DALLAS — The Denver Broncos handed the Dallas Cowboys what can only be labeled as an old-fashioned butt whooping on Sunday at AT&T Stadium. The game wasn’t even as close as the 30-16 final score would seem to indicate. Make no mistake, the Broncos bullied the Cowboys, delivering them their first loss since Week 1.
Say goodbye to the six-game winning streak, string of solid play, and to all those good feelings that the Cowboys built up just a week ago after winning on the road with a backup quarterback.
The Cowboys in Week 9 looked nothing like the team that we’ve seen in previous weeks. Or, at the very least, all of the sloppy, undisciplined play that we had seen before reared its ugly head again without any of the virtues that had ultimately led to victories.
Even so, very few people could’ve seen this coming.
Perhaps it should have been more obvious. After all, Dak Prescott was returning after he essentially hadn’t played in three weeks. Prescott looked very rusty and missed on several throws where receivers were wide open.
The weapons on offense didn’t help Prescott out much, either. There were dropped passes by running back Tony Pollard, as well as wide receivers Amari Cooper and CeeDee Lamb, that should’ve gone for big gains. Those occurred when the game was still close and the outcome could have been different.
The offensive line was also shuffled around after losing starting left tackle Tyron Smith with a bone spur. Moving Terence Steele to left tackle, when he had been playing well at right tackle, and inserting La’el Collins at right tackle when he had missed the last six games, turned out to be a disaster. Steele had his worst game of the season, struggling to settle in on the opposite side of the line.
All that combined meant that, offensively, the Cowboys were out of sync and you could see it early on. Mike McCarthy chose to go for it on fourth down on each of the offense’s first two possessions and both attempts failed. Those misses foreshadowed what was to come. It wasn’t going to be the Cowboys’ day, and everything felt off. In fact, Dallas ended the game going 0-for-4 on fourth down attempts.
Yet, for as bad as the offense was, the defense was much worse. Not many defenders came to play as Dan Quinn’s unit got destroyed up front. The Cowboys couldn’t stop the run, getting gashed for 191 yards by the Denver running back duo of Melvin Gordon and Javonte Williams. A week after one of the best efforts by the defense on the year, the Cowboys wilted when punched in the mouth.
The Broncos were without their top offensive linemen, and lost two more starters during the game, but still had no issues manhandling the Cowboys.
The defensive dud was especially frustrating when considering that the Broncos were behind the chains for most of the game, yet still managed to convert first downs. Dallas had the Broncos’ offense backed up to at least 14 yards to go for a first down on five occasions, and on all five occasions, the Broncos managed to earn a new set of downs. Denver went 8-for-15 on third downs, four of which were converted with more than eight yards to gain for a first.
After an awful first half of football, and down 16-0, the Cowboys gave themselves a chance to crawl back into the game with a sack from rookie Micah Parsons, which was followed up by a blocked punt by wide receiver Malik Turner. The Cowboys were going to get the ball back deep in Broncos territory early in the third quarter with a chance to change momentum and put points on the board.
However, Dallas fell victim to a weird rule where they touched the live ball without recovering it before the Broncos picked it up to gain possession and a fresh set of downs. That was the straw that broke the camel’s back. You just knew it wasn’t going to be the Cowboys’ day when a blocked punt translated into a first down for the visitors.
Regardless, the Broncos dominated the Cowboys in almost every facet of the game. Dallas was outcoached, outplayed, and out-muscled.
This wasn’t the Cowboys that we’ve come to see so far in 2021. This felt like a team that had gotten a tad full of themselves and wasn’t prepared to play against a team that was hungry to humble them. There are no excuses for playing so poorly and the Cowboys hopefully learned a lesson about taking games for granted.
The Broncos humiliated the Cowboys, what’s important now is how Dallas responds. The next game could tell us a lot about the Cowboys’ season.
Do you think the Cowboys will bounce back from this loss in Week 10? Let it all out to Ben on Twitter @BenGrimaldi.
