Cowboys remain optimistic despite setback against Atlanta
The Dallas Cowboys lost to the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday. But they kept the faith Monday.
The Cowboys continue to believe that they can keep their heads above water until their offensive stars — Tony Romo and Dez Bryant — return from injuries.
“Just go back to work,” Cowboys coach Jason Garrett said. “There were a lot of good things that happened in the game. There obviously were some things that weren’t good, they weren’t up to our standard, and they’re evident on the tape.
“So we have the kind of guys on our team who just come back in here [Tuesday], and you look at it; you’re honest with them; you look them in the eye. Everybody is accountable for what happened, and you move forward. We’re excited about our team.”
The Cowboys led 14-0, 21-7 and 28-14 in the first half. They lost 39-28.
The Cowboys had only 19 plays in the second half, with 52 total yards and minus-4 yards rushing. The Falcons had 37 second-half plays for 259 yards, including 106 on the ground.
We pride ourselves on being able to stop the run, and we didn’t do that. I think everything for them on offense came off of their ability to run the football.
Cowboys coach Jason Garrett
“We didn’t play up to our standard, and we have a high standard for ourselves about how we’re going to play,” Garrett said. “I think it was most apparent on defense. We pride ourselves on being able to take the football away from other teams. We were among the best in the league last year at that, and we didn’t do that in this game.
“We pride ourselves on being able to stop the run, and we didn’t do that. I think everything for them on offense came off of their ability to run the football. All their hard play-action stuff, the protection they gave the quarterback, their ability to be in really favorable third-down situations was all because we didn’t stop the run the way we needed to, and the way we have. So we’ve got to get back to doing that, and we have to look at the tape and understand what happened.
“I don’t think it’s one thing. It’s a number of different things. It might be this thing on this play, that thing on that play, that thing on another play. We’ve just got to get all that stuff cleaned up and go back to work.”
The Cowboys started Sunday’s game without eight key players, including their top three right defensive ends. With only three defensive ends available, DeMarcus Lawrence played 57 of 74 snaps, Jack Crawford 54 and rookie Ryan Russell 33.
Rookie defensive end Randy Gregory continues to rehab a high-ankle sprain, which likely will keep him out until after the bye; Greg Hardy’s four-game suspension ends after the New Orleans game; and Jeremy Mincey should return this week after sitting out with a concussion.
“We like to rotate defensive linemen, and we simply had some guys who weren’t able to play for us,” Garrett said. “We had some younger guys playing, and at times they did some good things; other times they didn’t. We weren’t able to rotate like we normally do, but those were the conditions that we were playing in, and we just simply need to play better.
“There’s a lot of reasons why, a lot of explanations, a lot of excuses that people can use, but that’s not the world we live in.”
With Romo out, Brandon Weeden started at quarterback. Although the Cowboys traded for Matt Cassel last week, they insist they do not have a quarterback controversy, and Weeden will start this week against the Saints.
The Cowboys termed Weeden’s performance as “efficient” as he finished 22-of-26 for 232 yards with one interception. But Pro Football Focus noted that 21 of Weeden’s pass attempts did not travel farther than 9 yards in the air.
He did average 8.9 yards per attempt, which topped the 8.5 that Romo led the league with last season.
Terrance Williams, the Cowboys’ top receiver with Bryant out, had only two targets. He had one drop. Cole Beasley caught four passes for 49 yards, the only wideout with a reception.
“We’ll evaluate quarterback decision-making, but there are opportunities to throw the ball out there,” Garrett said. “He made some different decisions, threw the ball inside and was effective. The guy threw four incompletions the whole game, so he did a good job helping us move the football.
“But as much as anything else, you got behind the chains a little bit in the second half and weren’t able to get back on track like we needed to convert those third downs.”
This story was originally published September 28, 2015 at 8:14 PM with the headline "Cowboys remain optimistic despite setback against Atlanta."