Even Cowboys get the blues
Dallas coach miffed at lack of emotion from players, loss of QB
When a team is winning, it is all smiles and agreement in the clubhouse. But when a team loses a lot, the camaraderie gets fractured.
The Dallas Cowboys have lost five games, and fingers are pointing in all directions.
On Sunday, the Cowboys lost to the Washington Football Team, hardly a world beater, by the dispiriting score of 25-3. Dallas (2-5) also lost its quarterback, Andy Dalton, to a concussion after a hit in the third quarter. Dalton had been a replacement for Dak Prescott, who was knocked out for the season earlier this month with a fractured and dislocated ankle.
Coach Mike McCarthy took issue with his team’s non-reaction after Dalton received what many saw as a dirty shoulder-to-helmet hit from Washington linebacker Jon Bostic. While several players went to see if Dalton was OK, none confronted Bostic, who was subsequently ejected for the illegal hit. “We speak all the time about playing for one another, protecting one another,” McCarthy said, according to The Athletic. “It definitely was not the response you would expect.”
Cowboys players were also looking for answers after the game.
“We need more belief and more high spirits around this team,” DeMarcus Lawrence, a defensive end, told USA Today. “And really, more fight. That’s really, I feel like, one of our weaknesses. We need to build a stronger backbone, fight and also make sure that we brought everything possible to come out with a victory.”
Lawrence’s remarks followed reports of dissension among the team in the week leading up to Sunday’s game. Players quoted anonymously by the NFL Network were sharply critical of the coaching staff, calling into question their preparation and capability to adjust.
Those reported remarks gained enough traction that the players and staff took pains to disavow them in the days leading up to the game against Washington. “I don’t deal with all of that anonymous stuff,” linebacker Jaylon Smith told reporters. “If you got something to say, just put your name on it. All of that anonymous stuff is really trash to me.”
Standing up for teammates and having “backbone” is all well and good, but a bigger reason the Cowboys are struggling is no doubt having lost star quarterback Prescott, who threw for 450 or more yards in each of the three games before the one in which he was injured. The team’s offence took another steep downturn with the loss of Dalton this week, turning to Ben DiNucci, a rookie out of James Madison, to complete the game.
Also contributing to the subpar season so far: a team defence that rates dead last in the league and a star running back, Ezekiel Elliott, who is averaging career lows of 4.1 yards per rush and 6.4 yards per catch.
The low points of Sunday’s game were numerous. The Cowboys gave up a safety, an always embarrassing play somehow made even more embarrassing because it was the first score of the game for either team. In the end, Dallas managed just 3 points for the day, only the second time since 2004 it has been held to such a low total.
The Cowboys trailed in yards, 397-142 and first downs, 21-12. They were 3 for 12 on third down conversions and 0 for 1 on fourth down, when they mysteriously called a passing play on fourth-and-1.
Dalton was pressured and threw it incomplete by a considerable distance.
Dalton suffered much of the game from mediocre pass protection, a problem for Prescott before he was injured, too.
As for DiNucci, it’s hard to read much into his 2 of 3 for 39 passing yards cameo. Dalton is for now listed as questionable for Week 8 with a concussion.