What we learned in the Dallas Cowboys’ crucial 22-20 loss vs. the Miami Dolphins
The Dallas Cowboys showed heart and resiliency on Christmas Eve.
But they still couldn’t get out of their own way on the road in a 22-20 loss to the Miami Dolphins.
The Cowboys (10-5) have now lost back-to-back games for first time since 2021.
And they lost for the fifth time on the road this season.
While they had a much better showing that last week’s 31-10 blowout loss to the Buffalo Bills, it renews some of the same questions about the Cowboys heading to the playoffs, where theirinability to beat winning teams reduces their odds of reaching the Super Bowl for the first time since the 1995 season.
“This narrative around us not winning away is strange but true, unfortunately,” receiver CeeDee Lamb said, We got continue to be great, continue to be who we are and change that narrative.”
And the narrative had a chance to be so much different when quarterback Dak Prescott engineered a 17-play, 69-yard drive, erasing a 19-10 fourth-quarter deficit, to give the Cowboys a 20-19 lead.
But a Cowboys defense that had bent but not broken all game, couldn’t stop the Dolphins and quarterback Tua Tagovailoa from matching Prescott’s drive with one of their own.
Miami marched 64 yards on 12 plays, aided in part a face mask penalty on linebacker Damone Clark.
Kicker Jason Saunders kicked a 29-yard field goal, his fifth of the game, as the clock expired to send the Dolphins to victory.
The Cowboys are back home at the friendly confines of AT&T Stadium on Saturday when the take on the Detroit Lions (11-4), who on Sunday clinched their first divisional title for the first time in 30 years.
The Cowboys are 7-0 at home and need the win to keep pace with the Philadelphia Eagles and stay in contention for first place in the NFC East.
The Cowboys are 3-5 on the road and end the season at the Washington Commanders.
Coach Mike McCarthy said the Cowboys have to break through on the road. It will be their downfall in the playoffs if they don’t turn it around.
“To think you’re ever going to win a championship, you need these games, especially on the road,” McCarthy said. “To go win games on the road. That’s why the urgency to come in here, we put a lot into the game, but it’s definitely something we can grow from.”
Prescott said how the Cowboys battled back gives them confidence that they can and will win on the road. They just have to do it.
“I guess it feeds the narrative. We didn’t we didn’t come out with the win,” Prescott said. But I can tell you the confidence is high from that group. This one sucks it hurts, especially in the manner that we did it lose this one. But with the confidence is high. We took a step from last week. These guys understand that we can win. Obviously, we haven’t done it. But we will win. The road forward looks like we’ll be going on the road in the playoffs.”
What we learned in the Dallas Cowboys 22-20 loss vs. the Miami Dolphins:
Prescott and the offense struggles
Prescott and the Cowboys offense appeared to get it’s mojo back in the first quarter against the Dolphins after that no-show against the Bills.
The Cowboys took the opening kickoff and marched right down the field. But they failed to get the ball in the end zone when receiver Brandin Cooks was pushed out of bounds at the 2-yard line and running back Tony Pollard was ruled down inches from the end zone.
On next play, fullback Hunter Luepke fumbled the snap from Prescott and the Cowboys came up empty as the Dolphins recovered the loose ball.
Not too flustered, the Cowboys made it count the second time they had the ball when Prescott found receiver CeeDee Lamb for a 49-yard catch-and-run touchdown to make the score 7-3.
But after Lamb’s touchdown, the Cowboys offense went quiet, gaining 9 yards on 12 plays and failing to register a first down.
The Cowboys broke that drought with a 45-yard pass to Jalen Tolbert in their second drive third quarter.
But an illegal motion penalty nullified a first down run by Prescott and the Cowboys had to settle for a field goal.
Down 19-13 with 11:06 left in the game, Prescott engineered his biggest drive the season.
He marched the Cowboys 69 yards on 17 plays, converting crucial third- and fourth-down tries, to put the Cowboys in the lead with an 8-yard touchdown pass to Brandin Cooks.
It was aided by pass interference penalty against the Dolphins on fourth down.
Unfortunately, the Cowboys never got the ball back.
Prescott threw 32 passes, completing 20 for 253 yards and one touchdown.
That drive couldn’t have been the best moment of Prescott’s career.
“We didn’t win so it’s hard for me to say that,” Prescott said. “We got to take it one play at a time and understood what that drive meant what we needed to do and it wasn’t just me. Give credit to the offense. Receivers getting opening making some big catches. When you don’t win it’s hard to make something monumental.”
Run game, offensive line struggle without Tyron Smith
The Cowboys played the game without left tackle Tyron Smith, who was sidelined with a back injury.
It was Smith’s fourth missed game of the season. Chuma Edoga started in his place.
The line struggled protecting Prescott, who was sacked three times in first half, and blocking in the run game.
Outside of scrambles from Prescott and positive runs from receivers Cooks and Lamb, the Cowboys got virtually nothing from Tony Pollard (12 carries for 38 yards) and Rico Dowdle (two carries for 4 yards.)
Overall the Cowboys had 97 rushing yards.
“I had to extend some plays to move around in the pocket a little bit but those are some great guys that they were playing over there,” Prescott said. “So we got to go back and look at the film but Tyron is a Hall of Famer. He’s going to be tough to replace and when he’s not in there. It’s always difficult time.”
Cowboys defense holds up but not enough
If the Cowboys would have been told before the game that the defense was going to hold the Dolphins explosive offense to three field goals and just one touchdown for the better part of three quarters they would have been happy.
Miami speedster Tyreek Hill made some plays down the field but none were backbreakers. Jaylen Waddle also had a 50-yard catch.
That said, the defense still did enough to keep the Cowboys in game.
And the Cowboys run defense, which gave 266 yards to the Bills on 49 carries, proved to be stronger this week.
The Dolphins, the NFL’s fourth-best rushing team, ran for 91 in the game.
And it was the Cowboys defense that came through in the fourth quarter with a crucial sack on Tagovailoa on third- and-9 to give the ball back to the offense, down 19-13.
However, after the Cowboys took the lead 20-19 with 3:27 left, the defense was asked to come up big once again and couldn’t.
Tagovailoa, who led the Dolphins downfield for the game-winning field, finished 24-37 for 293 yards and one touchdown.
It left the Cowboys defense demoralized and frustrated at the end. The Dolphins marched 64 yards on 12 plays. The flag on Clark got them started.
But they also converted twice on third down as the Cowboys used up all their timeouts to no avail.
“It was super demoralizing,” edge rusher Micah Parsons said. “I just feel like we’re good enough to get the stop. We didn’t get a stop. We got gashed. We gave up plays. It’s tough.”
CeeDee Lamb sets career high, closes in Irvin record
Cowboys receiver CeeDee Lamb set career highs in catches in and yards against the Dolphins with six catches, 118 yards in the game.
Lamb now has 109 catches for 1,424 yards in 2023.
He is just three catches from surpassing Michael Irvin’s single-season franchise record of 111 catches, set in 1995.
Lamb opened the game on fire with four catches for 93 yards and a 49-yard catch and run for a touchdown.
He became the third receiver in Cowboys history to score a touchdown in seven straight games. The last to do was Dez Bryant in 2012.
Lamb didn’t have another catch until the fourth quarter. That’s when he came up big with receptions on third-and-7 and fourth-and-2 to spark the drive that gave the Cowboys a brief lead.
“They wasn’t doing anything to take me away,” Lamb said. “I don’t know. I just feel like if I’m going to be involved just keep me involved. It was weird that a second and third quarter.”
