ATLANTA – Has the Dallas Cowboys' season hit rock bottom after Sunday's 27-21 loss to the Atlanta Falcons dropped them to 3-5?
It depends on how you want to look at things.
If you just want to see that the next three opponents are the Philadelphia Eagles, Houston Texans and Washington Commanders, who are a combined 19-7, then maybe not. This is shaping up to be another 2020 season (6-10) or, look, 2015 (4-12).
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If you want to focus on the impending returns of Pro Bowl edge rusher Micah Parsons (ankle) and cornerback DaRon Bland (foot), and further down the line, wide receiver Brandin Cooks (knee) and defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence (foot), then you can figure out a way to get to the playoffs for the fourth straight year.
And perhaps the hamstring injury that forced Dak Prescott out of Sunday's game isn't that serious, and the shoulder injury that CeeDee Lamb later suffered isn't that serious either.
“Sometimes in this league you just need one.” [win]”It takes one to get it going, get the confidence back, feel good and bounce back from there.” So we're not looking too far into the future, it's about getting our bodies healthy again close [Monday] And then we'll try everything in our power to put in our best performance next week at home against a good Philly team.
Last week, Prescott called the Atlanta game a must-win for the Cowboys, who had a 63% chance of making the playoffs at the start of the season, according to ESPN Analytics. With Sunday's loss, they have an 8% chance of winning, trailing only the Panthers, Giants and Saints in the NFC.
With a score of 3:5, their best path to the postseason – although not that easy at the moment – is through the NFC East. They are currently 3½ games behind the Commanders and 3 behind the Eagles.
Prescott has an 11-2 record against the Commanders in his career. He is 9-4 against the Eagles. He hasn't lost to the Giants since 2016, his rookie year, and has won 13 straight times against them, including a win in Week 4 this season.
“Well, we really need to keep the focus on what’s important,” coach Mike McCarthy said. “I felt like we did that at the start of the game. We have to win a game. I know everyone wants to talk about the long term. We suffered five defeats. We know exactly where this will take us and what it will take to get there.” “
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Mike McCarthy slams the tablet after Darnell Mooney's wide open TD
After Darnell Mooney scores a touchdown on fourth down, Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy shows his frustration by throwing a tablet on the ground.
A McCarthy-coached team has never made the playoffs with a record below .500 after eight games. As coach of the Packers in 2018, they went 3-4-1 before finishing 6-9-1 in a season in which he was fired with four games to play. In 2006, his first year in Green Bay, the Packers went 3-5 en route to 8-8.
In 2020, the Cowboys were 2-6 and finished 6-10.
The Cowboys have only started the playoffs 3-5 once: in 2018. That season, they made a bold trade for wide receiver Amari Cooper, who ended their season with an NFC East title and a 3-5 playoff win increased to 10:6.
Guard Zack Martin is one of five players who remain either on this team's current 53-man roster or on injured reserve: Prescott, backup QB Cooper Rush, RB Ezekiel Elliott and Lawrence are the other four.
“Absolutely that’s what we want to do,” Martin said. “I've said this before, there is absolutely no secret to this matter. We have to get right back to work and we just have to get our confidence back and go out with some spoils and expect to win.”
What comes first: the wins or the confidence?
“I mean, we need to have some confidence before the wins come, right?” Martin said. “So we have to believe we can win and play like that.”
But even when healthy, the Cowboys didn't play like that.
Against the Falcons, they were penalized nine times for 55 yards, including too many penalties before the snap. They converted only three third-down chances and none in the first half. The Lamb averaged more yards per rush (7.5) than yards per catch (5.9).
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Defensively, they were better, but still couldn't get a stop in the red zone and allowed three pass plays of 22 yards or more. Kirk Cousins was sacked twice but threw three touchdown passes. The Falcons averaged just 3.3 yards per rush, but Bijan Robinson controlled the pace of the game.
“We have too many self-inflicted wounds,” McCarthy said.
Maybe the Cowboys will make a trade before Tuesday's deadline that will help, although Jones cautioned that any deal wouldn't be as big as Cooper's. Maybe the offensive line starts playing well and the running game finds its rhythm (21 carries, 137 yards). Maybe the takeaways will return when Parsons and Bland return. Maybe the big games will return when Cooks gets healthy again.
Perhaps.
“I mean, we have the guys in here. We just have to take ownership of this as players and we have to go out there and execute our plays better,” Martin said. “We cannot defeat ourselves and fall into a hole. Our error rate is too low for that. Back to work. And everything we want to do is ahead of us, right?”
“We have a lot of division games coming up and we need to get one and get going.”
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