Let’s be clear, the Dallas Cowboys offense rose to the occasion when it mattered most in Indianapolis. Right after the Colts took the lead with a field goal late, Dak Prescott found Ryan Flournoy and the group was able to score and take the lead that would last, sealed by Caleb Downs’ interception.
It is fitting that Downs and the defense ended the game, though. That side of the ball has spent a long time hearing about how they are the problem for the Cowboys and on Sunday they rose to the occassion.
Consider that a defense’s job is to stop the opposing offense from scoring. On Sunday the Cowboys did that a grand total of eight times.
One of those instances was Downs’ pick so we are going to toss it to the side (for the purposes of this discussion) as it ended the game and the offense didn’t have to do anything except line up in victory formation.
Of the other seven possessions, the ones where the defense set the offense up, do you know how many times the Cowboys scored?
- Cowboys forced a punt….. Dak Prescott fumbled
- Cowboys forced a punt….. Cowboys punted themselves
- Cowboys forced a punt….. Cowboys punted themselves
- Cowboys forced a punt….. Cowboys punted themselves
- Cowboys forced a punt….. Dak Prescott and CeeDee Lamb connected for a touchdown
- Cowboys forced a punt….. Cowboys punted themselves
- Cowboys forced a fumble….. Cowboys punted themselves, after DeMarvion Overshown’s penalty at that
There was only one time in which the Cowboys offense took what the defense gave them and did something with it. I’m not trying to just minimize the offense here, but even that was partly the result of a broken play (so to speak).
It is undeniable that the Cowboys offense has regressed. This same overall phenomenon happened during last week’s loss to the Arizona Cardinals except the defense also broke near the end of the game (after holding for much of it).
We have spent the last year and a half saying if the defense can just be average or if they can just force a stop that the offense will take care of business. To their credit they did at the very end, but this is unacceptable in an overall sense.
The optimistic takeaway here is that maybe the defense is trending in the right direction so if the offense re-settles then they can be a fully balanced team. We will see.
