Tag: 2023 season Week 5

3 takeaways from Cowboys humiliating loss include questioning Prescott

The Cowboys have more questions than answers and here are the biggest takeaways from the debacle. | From @cdpiglet

The Dallas Cowboys did plenty of talking heading into Sunday’s matchup with the San Francisco 49ers. The players, coaches, and front office all revealed how important this game was. They all were motivated by facing the team that eliminated them the past two postseasons.

From improving offensive play calling and playmaking to bulking up the run defense, the entire offseason surrounded a getting another shot. This Cowboys team believed that they can beat any team in the league, but they had to find a way to get over the hump that was San Francisco. What does a team take away from a game that made it seem like climbing that hill is more climbing Mount Everest?

4 Downs: Cowboys embarrassed themselves in Week 5

From @ToddBrock24f7: There was no shortage of moments that contributed to the 42-10 blowout by the Bay, but the Cowboys did it to themselves on these 4 plays.

Week 5’s Sunday night game was supposed to be a 15-round battle between NFC heavyweights. It didn’t take long, though, to figure out which boxer looked like a champ and which boxer would playing the chump.

The 49ers’ 42-10 beatdown of the Cowboys was one of the most lopsided finals in the storied history between the two franchises and the worst loss of the Mike McCarthy era in Dallas.

There are plenty of plays that Cowboys fans will point to as the moment they knew it was over. Some would pick the very first play from scrimmage, when a face mask call against Jayron Kearse was just the first time on the night Dallas would shoot themselves in the foot. Others will undoubtedly look at Dak Prescott’s three interceptions and think here we go again.

They’re not wrong. There were a multitude of moments that contributed to an absolutely embarrassing performance by the Cowboys, the kind that will have a significant portion of even the staunchest fanbase wondering just how wrong we all were about this team’s outlook.

But in the final analysis, here are our choices for the four plays that most accurately summed up the smackdown in San Fran.

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Cowboys’ Lamb lost for answers on offense’s identity, consistency

From @ToddBrock24f7: The Cowboys had no answers for the 49ers. But after a 42-10 loss, CeeDee Lamb repeatedly had the same reply to questions about the offense.

For the duration of Sunday night’s blowout in the Bay, the Cowboys had no answers whatsoever for the 49ers.

Shortly after the 42-10 trouncing, though, Cowboys wide receiver CeeDee Lamb repeatedly had the same bewildered reply.

“What’s the identity of this offense?” Lamb was asked at his locker.

“I don’t know,” came his dejected response.

“Should you, five weeks into the season?”

“I guess so. I don’t know.”

“How do you guys find it?”

“I don’t know.”

Lamb and the Cowboys offense was similarly flummoxed for the entire night in what was supposed to be a clash of evenly-matched NFC powers. Instead, the most eagerly-anticipated showdown of the young 2023 season turned into a one-sided affair right from the jump and stayed that way for three hours.

Week 5’s embarrassing defeat was far worse than the playoff losses suffered at the hands of the 49ers in consecutive years. For all who believed the Cowboys had made the necessary offseason changes to finally get that red-and-gold monkey off the team’s back, Sunday’s primetime humiliation left them grasping to make sense of what had just happened.

“How did it get away from you guys tonight?” Lamb was asked.

“Wish I could tell you,” was all the visibly dejected receiver could offer. “Wish I could tell you.”

The cold, hard stats certainly say plenty about the offense’s ineffectiveness. They registered just eight first downs all night and didn’t get their first until their fifth possession. Their average drive started at their own 21, lasted fewer than four plays, and gained a pitiful 15 yards. They were held to under 200 yards of total offense. They never took a snap from any closer than 26 yards to the 49ers end zone. They held the ball for less than 23 minutes.

That’s a far cry from the kind of numbers Dallas put up in easy, commanding wins over the Giants, Jets, and Patriots. The team’s point average in those three games: 36.

But the revamped offense, now under the play-calling direction of head coach Mike McCarthy, scored just 10 against San Francisco in a game that coaches and players alike had openly called a “measuring stick.”

“We’ve got to be complete,” Lamb put it bluntly. “We can’t go out there one week and look like a superteam and then the following week, [expletive] the bed.”

Lamb, who is under contract through 2024 but has been the subject of recent extension talks in Dallas, led the team with just 49 receiving yards, hauling in four catches on five targets. Replays showed him to be open far more frequently than that. His body language- on the field, on the sideline, and in the locker room- made his frustration evident.

 

“They did a phenomenal job, playing two-high,” Lamb told reporters of San Francisco’s defense. “They schemed well. They got after the quarterback a little bit. Overall, we couldn’t get the offense going. We had plenty of three-and-outs.”

Four. Dallas had four three-and-outs, all in the first half while the score was still relatively close.

After the break, quarterback Dak Prescott threw interceptions on three straight possessions, trying to play catch-up, to end drives of three, two, and three plays.

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Now Lamb, Prescott, McCarthy, and the Dallas offense have no choice but to go back to the drawing board to try to find some new answers, starting with another West Coast trip this weekend to face the Chargers and former OC Kellen Moore.

Lamb knows it will take more than their next week of practice, more than their next win to get past this gut-punch failure in San Francisco.

“We’ve got 12 other games to compete in,” he observed.

But if the Cowboys offense doesn’t find some answers- soon- on how to be consistent performers, they’ll be at a loss for far more than words.

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Studs & Duds: Prescott, Cowboys safeties top list of disappointments in 42-10 loss

From @ToddBrock24f7: The list of duds was a long one, as the Cowboys stunk on both sides of the ball in a 42-10 Week 5 blowout at the hands of the 49ers.

It was supposed to be a tightly-contested clash of NFC superpowers, the most eagerly awaited game of the month-old 2023 season. It ended with the 49ers taking Dallas to the woodshed and sending them home with the worst and most humiliating Cowboys loss of the Mike McCarthy era.

The Cowboys were unequivocally dreadful in nearly every aspect of the 42-10 no-show. Dak Prescott & Co. didn’t move the chains until their fifth possession and had only one drive all night go longer than six plays and 39 yards. The supposedly elite defense, on the other hand, surrendered 25 first downs to the 49ers and let San Francisco hold the ball for over 37 minutes.

Narrowing the list of Cowboys “duds” down to just three names proved to be a Herculean task. Truth be told, there weren’t even three actual “studs” to be found, but for the sake of this weekly exercise, we’ve identified a few Dallas players who weren’t quite as awful as the rest of the imposters wearing blue and silver in Santa Clara on Sunday night.

Here are the studs (insert air quotes and big sarcastic eye roll here) and duds from Week 5’s whipping.

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Here’s how the Cowboys can finally defeat the 49ers

Can the Cowboys get the 49ers monkey off their back, or will it turn into King Kong with a third straight loss? | From @cdpiglet

The first four weeks may matter in the record books, but for most Dallas Cowboys fans, the Week 5 matchup with the San Francisco 49ers is the true beginning of this season. Losing the opportunity of a face-off with Aaron Rodgers in Week 2 allowed Dallas and its fanbase to sleepwalk to a 3-1 record without a circled-on-the-schedule game. Dallas made three of their four contests non-competitive, failing to show up in the fourth, a blowout loss to Arizona that was expected to be a blowout win.

Now, they’ll go against the team that bullied and eliminated the Cowboys in the last two playoffs, and it brings a fire to the entire organization and fanbase.

The players have already talked about how this game is different. Pundits and analysts have discussed how Dallas needs this game for their mental health. Fans need this win for trust purposes in future matchups with top teams.

This is a dogfight of two of the top three teams in the NFC. It is going to be a battle for four quarters, or more, but how do the Cowboys finally defeat their nemesis, and what could cause them to fall in defeat once again?

Report: Cowboys’ preferred OL practices, could take field together for first time vs 49ers

From @ToddBrock24f7: Tyron Smith was back at practice, setting up the Cowboys’ “best five” to see their first game action together since Tyler Smith was drafted.

Hail, hail, the gang’s all here.

Maybe.

For the first time ever, Cowboys offensive linemen Tyron Smith and Tyler Smith could take a game snap alongside each other when Dallas takes the field at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara this Sunday night.

On Thursday, the team’s wish-list O-line got their first work together in a padded regular-season practice. And while there are still a few days to go before Week 5’s key game kicks off, the stars are aligning for the best five linemen to start versus the 49ers.

Tyron Smith was back in action on Thursday as a full participant and could be ready to return to his usual left tackle spot after missing the past two games with a right knee injury. Tyler Smith sat out Weeks 1 and 2 after straining a hamstring just before opening night. Center Tyler Biadasz did not play in Week 3 with a hamstring issue. Right guard Zack Martin also missed the loss in Arizona due to an ankle injury. Only right tackle Terence Steele has occupied his normal position for all four games this season.

That’s the starting lineup that Dallas envisioned when they spent a first-round draft pick on Tyler Smith in April of last year. Seventeen months later, it still hasn’t happened in a real game.

“This group of five has never played a game together,” Martin said, per Patrik Walker of the team website. “Excited to get out there and go to work.”

Tyler Smith, who learned the guard position in camp last summer and then switched to tackle to fill in for Tyron for most of his rookie season, agreed.

“People have been waiting. That’s huge for us,” he said, according to Michael Gehlken of the Dallas Morning News. “Just having everybody back up front, you just know that well-oiled machine is going to keep going.”

Yes, it is huge and it’s “expected,” but it’s not guaranteed quite yet.

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Quarterback Dak Prescott hedged his bets slightly when asked about the prospect of his preferred front five coming together just in time to protect him against Nick Bosa and the fierce San Francisco defense.

“I feel like we talked about this two weeks ago,” Prescott smiled. “Let’s get to the game, and then we can talk about it after.”

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‘Something has to give’: Cowboys, 49ers players amped up for showdown in Santa Clara

From @ToddBrock24f7: This Sunday’s showdown between the Cowboys and 49ers could have major implications later on, and star players on both sides know it.

Week 5’s Cowboys-49ers clash has been circled on the league’s calendars since schedules were first announced. Anticipated by most observers to be one of the highest-profile games of the year, the showdown in Santa Clara will have no shortage of star power… or subplots.

San Francisco is rolling with a 4-0 record, though they have yet to meet an opponent as tough as Dallas. The Cowboys will also face their stiffest test of the young season, coming in with a 3-1 mark and sky-high expectations for the 2023.

Both teams are putting up plenty of points, but Dallas is doing so with a lot of help from their havoc-wreaking defense. For the Niners, Christian McCaffrey once again leads the way both on the ground and as a receiver as quarterback Brock Purdy continues his improbable ascension.

The defenses feature a who’s who of talent, and viewers shouldn’t be surprised if this clash of NFC powers ends up being a low-scoring affair.

What’s certain is that the 40th installment of this storied and bitter rivalry brings plenty of juice, with players in both locker rooms well aware of what this early-October meeting could mean for both teams somewhere down the line.

Because, in case you haven’t been reminded in the last five minutes, the 49ers have already ejected the Cowboys from the postseason bracket in back-to-back seasons.

Here’s what some of the stars from both squads are saying about this massive battle in the Bay.

Cowboys’ Jerry Jones hints at LT Tyron Smith missing 3rd straight game

From @ToddBrock24f7: The Cowboys owner called Smith “iffy” heading into Week 5’s clash with San Francisco; Smith has missed the last 2 games with a knee injury.

In what will likely shape up to be a battle of two of the league’s top defenses, the offensive lines could go a long way in ultimately determining the outcome when Dallas travels to San Francisco this weekend for a primetime showdown of NFC powers.

And the Cowboys don’t know if one of their most important pieces will even be on the field.

Left tackle Tyron Smith is a major question mark heading into Sunday’s Week 5 game, having already missed the last two outings with a knee injury. On Tuesday, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones sounded less than confident about the eight-time Pro Bowler’s status changing in the coming days.

“If he’s available, it would be iffy,” Jones told 105.3 The Fan’s Shan and RJ. “But he could be.”

The oft-injured 32-year-old started Weeks 1 and 2 for Dallas in blowout wins, though he had shown up in the injury reports leading up to both games with an ankle injury. He was not listed as a concern prior to Week 3’s meeting with Arizona and only showed up on the practice report with a knee issue the day before the game.

When that desert duel kicked off Sept. 24, an in-uniform Smith was standing on the sidelines. He did not play in the 28-16 loss, once again making 2015 the most recent season in which the former first-round draft pick appeared in the full slate of games. He sat out last week’s date with New England as well.

Smith has played in just 19 of 54 regular-season games during head coach Mike McCarthy’s tenure.

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While Jones’s comments allow hope for Smith’s injured knee to make a turnaround in time for Sunday’s kickoff, the Cowboys will spend the week prudently prepping their Plan B.

“This morning, you need to think about him playing,” Jones said of Smith. “If he doesn’t, we’re well-prepared.”

Chuma Edoga got the start in place of Smith for both Weeks 3 and 4. If he replaces Smith again at Levi’s Stadium, he would have to be considered the weak link as the Cowboys face a San Francisco defense that includes Nick Bosa, Arik Armstead, Javon Hargrave, and Fred Warner, among others.

Second-year man Tyler Smith filled in for Tyron last season at tackle but has been allowed to remain at left guard since he returned to the lineup in Week 3.

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