Dallas Cowboys clunker against Broncos show who their real MVP always is | Opinion
The Dallas Cowboys believed their own BS, and on Sunday Dak Prescott was to football as Aaron Rodgers is to modern medicine.
On Sunday the Cowboys hosted the ish Denver Broncos and rather than bother trying to win the game they appeared to be content thinking that all they had to was show up.
The Cowboys are good, but they ain’t that good.
The Broncos and their career backup quarterback slapped around Dak and the Cowboys, 30-16. This is one of the most surprising defeats in the last 25 years of this franchise.
They were 6-1 and 10-point favorites at home against a .500 team, and were just plain awful. There was so much ugly in this Slop Soufflé that it’s hard to “celebrate” just one ingredient:
Dak Prescott was so bad he should have said he was still hurt.
For the record, after the game he said his strained calf is fine.
Even though he has started every game as an NFL rookie, he waited until his seventh year in the NFL and his 76th start to throw his biggest clunker.
After three quarters, Dak was 6-of-19 passing for 79 yards. The Cowboys didn’t score until garbage time of the fourth quarter.
Cowboys receiver Amari Cooper dropped a pass, his first of the season.
The defense was carved up by Denver running backs Melvin Gordon and Javonte Williams, who combined for nearly 200 yards.
Defensive end Randy Gregory has had a great season, but this team still misses DeMarcus Lawrence, who should be back in a week or so.
Coach Mike McCarthy was at his analytics best on Sunday as the Cowboys were an impressive 0-for-4 on fourth-down attempts. The first three mattered, whereas the fourth came in the fourth quarter when the team trailed 27-0.
The Cowboys special teams blocked a punt in the third quarter, only to touch it illegally, which gave the ball back to the Broncos. The Broncos turned an offensive series where they had a punt blocked into a field goal.
(As a side note: That’s a terrible rule. If you block the punt, you should always retain possession of the ball.)
Everyone was awful, but most concerning isn’t Dak, or watching running back Ezekiel Elliott play through a bruise, but it’s the absence of Tyron Smith.
The veteran left tackle missed Sunday’s game with a left ankle sprain, and the entire team felt the pain against Denver.
Like every team, the Cowboys have a handful of players they can’t lose. Tyron Smith is in the top three. Maybe top two.
The Cowboys’ record all-time with Smith starting is 79-61. Their record without him is now 13-15.
He missed all but two games last season with an ACL injury, and has battled a back issue, among other ailments. He’s 31, and things happen to 31-year-old NFL players who have started as many games as Tyron Smith.
The best both you, and the Dallas Cowboys can do, is just hope when he comes back he stays back.
On Sunday, the Cowboys moved Terence Steele from right tackle to left tackle to fill in for Smith, and the results looked just about as good as the game itself.
“They did a good job of pressing our tackles,” McCarthy said after the game.
That’s code for “We didn’t block.”
Steele, an undrafted rookie free-agent signee last season who played more than expected because of injuries, has been this team’s biggest shock thus far this season.
When starting right tackle La’el Collins was suspended for the first five games because he did something stupid (that’s paraphrasing), Steele stepped in and did just fine.
He did just fine, on the right side.
On Sunday, Collins started at right tackle while Steele was flipped to the left, which was a flop.
“I would say it was a little harder than I thought it would be. They have a good defense, good d-ends, and they were giving me a challenge,” Steele said.
Dak was under consistent pressure, and the running game was blah.
Collins is the better athlete, and if Smith is going to miss more time the Cowboys cannot believe another plate of Steele as the starting left tackle is appealing.
There is nothing appealing about what the Cowboys did on Sunday, but the Cowboys insist they will learn and grow from it.
Here is what we learned: Their offense can win without Dak, but it’s dead without Tyron.
