America’s team went into Lincoln Financial Field with confidence and high expectations. It slowly died down when many bad breaks were favoring the Eagles’ opposition. Dak Prescott still put up an excellent performance, but the Dallas Cowboys still lost despite his best efforts. The late overturned Luke Schoonmaker touchdown hurt the team and was the beginning of the downfall.
Prescott came back in the game late in the last seconds of the fourth quarter where it became a game of inches. No doubt, it was heartbreaking for Cowboys fans but for the Dallas players who believed they were the better team.
Prescott explains more about the loss, “It’s a game of inches. That’s why you’ve gotta love this game: it’s tough to win. We fought our asses off. Great NFC East matchup, and they came out with it tonight. An inch or two on one of those few plays and we’d be talking about a different outcome. They got this one.”
It all came down to needing one play, but of course, there’s no excuse as Dallas needed momentum early. Mike McCarthy’s offense is still efficient but it needs the proper makeover to be a contender. The third-quarter unproductivity from Dallas hurt any momentum that the Cowboys had. Despite the breaks, it obviously didn’t work out for Dallas.
3 Reasons Why the Dallas Cowboys Lost in NFC East Thriller
Penalties, Missed Calls Add Up
Penalties were costing Dallas all game, it’s nothing new to the Cowboys. They’ve had a long history of penalties that decreased their momentum and even cost them the game. For example, the illegal formation penalty on Chuma Edoga wiped a Tony Pollard touchdown off the board. But the late penalty in the last seconds of the contest put the icing on the cake.
No doubt, Dallas was receiving some huge breaks as well from penalties. The penalties were favoring the Eagles all three quarters and were finally giving the Cowboys breaks late in the fourth quarter. However, some Cowboys fans were upset with the officiating throughout the night. This might have been the turning point of the matchup which isn’t something new.
Cowboys fans are always holding their breath every game waiting for a clean game of officiating, but will have to hold it for longer.
Momentum Wasn’t in Favor of Dallas
The overturning of the Luke Schoonmaker touchdown and Prescott not converting the extra two-point conversion hurt the team. If anything, those two points hurt the most because the Cowboys could’ve kicked a late field goal to take it to overtime, 28-28. However, Prescott had to muster up the will to attempt for a game-winning drive. Let’s get one thing straight, even though teh Dallas Cowboys lost, Prescott still put up 374 yards and three touchdowns. The quarterback had a phenomenal game and this loss shouldn’t be used against him.
It might have been his teammates who needed to step a bit extra to help lead this team. Jalen Hurts had some miscues, but his team was able to hang on for mercy until the end. As for morality, Prescott didn’t hold back on his support for the team.
He explains more on his part on what this loss means, “There are no moral victories in this league, not by any means, but by being inches away, we know we’re doing the right thing. We’re gonna keep working, period.”
Cowboys’ Running Game Is Declining
Dallas finally saw some bursts of life from Tony Pollard in the run game throughout the matchup. However, Prescott has been heavily relying on CeeDee Lamb and of course, Jake Ferguson as a security blanket. The absence in Pollard’s run game is hurting the team, especially in red-zone drives. It seems like Dallas is missing Ezekiel Elliot’s presence in these situations.
Elliott was like a hog in the red zone and gave the Cowboys an advantage to get an easy score. Now, it seems like Jerry Jones should’ve made the move to trade for a running back to help Pollard. That’s too late now, but it would be helpful for Pollard to run different routes in his run game to improve. However, that’s all up to the mindset of McCarthy.
Main Photo: Eric Hartline – USA Today Sports
