What we learned in the Dallas Cowboys’ eye-opening 31-10 blowout loss to the Buffalo Bills
On a day when the Dallas Cowboys officially clinched a playoff berth, questions resurfaced about their postseason viability in a 31-10 blowout loss to the Buffalo Bills at Highmark Stadium.
Losses by the Green Bay Packers and Atlanta Falcons allowed the Cowboys (10-4) to punch their ticket to the playoffs for the third straight season.
But the goal is to get to the Super Bowl for the first time since 1995, which would end a 28-year drought.
And a Cowboys team that was playing as well as any team in the NFL, winning seven of their previous eight while riding a five-game winning streak, was dominated by the Bills in all phases of the game.
The Bills (8-6) kept their playoff hopes alive as the Cowboys experienced their fourth road loss of the season.
The league’s highest scoring offense was kept out of the end zone until garbage time in the fourth quarter, conjuring up memories of the 42-10 loss to the San Francisco 49ers in October.
That loss proved to the impetus for the run the Cowboys have been on, which coincided with MVP talk for Dak Prescott and dreams of a possible Super Bowl run.
But on a day when a lot more went wrong than right, both offensively and defensively, those thoughts were put to rest by the Bills.
Especially if they continue to no-show on the road like they did against Buffalo.
“That’s the message,” coach Mike McCarthy said. “We play so well at home, and there’s just too big of a gap on the road, and we’re conscious of it. We got to be better than this. I don’t think anybody expected to play the way we did tonight. They played well, not to discredit their performance, but we got to be much better on the road regardless.”
The Cowboys are currently second in the NFC East behind the Philadelphia Eagles. And would need to win on the road in the playoffs — likely more than once — to reach the big game.
In their four losses this season, they have been outscored 124-64, or an average of 31-16.
“Honestly, it’s just unacceptable at this point,” edge rusher Micah Parsons said. “There’s no excuse for it. It is mind boggling why we’re not playing well and we’re not coming together on the road. It’s something we need to look at and get better because we got to go on the road next week.”
Another road test awaits against the Miami Dolphins (10-4) on Christmas Eve and the Cowboys have two of their final three games on the road as they end the season at Washington following a home game against the Detroit Lions.
“It’s a huge difference,” Prescott said. “Honestly these next couple of weeks are about is figuring out what that difference is and trying to close that gap. We can’t be those two different other teams.”
It’s why officially clinching the playoff meant nothing to the Cowboys.
“Didn’t pay attention that don’t don’t don’t care to be honest,” Prescott said. “Obviously coming into this thing that’s what that’s one of the goals. But as we get into the latter part of the year with the way that we’ve been handling the season, we knew that was just a matter of time. You can check it off. But we’ve got other things to focus on. This is about us putting our best performance out each and every week and today we simply didn’t do that. So that’s that’s where the concern and that’s that’s where the focus is.”
What we learned in the Cowboys eye-opening loss loss vs. Bills:
Dak Prescott, offense come up empty against Bills
You had a feeling it might be a good day Prescott and the Cowboys offense on their second play of the game.
Down 7-0, Prescott, who was been hotter than any NFL quarterback over the previous eight games, went deep to a receiver Brandin Cooks running behind the Buffalo defense.
But he threw it 5 yards too far.
That would be the closest the offense would get to the end zone until the 2:48 mark of the fourth quarter when receiver CeeDee Lamb scored on a 3-yard run.
It was bittersweet pill on a day when seemingly nothing worked for a Cowboys attack that came into the game with the league’s most prolific attack.
Prescott had his worst game of the season, completing 21 of 34 passes for 134 yards.
He threw his first interception in five games and saw a streak of seven games with at least two touchdown passes come to an end.
Prescott and McCarthy said the Bills surprised them by using two high safeties and making them throw every thing underneath.
Prescott admitted he didn’t have his best game and lamented the early miss to Cooks that possibly could have game them some momentum and change the game.
Cowboys get run over on defense, minus Johnathan Hankins
The biggest concern and question about the Cowboys defense has been stopping the run.
They readily acknowledge they have to stop the run to earn the right to do what they do best and rush the passer.
The Cowboys have held up respectively for much of the season, giving up 106 yards per game to rank 13th in NFL.
But on this rainy day the defense, playing without injured nose tackle Johnathan Hankins, was exposed against the Bills and running back James Cook, who had 15 carries for 104 yards in the first half.
The Cowboys had not allowed a 100-yard rusher through the first 13 games.
The Bills has 146 rushing in the first two quarters and most damning was how they bullied the Cowboys defense for extra yards with brute strength as well as missed tackles.
“They finished better than we did,” McCarthy said. “It’s something we pride ourselves on. They were they were better in that area.”
Cook finished with 221 yards from scrimmage, including 179 on the ground on 25 carries and two catches for 42 yards and a touchdown. His total yardage for the game was the most since 2010 for a Buffalo player and he added insult to injury with a flip into the end zone after a 24-yard touchdown run up the middle of the lifeless defense to make the score 30-3 in the fourth quarter.
Parsons said declined to comment on the run defense.
He said not having Hankins was important but it was a downfall of the entire group on defense.
The run game was strong and Bills were so dominant that star quarterback Josh Allen said he felt the kid who got an “A” on the class project and didn’t do anything to help.
Allen passed for a touchdown and an for a touchdown but he completed just 7 of 15 passes for 94 yards.
Undisciplined Cowboys contribute to own demise
The Cowboys didn’t play well on offense or defense early on against the Bills.
Nothing worked. And while the Bills deserve a ton of credit, the Cowboys contributed to their own woes with undisciplined penalties.
All three Buffalo touchdown drives in the first half were aided by personal foul Cowboys penalties.
A roughing the passer flag on defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence on the opening drive of the game set the tone. It negated an incomplete pass on third down. Instead of settling for a field goal, the Bills turned into a 2-yard touchdown run.
Similarly, the Cowboys seemingly had the Bills off the field again with a third-down incompletion that forced a punt. But Sam Williams was flagged for roughing the punter.
The 15-yard penalty was soon followed by an 18-yard touchdowns pass from Josh Allen to Cook early in the second quarter.
The Bills went up 21-3 going into halftime aftersafety Jayron Kearse was flagged for a personal foul on an incomplete pass.
“The penalties changed the course of the game,” Parsons said. “They might just get three on the first one. They don’t get any points on the next one. Those crucial penalties really hurt. It’s hard to come on the road and you face these crucial penalties.”
