dallas cowboys vs. buffalo bills

Cowboys LB Damone Clark fined for roughness; 2 Bills docked for hits on Dak Prescott

From @ToddBrock24f7: The linebacker grabbed the helmet opening of James Cook during a first-quarter tackle in Week 15 but did not draw a penalty flag.

Referee Craig Wrolstad’s crew didn’t deem it a penalty at the time, but the NFL has stepped in and decided that Cowboys linebacker Damone Clark used unnecessary roughness in bringing down Bills running back James Cook during the Dallas loss last Sunday.

Clark has incurred a fine of $5,170 for the play.

The incident came just as the first quarter ended. On the second play following Sam Williams’s roughing the punter penalty and down 7-0, the Cowboys defense found themselves chasing Cook after a short pass turned into a chain-moving scamper.

Markquese Bell had the first crack at Cook but missed the tackle. Twenty-four yards downfield, Stephon Gilmore and Clark finally pushed him out of bounds. Replays showed that, in the process of tossing him to the ground, Clark gripped Cook’s helmet opening under the ear hole.

Had officials seen it live, it almost certainly would have brought a 15-yard personal foul penalty and would have been the second committed by the Cowboys on that drive. Buffalo ended the possession with a touchdown anyway, extending their lead to 14-0 en route to a dominant 31-10 victory.

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Two Bills defenders also picked up hefty fines during the Week 15 meeting. Safety Taylor Rapp will be docked $21,855 for the first-quarter late hit on Dak Prescott that prompted guard Zack Martin to play enforcer, and linebacker Tyrel Dodson’s head-to-head shot on Prescott in the second quarter will cost him $11,167. Both hits were deemed unnecessary roughness; both were called as penalties during the game (although Rapp’s was offset by Martin’s retaliation).

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3 major takeaways from Week 15 for Cowboys to work on

Dallas needs to diagnose what went wrong in the Bills loss and what they can take away from it going into their playoff run. | From @cdpiglet

For the third time this season, a team executed a game plan to beat the Dallas Cowboys and do it handily. After a few big misses early from Dallas, the Buffalo Bills settled in, ran the ball down the throat of the defense, and controlled the game. That has been the theme of attacking Dan Quinn’s unit successfully.

The Bills played back on defense, allowing Dallas to run the ball or throw underneath but eliminating deep shots. Buffalo primarily sent only four rushers, keeping seven defenders back in quarterback Dak Prescott’s throwing lanes. This is the same type of plan that the Arizona Cardinals and San Francisco 49ers employed in their victories over the Cowboys.

Many of the major takeaways from this game have been chronic issues, but the team must again see what they can do to get better at stopping opponents from executing these strategies. The playoffs are upcoming, and how well they clean up these deficiencies could be crucial to the type of playoff run they go on.

4 Downs: Dak’s botched bomb, punt penalty, missed challenge doomed Cowboys

From @ToddBrock24f7: Week 15’s no-show was over in a hurry. Four plays in particular told the whole story of the Cowboys’ embarrassing 31-10 loss.

Some games are a roller coaster, with ups and downs and twists and turns all along the way. And some games are that ride that takes you straight up with all the anticipation in the world, gives you just long enough to spot your car in the parking lot, and then drops you in a stomach-turning freefall that’s over before you know it, checking your pockets to see what- beside your lunch- you’ve lost.

Sunday’s visit to Buffalo was nothing short of a disaster, with six days of big-game hype crashing down in a matter of minutes. All of the tide-turning plays went the Bills’ way, and all happened before halftime, leaving the entire second half for Cowboys fans to stew in their latest plummet from lofty expectations.

The best that can be hoped for is that there are lessons learned from the 31-10 no-show, and that the Cowboys can use them to better navigate the challenges to come.

Here are the four biggest plays that defined Dallas’s low-water mark at Highmark Stadium.

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Momentum Dependent: What we learned about the Cowboys in Week 15

People shouldn’t overreact to what the Cowboys showed in Buffalo in Week 15 because their true identity is more complicated than one game. | From @ReidDHanson

Famous 20^th-century philosopher Michael Gerard Tyson probably said it best when he plainly stated, “everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.” Tyson, a savant of fisticuffs and the most feared pugilist of his generation, spoke from experience. Not as the man with the plan, but rather the puncher, hellbent on destroying said plan.

In Week 15 against the Bills, the Cowboys found themselves on the receiving end of that prose. And like the man with the plan in which Tyson once spoke, everything fell apart once that first punch landed on their jaw.

In a game which was eerily similar to the Week 5 disaster in San Francisco, things got ugly fast in Buffalo and all of the Cowboys’ presumed strategy flew right out the window the moment the first punch landed. Dallas played timidly on both sides of the ball. The game plan was a mess; game management was nonexistent. The offensive line couldn’t protect the QB, the QB couldn’t find the WRs, the defense couldn’t tackle, run fits weren’t filled, foolish penalties ruled the day, and effort was shamefully absent.

The Bills scored touchdowns on three of their first four drives and at no point did it appear Dallas was up to the task. The game would end with a score of 31-10 but to those who watched, it likely felt far, far worse.

Even in blowout loss, CeeDee Lamb stands out as Cowboys’ best weapon

CeeDee Lamb is the loan bright spot in an embarrassing lost Sunday evening. | From @TimLettiero

The Dallas Cowboys are wanted men for ruining fans’ Sunday evenings, but they cannot be considered armed and dangerous. They were last seen boarding a flight from Dallas to Buffalo so if seen, please call your local tip line.

To keep it short and sweet, Dallas didn’t show up on Sunday. To find even one play worth noting was difficult. With how poor the defense as a whole was and how neutralized the offense was, attempting to justify one player’s performance is like nails on a chalkboard. But no matter how hard life throws a loss at you, and this one was 31-10, taking a look on the bright side of things is always beneficial. The lone bright sport for Dallas was receiver CeeDee Lamb.

Lamb finished the night with seven receptions for a modest 53 yards and a 3-yard rushing score late in the depressing loss. He was the only reliable target for QB Dak Prescott, as the offense struggled to move the ball as a whole.

His rushing score concluded the game for Dallas as they look to bounce back against the Miami Dolphins on Christmas Even.

Meaningless touchdown.

Not to some.

CeeDee Lamb (-130) was the most bet player to score a touchdown in Cowboys-Bills game at @BetMGM.pic.twitter.com/8HrWG3umN1

— John Ewing (@johnewing) December 18, 2023

Studs and Duds: Cowboys demoralized by Bills, 31-10 in frustrating performance

There weren’t enough good performances from the Dallas Cowboys in their crushing 31-10 defeat to the Buffalo Bills in Week 15. | From @BenGrimaldi

Getting pushed around and demoralized isn’t a feeling the Dallas Cowboys have felt often during the 2023 season, but that’s exactly how the team looked in the 31-10 blowout loss to the Buffalo Bills. Most of the year it’s been the Cowboys handing out the beatdowns, yet that wasn’t the case in Week 15.

Just seven days after the Cowboys manhandled their division rivals, they folded like a cheap beach chair against the Bills. Dan Quinn’s defense was punched in the mouth and never got up off the mat in another embarrassing loss on the road.

If Mike McCarthy’s team was trying to show they could hang with a good team away from AT&T Stadium, they failed once again. The Cowboys played poorly in all three phases and got their butts whipped in the process. Here are the studs and duds from a sobering loss in Buffalo.

Good, Bad, Ugly: Cowboys offense no-shows, tackling disappears in 31-10 flop

From @ToddBrock24f7: The Dallas offense was nonexistent, while poor tackling and costly penalties doomed the Cowboys early in their visit to Buffalo.

Yeesh. The weather was expected to be rainy in western New York on Sunday, but it was the previously 10-3 Cowboys who were all wet in this Week 15 meeting that proved to be more beatdown than showdown.

The Bills came out fast and physical from the opening kickoff, while the Cowboys mostly looked like they just wanted to get inside out of the rain. The end result was a 31-10 loss that will resurrect all those concerns about Dallas not being able to run with winning teams on the road. Given that the Cowboys’ postseason slate looks to be exactly that situation every single week they’re in it, alarm bells are likely sounding at The Star.

While nothing went right for the team on the field, there was a bit of good news delivered by the outcomes of several early games. That was it, though, for the Cowboys’ day, as they got completely buffaloed by the Bills in what fans can only hope turns out to be an isolated late-season stumble.

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Cowboys’ Zack Martin updates injury, optimistic about playing vs Miami

From @ToddBrock24f7: The 8x-Pro Bowler was knocked out of Sunday’s game with what looked to be a knee injury. It’s his quad, and Martin says it’s not that bad.

Adding a very concerning injury to the embarrassing insult of a 31-10 defeat, the Cowboys lost right guard Zack Martin in the first quarter of Sunday’s game in Buffalo.

But early indications are, at least from Martin himself, that his injury is not serious and that he should be good to go for next Sunday’s interconference clash with Miami.

The six-time first-team All-Pro lineman took what appeared to be a hard, direct shot to the left knee as he collided with Buffalo defensive end Greg Rousseau in a collapsing pocket around Dallas quarterback Dak Prescott.

After staying down on the turf for a few minutes, Martin was able to walk off the field with assistance. He spent some time in the sideline medical tent and was eventually declared out with a quadriceps injury.

Zack Martin's injury. It is not clear what the injury is based on the replay pic.twitter.com/boSAOlFmxY

— Ben Brown 🌻 (@BenBrownPL) December 17, 2023

In the hours after the game, Martin told media members that he also believed at first the injury had been to his knee.

“I got hit deep in the quad,” he explained per Patrik Walker of dallascowboys.com. “We went to the tent, it stiffened up and wasn’t firing for me. A fluke thing. Hoping to treat it and get it ready to go on Sunday. I feel good about that.”

Head coach Mike McCarthy said he is less concerned now after having spoken to Martin in the locker room.

“He told me he’s going to be okay,” the coach said.

Martin is expected to get further testing done on Monday once the team is back in Dallas and will likely go easy this week in practice. But Martin’s optimism about being back in the lineup next Sunday is welcome news for Cowboys fans, who watched Prescott come under fire for most of the game against a fierce Buffalo pass rush.

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T.J. Bass, the undrafted rookie out of Oregon, came on in Martin’s stead and finished out the game. He performed well, despite having big shoes to fill.

The 10-4 Cowboys will travel to Miami to play the Dolphins in Week 16. The Dolphins defense currently ranks second in the league in sacks, with 48 through 14 games.

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Instant Analysis: Lack of discipline, awareness lead Cowboys to embarrassing loss to Bills

The Cowboys winning streak is over at five, and now the questions about how they’ll fare come playoff time will begin. | From @KDDrummondNFL

The Dallas Cowboys were absolutely embarrassed on Sunday, out-toughed by the Buffalo Bills. But it was their own mistakes that knocked the road team out of contention in an ugly first half, not the opponent’s punching them in the mouth. Penalties that extended drives and stalled their own, and not being aware of their surroundings led to a 21-3 halftime deficit, their worst of the season.

And when the Cowboys weren’t able to score to close out the first half or start the second, it was pretty much all she wrote. The Cowboys entered the game with a five-game winning streak overall and 21 in a row on artificial turf, but none of that translated to a competent performance in Week 15. Instead the club that had been red hot has the same questions that have haunted them resurface. Can Dallas win on the road against good teams? It doesn’t seem like they know how, as they fell to the Bills 31-10.

Dallas’ clinched a playoff berth before they took the field Sunday, thanks to other results. However they have many more doubts now then they did before now that they are 10-4 and likely out of the rae for the NFC East title and the No. 1 seed in the conference.