Here’s the latest status for the Cowboys’ CeeDee Lamb for Week 10 against the Philadelphia Eagles.
The Dallas Cowboys had an entire laundry list of injured players throughout the week of practice, in preparation for their Monday night matchup with the Houston Texans. Over 1/3rd of their roster appeared on the practice report from Thursday, the first day of the week when MNF participants are forced to reveal the statuses of their players for the upcoming contest.
But it was one injury that appeared, somewhat out of nowhere, on the final practice day that is going to wreak the most havoc on the team’s plans to stop a four-game losing streak. Wideout CeeDee Lamb appeared with a back injury. Lamb has been listed as questionable for the week.
After dealing with a shoulder the week before, Lamb is doing his best to be the solid solider and example setter for the younger ones on the roster.
For what it’s worth, head coach Mike McCarthy minimized the impact of the injury on Saturday, saying he’s optimistic the star wideout will play.
With no Dak Prescott under center, the Cowboys are going to rely heavily on Lamb to be the best player on the field when the offense has the ball. He had a team-high six catches last week, but for a measly 21 yards in the club’s first game without Prescott.
Lamb has played the Texans just once before, in 2022, when he caught five balls for 33 yards.
Here’s the latest status for the Texans Nico Collins against the Dallas Cowboys.
The Houston Texans were all too happy to discover they were mining a diamond in the rough. All it took was the arrival of rookie quarterback CJ Stroud and offensive coordinator Bobby Slowik in 2023 to uncover the massive potential of 2021 third-round wideout Nico Collins.
After two pedestrian seasons, Collins turned in an 80-catch, 1,296-receiving yard and eight touchdown campaign in the much ballyhooed third season of his career. The Texans went out and added Stefon Diggs this offseason and the attention he demanded vaulted Collins into a league-leading 113 yard-per-game stratosphere.
But that was before a hamstring injury sidelined Collins for the last five contests. The question is, will he be able to play against the Dallas Cowboys in Week 11?
The answer appears to be yes, as for the first time in over a month, Collins carries no game designation on the Texans’ final injury report of the week, released on Saturday.
With his expected return, the Texans will be a much more formidable offense for the Cowboys’ secondary to contend with. With Collins in the lineup, Houston averaged 272 passing yards a contest. In the five games without him, they’ve averaged just 165 passing yards per game, and that includes an appalling 55 yards in their Week 7 loss to Green Bay.
Since losing Collins, Slowik has focused on running the ball more, and that was taken to another level when they also lost Stefon Diggs to a torn ACL.
With Collins back, expect Trevon Diggs and Caelen Carson of the Cowboys to have their hands full, along with safeties Malik Hooker and Donovan Wilson.
Are the Cowboys playing today? Here’s a look at the 2024 schedule; results and the games to come.
Week 11 of the NFL football schedule has arrived, will the Dallas Cowboys be playing football today?
The Cowboys have lost four consecutive football games, cementing the concerns many had about the 2024 version of the franchise. The worst fears about a Mike McCarthy and staff lame-duck year seemingly have come to fruition, with the team being non-competitive as a whole in several games. Will they be able to right the ship on Sunday? No, because they won’t be playing today.
Dallas isn’t on a bye week, however. They simply have a Monday night date with in-state rival Houston. The Texans (6-4) have a relatively comfortable lead in the subpar AFC South division. Meanwhile the 3-6 Cowboys are already four games behind the Philadelphia Eagles, who pummeled them last week 34-6.
Dallas is 0-4 on the season at AT&T Stadium, setting an NFL first by trailing by at least 20 points in each contest. Here’s a look at their schedule so far this year.
A look at the final injury designations for Week 11, including WRs trending in different directions. | From @KDDrummondNFL
The Dallas Cowboys have had a time of it when it comes to trying to stay healthy for 2024. The entire year has been one injury to a key player after another. So it should be no surprise that on the final day of full practice ahead of Monday night’s battle with the Houston Texans, another key member of the club appears on the injury report.
Saturday saw wideout CeeDee Lamb appear for the first time this week. A back injury is the cause, though head coach Mike McCarthy attempted to downplay its significance. Dallas listed 19 players on the injury report this week, over 35% of their 53-man roster. Meanwhile the Houston Texans are giddy that WR Nico Johnson isn’t listed on their report as it looks like he will play for the first time in five weeks.
Lamb is one of four players Dallas listed as questionable, while the club has ruled out three others and designated one as doubtful with just a 25% chance of seeing the field. That would be FB Hunter Luepke, dealing with a calf injury. Slot corner Jourdan Lewis doesn’t even have a slim chance of playing with his troubled neck; he’s been ruled out.
Here’s a look at the full, final, injury report for both clubs for Week 11.
Two former Dallas lieutenants met as Cowboys’ rivals on opposite sidelines on Thursday night in a battle for division supremacy.
The Dallas Cowboys have enjoyed a ton of regular season success over the last several years, which makes their 2024 performance extremely disappointing. Sitting at 3-6, their playoff hopes are on life support as Week 11 starts to unfold. Mike McCarthy and his current staff are all on notice they’ll likely be looking elsewhere for employment in 2024.
Their two most recent high-profile coordinators though are enjoying a ton of success this season. Kellen Moore, former OC under both Jason Garrett and McCarthy, is now in charge of the Philadelphia Eagles’ offense. Dan Quinn, the defensive coordinator from the last three 12-5 Cowboys seasons, is now the head coach in Washington. They former co-workers met up on opposite sidelines Thursday night with Quinn’s Commanders getting the 26-18 victory.
The two teams entered their TNF matchup with a combined 14-5 record, but despite some questionable calls in their favor throughout, Washington fell apart late.
Quinn’s troops entered the fourth quarter with a 10-6 lead, but a dumb fourth-down decision by Quinn gave Moore’s offense the opening it needed to score three rushing touchdowns; his new signature. Washington scored a no-urgency TD with just 28 seconds left to close the gap, but the onside kick attempt failed.
What’s interesting for Cowboys’ fans though is how far each’s former units have plummeted in performance and ranking since each left.
Moore joined Garrett’s staff in his lame-duck 2019 season and moved the Cowboys’ offense from 17th to 6th in scoring. With a 2020 mulligan for Prescott’s broken leg, he also had them ranked 1st and 4th in his other seasons. However playoff disappointment and McCarthy wanting to take over play-calling (to save his job, likely) led to Moore moving on to the Los Angeles Chargers in 2023.
Initially McCarthy did find success, as the Cowboys returned to the No. 1 scoring offense in 2023. But there was a catch. Quinn’s defense’s were monsters at creating extra opportunities for the offense by being at or near the top of forced turnovers the last three seasons.
Without Quinn in tow, the turnovers have stopped and even before the Cowboys lost Prescott for the season again, their offense was in the bottom third of the NFL in 2024.
Quinn’s defense finished seventh, fifth and fifth in points allowed during his three seasons in Dallas. Jerry Jones was able to convince Quinn to stay in Dallas the last several seasons despite head coaching interviews all over the league, but Quinn finally bolted to land with the division rival Commanders.
Moore was let go along with head coach Brandon Staley and his entire staff in LA and landed in Philadelphia. Both have been cooking in their first seasons elsewhere in the NFC East.
A look at who was able to participate in practice on Thursday, ahead of Cowboys-Texans, and to what degree. | From @KDDrummondNFL
The Dallas Cowboys have licked their wounds, again, and are ready to get back on the bull. After four straight defeats, the team is reeling but they will no forfeit the rest of there 2024 season. Instead they will take on the Houston Texans in Week 11 and hope to begin an epic comeback from a 3-6 record.
Likely? Of course not, but that’s from an outsider’s perspective. The team isn’t going to turn over their entire roster in 2025, so having players who refuse to give up on the season is a good thing, draft order notwithstanding. As the club returns to practice on Thursday, they do so with only 2/3rds of their entire roster actually healthy.
Dallas listed 18 players, 34% of their 53-man roster, as dealing with some degree of a medical issue.
Cowboys
CB DaRon Bland, Foot | Wednesday: Did Not Participate
CB Caelen Carson, Shoulder | Wednesday: Full Participant
CB Trevon Diggs, Calf | Wednesday: Limited
OT Chuma Edoga, Toe | Wednesday: Limited
TE Jake Ferguson, Illness | Wednesday: DNP
OT Tyler Guyton, Neck/Shoulder | Wednesday: Limited
The Cowboys face potential head coaching candidate Bobby Slowik in Week 11 when they take on the Houston Texans. | From @ReidDHanson
All indications are the Cowboys will be looking for new head coach this winter when Mike McCarthy’s contract runs out. Armed with draft picks, available spending cash, and a desire for change, Dallas will be an attractive place for a head coach looking to make an instant impact.
Bobby Slowik, the Texans’ prized offensive coordinator, is likely on his way out of Houston this winter. The Shanahan-like play caller has seen his stock rise to meteoric levels over the past season and a half and is now one of the hottest names on head coaching market in 2025.
Slowik is a play designer who creates deception by using a series of similar looking personnel groups and alignments. He’s a run truther but he backs it up by designing run-friendly plays and using run-friendly wrinkles. He’s taken a fledging Houston offense and built it up to sky-high levels with an inexperienced QB.
Play action, motion at the snap and various post-snap options all put his offenses in position to succeed. It’s allowed his offenses to produce higher outputs as complete unit than the individual pieces would otherwise provide.
It’s these traits that make Slowik such an attractive option for Cowboys fans. Eager to turn the page on yet another disappointing chapter in Cowboys history, many fans look at Slowik as a true step in the right direction. He’s not only an offensive savant up to date on all the tips and tricks that drive defenses wild but he’s also someone with a fair degree of defensive coaching experience.
Unlike most head coaches, Slowik is a coach who adds considerable value with scheme on one side of the ball and also has work experience on the other side of the ball. As if that wasn’t enough, Slowik worked for three years at Pro Football Focus, understanding analytics in a way very few NFL coaches can. Slowik is the complete package, and the Cowboys may be able to hire him this winter.
For anyone interested in getting a glimpse at the trending head coach candidate they needn’t look much further than Monday. In Week 11 the Cowboys take on the Texans and get a great firsthand look at someone who could be the next head coach of the Cowboys. Not since Week 6 against the Lions and Ben Johnson did Dallas get such a privilege. If Slowik can show half as much as Johnson did, fans are in for a real treat, so to speak.
Going into Week 11, the Cowboys have a -8.0 Football Power Index (FPI) rating from ESPN, which ranks at the bottom of the NFL.
The 2024 NFL season has now surpassed it’s halfway point, as Week 10 nears it’s conclusion. Nine games into the year, the Dallas Cowboys (3-6) have a -8.0 Football Power Index (FPI) rating from ESPN, which ranks dead last, 32nd, in the league. Just a few weeks ago they were rated -1.0 and ranked 23rd, but four losses in a row and several in embarrassing fashion will plummet a franchise.
The Houston Texans (6-4), who will travel to Dallas on Sunday, are ranked 13th with a 1.2 FPI rating.
FPI is “a prediction system for the NFL. Each team’s FPI rating is composed of a predicted offensive, defensive and special teams efficiency, as measured by expected points added per play, and that rating is the basis for FPI’s game-level and season-level projections,” according to ESPN.com. FPI “represents how many points above or below average a team is. Projected results are based on 10,000 simulations of the rest of the season using FPI, results to date, and the remaining schedule.”
Here’s a look at the ratings heading into the weekend action.
Detroit Lions (8-1): 7.5
Baltimore Ravens (7-3): 7.0
Buffalo Bills (8-2): 6.0
Kansas City Chiefs (9-0): 5.4
San Francisco 49ers (5-4): 4.4
Green Bay Packers (6-3): 4.4
Philadelphia Eagles (7-2): 4.2
Minnesota Vikings (7-2): 2.3
Washington Commanders (7-3): 2.0
Pittsburgh Steelers (7-2): 1.9
Tampa Bay Buccaneers (4-6): 1.7
Arizona Cardinals (6-4): 1.5
Houston Texans (6-4): 1.2
Atlanta Falcons (6-4): 0.8
Cincinnati Bengals (4-6): 0.7
Los Angeles Chargers (6-3): 0.7
New York Jets (3-7): 0.2
Cleveland Browns (2-7): -0.3
Los Angeles Rams (4-5): -0.4
Miami Dolphins (3-6): -0.7
New Orleans Saints (3-7): -1.3
Seattle Seahawks (4-5): -1.4
Chicago Bears (4-5): -1.4
Indianapolis Colts (4-6): -1.6
Denver Broncos (5-5): -2.8
New York Giants (2-8): -4.6
Las Vegas Raiders (2-7): -4.8
Jacksonville Jaguars (2-8): -5.1
Tennesee Titans (2-7): -5.2
New England Patriots (3-7): -6.5
Carolina Panthers (3-7): -7.4
Dallas Cowboys (3-6): -8.0
The records say there’s a reasonable gap between the Cowboys and Falcons. FPI says otherwise.
