There’s a literal curse on the Cowboys whenever they get near the playoffs. The Dallas Cowboys were able to hand the crumbling Titans their sixth loss in a row with a 27-13 win in Tennessee, but the Cowboys offense was once again unimpressive.
I really do feel bad for the Dallas fans as whatever deal Jerry Jones made with the devil forty years ago to buy the Cowboys and win his three Super Bowls, the price of it has come at the cost of the sanity of the fans when the playoffs role around.
This game was the same old story the Cowboys have sung for the past twenty years, even though America’s Team was able to come through with the win in the end.
Coming up against the Titans without Ryan Tannehill under center, Derrick Henry in the backfield, Nicholas Petit-Frere, Ben Jones, and Nate Davis on the offensive line, Kyle Philips at WR, Jeffrey Simmons and Denico Autry on the defensive line, Bud Dupree, Dylan Cole, and Zach Cunningham in the linebacker core, and Amai Hooker, Josh Thompson, and Kristian Fulton in the secondary, it was almost impossible for the Cowboys to lose.
Plus, Andrew Adams (2 tackles) and Davontae Harris (1 tackle), both key members in what remained of the Titans secondary, went out of the game with injuries, further showing how injury battered and decimated this Titans team was. I mean, when you see Josh Dobbs throwing to Treylon Burks and handing the ball off to Hassan Haskins as the Titans main skill guys on offense, you know that team is doomed.
But nothing can come easy for the Cowboys as the Titans offense actually didn’t do too bad…relatively speaking.
In his first ever start in since getting drafted by the Steelers in 2017, Dobbs actually played well as he completed 20/39 passes for 232 yards, 1 TD, and 1 INT, while he also ran another 3 times for 12 yards. Sure, these aren’t great stats for a regular starting quarterback, but for a guy who’s only thrown an NFL pass 6 times in as many years, these are actually really impressive.
Plus, he was also hitting some huge passes downfield with bombs to Treylon Burks (4 REC, 66 yards), Racey McMath (1 REC, 39 yards), and Julius Chestnut (1 REC, 33 yards) that caught the Cowboys secondary off guard on multiple occasions.
Though, I do have to point out that the Cowboys defense was caught out a few times because they were hyper focused on stopping the Titans famous (and one-dimensional) running game, which they did as they held Haskins to just 12 carries for 40 yards and to just 97 of total rushing yards for the entire team.
Guys like Nashon Wright (9 tackles, 2 PD, 1 INT), Jayron Kearse (7 tackles), DaRon Bland (7 tackles, 2 QB hits), DeMarcus Lawrence (5 tackles, 2 PD, 1 QB hit), and Anthony Barr (4 tackles, 1 QB hit) were especially impressive against the Titans third stringers as they helped the Dallas defense keep the Titans offense to under 320 totals yards of offense, forced 5 punts, forced 2 turnovers, and kept the offense to less than 50% on 3rd down conversions (7/16).
But I do have to admit, this was the bare minimum of what the Cowboys should have done to backups and third stringers, regardless of the situations and play-from-behind yardage gains (i.e.: most of Dobbs throwing yards). However, what’s a little concerning is how poor Micah Parsons has been.
Even though the reigning Rookie Defensive Player of the Year (1 tackle, 2 QB hits, FR) recovered a fumble, it’s clear that he is suffering through something as he’s not been his usual dominating self these past few games.
He’s only had one sack since the Indy win and has been on the peripheral of the play during most of the downs I’ve watched. I hope he can recover quickly and get back to form for the sake of Cowboys fans, or else he might turn into a liability if his injury (whatever is wrong on that hand) gets worse.
Nevertheless, the big story of the game was the Cowboys offense and how horrific it looked against a bunch of backups in the first half.
Dak Prescott threw two interceptions (though one of them was not his fault) and was strip sacked, the Cowboys running game was stuffed by the Titans defensive frontline of Teair Tart (6 tackles, 0.5 sacks, 2 QB hits, 1 FR), DeMarcus Walker (5 tackles, 0.5 sacks, 1 TFL, 1 QB hit) , Kevin Strong (3 tackles, 1 PD), and Mario Edwards Jr. (3 tackles), and the passing game was kept out of the endzone for 30 minutes as the Titans kept the game close going into halftime with a meager 10-6 Dallas lead.
Sure, Prescott (29/41, 282 yards, 2 TDs, 2 INTs) picked up his game in the second half as he found CeeDee Lamb (11 REC, 100 yards), Dalton Schultz (7 REC, 56 yards, 2 TDs), and T.Y. Hilton (4 REC, 50 yards) to finally break the Titans resistance, but that’s not going to cut it against teams like the 49ers or a healthy Eagles squad. Ezekiel Elliott cannot get shutdown for just 39 yards and 1 TD, while Prescott can’t turn the ball over 3 times.
Yes, one of the interceptions was not his fault as the ball literally bounced in Hendershot’s hands and then he batted it right into Kevin Byard (6 tackles, 2 PD, 2 INTs), but the other pick and fumble is on him and the offensive line.
If Dallas (12-4) wants to break the curse and get back to the Super Bowl, then need to start much faster against much better teams in the playoffs. Or else they can just wish away another chance for a 4th Super Bowl under the Jerry Jones regime.
Reversely, the Titans (7-9) are going to miss the playoffs once the Jaguars pound them into submission on the last week of the regular season. But, if the Jags somehow lose to either the 2-12-1 Texans or the tumbling Titans, I don’t see this Tennessee team getting 10 points on the 5th seed (either Ravens, Bengals, or Chargers) in the Wild Card round.
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