Trubisky didn’t take his first snap until only 5:54 remained in the first quarter.
  • Dallas gained only 57 yards of offense for the rest of the first half. They converted all four third down attempts on their first drive, and then failed on their next nine third down tries. They didn’t pick up another third down until Amari Cooper’s nine yard catch on 3rd and 2 with 5:42 left in the fourth quarter. Overall, they were six of 15 on third down attempts.
  • The Bears on the other hand, never stopped converting third downs (seven of 12). The Dallas defense was absolutely woeful at bringing down Bears ballcarriers. It appears Michael Bennett’s post-Thanksgiving tirade didn’t have much of an effect.
  • FB Jamize Olawale, getting extra snaps in place of Tony Pollard, didn’t even turn around to look for the ball as Prescott targeted him on a 3rd and 4 from the Bears 24. It was a play that not only signaled how disjointed and out-of-sync Dallas was in this game, but also their larger issues, as K Brett Maher missed his 10th field goal of the season on the subsequent play.

  • Blake Jarwin continues to show a nice rapport with Prescott, and be productive in limited opportunities. He caught four passes for 37 yards, two of which came on the Cowboys’ prolific first drive. While the Jason Witten reunion tour has been fun, who knows what Dallas has been missing by not expanding Jarwin’s role in the offense.
  • The writing seems to truly be on the wall for Jason Garrett. He’s hardly alone in the deserved blame for this season’s disappointments, but Garrett’s also the one common thread through what’s now been multiple iterations of underachieving Dallas Cowboys teams.
  • Dallas has 10 days before they play next, in a rematch against the team that eliminated them from last season’s playoffs, the Los Angeles Rams.

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