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Todd Archer, ESPN Staff WriterOct 15, 2024, 06:00 AM ET
- Todd Archer is an NFL reporter at ESPN and covers the Dallas Cowboys. Archer has covered the NFL since 1997 and Dallas since 2003. He joined ESPN in 2010. You can follow him on Twitter at @toddarcher.
FRISCO, Texas — After a 47-9 loss to the Detroit Lions Sunday, now what for the Dallas Cowboys?
It’s easy to say the bye week will give the Cowboys (3-3) a chance to get healthy, to get away, to forget about all the things that have gone wrong so far this season, especially at AT&T Stadium.
“There’s nothing magic about bye week,” owner and general manager Jerry Jones said. “You can do some things differently within three days of some of the things that bit us out there [Sunday]. This was very concerning, and it was very humbling.”
Later, Jones called the 38-point loss, which was the largest in his tenure with the club, “a shocker.”
Whatever changes, it won’t come this week. The players are off until next week, as is custom for a lot of teams. There will be no practice. Maybe that’s a good thing. At least four players used the term “look in the mirror” during postgame interviews.
“Get in there Monday, clean it up, look at it, be honest with one another. Everybody. Myself,” quarterback Dak Prescott said. “I’m sure Coach [Mike McCarthy] said the same — look in the mirror. Figure out what we can do, how we can be better for this team, put better units out there, and collectively make sure that when we get on the road the week after the bye that we’re a much better team than [what] we put out there, and try to build from that.”
It won’t be easy as the Cowboys travel to play the San Francisco 49ers on Oct. 27 (8:20 p.m. ET, NBC).
The Cowboys have questions across the board on offense and defense, but where do they start?
The Prescott-to-Lamb connection
It is evident that training camp matters.
After leading the NFL in receptions (135) and finishing second in yards (1,749) and third in touchdowns (12) last season, CeeDee Lamb skipped training camp before signing a contract extension in late August. Even with all of the banked reps with Prescott over the years, their connection has been off.
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According to ESPN Research, Prescott has completed 58.2% of his passes to Lamb this season at 8.5 yards per target — both are the lowest marks for that duo in their careers.
How can the quarterback and receiver use the bye week?
“Yeah, communication, spend a couple of days putting the ball in the air,” Prescott said. “Honestly, it’s simple as that. Communication, a little bit of work, and understanding that these defenses are doing a good job. Let’s not discredit them. This is the NFL. When you’ve put up numbers like we have together, guys aren’t just going to come out and play you one-on-one with CeeDee and let you have a field day.”
The run game
After trending in the right direction against the New York Giants and Pittsburgh Steelers, the Cowboys ran for 53 yards on 17 carries against the Lions. Too many times, Cowboys running backs Rico Dowdle and Ezekiel Elliott were getting hit as soon as they took the handoff.
What will help is not falling behind by such large margins like they did against the New Orleans Saints (35-13), Baltimore Ravens (28-6) and Lions (34-6). But the combination of blocking and the vision of the running backs has not been good enough, even in the games that have been close.
The Cowboys are averaging 3.5 yards per carry and have two rushing touchdowns in six games. They don’t have a run longer than 13 yards on the season.
“I think that we got to take a look at what we’re doing [with] run blocking first,” McCarthy said. “I don’t think we gave those guys clean looks. So based on who was playing or how we’re playing, what I was calling, what we designed, so all that would be looked at.”
Lack of takeaways, sacks
Under former coordinator Dan Quinn, the Cowboys’ defense feasted on takeaways. Cornerback Trevon Diggs led the NFL in interceptions in 2021. Cornerback DaRon Bland led the league in them in 2023.
This season, the Cowboys have four interceptions and one fumble recovery. They have 13 sacks, but six came in the opener. Through six games last season, they had eight interceptions, four fumble recoveries and 16 sacks with seven coming in the opener.
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Edge rusher Micah Parsons and defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence have missed the past two games with injuries. Lawrence will be out until November with a sprained foot. Parsons could be back after the bye week. Bland is expected to make his season debut against San Francisco.
“That doesn’t just solve it,” McCarthy said of the return of injured players.
The Cowboys have played three games against quarterbacks inside the top 10 in QBR (Derek Carr, Lamar Jackson, Jared Goff) and have been shredded three times. Niners quarterback Brock Purdy is 10th in QBR.
The Lions had 448 yards in three quarters on Sunday. The Cowboys did not allow more than 421 yards in a regular-season game last year.
“Right now, we’re not playing good ball, that’s all it comes down to,” safety Malik Hooker said.
Hooker was talking about the defense. He could have been talking about the entire team.
The bye week always comes at a good time, but is that enough to change the direction of the season?
“I think it’s extremely important not only in that guys get their bodies back, but we got guys banged up,” left-guard-turned-left-tackle Tyler Smith said. “Guys, take a look in the mirror, see where we’re at. We’re 3-3. We got 11 games left in the regular season.
“We’ve got a lot of opportunities in front of us. It’s just part of our journey to maximize all of those. Be the football team that I know we can be. Be the football players I know we can be. Rise to the occasion when we need to, do what we need to.”
