It may be time to sound the alarm in Dallas. The Cowboys came into Chicago sitting at 1-1, pulling off a gutsy win over a Giants team they should’ve beat handily at home. Brian Schottenheimer vowed to correct the many, many defensive issues that were on display in Week 2, proclaiming them to be easy fixes.
Matt Eberflus apparently didn’t get the memo. Facing his former team, one would have thought Eberflus would come into the game with a list of his best plays, seeking to exploit the many weaknesses
of his former roster, one that was winless coming into Sunday.
After one series, it looked like that may have been the case. Dallas forced a three-and-out, and Caleb Williams looked uneasy. Then, the Cowboys run game picked up where it left off the previous two weeks, moving bodies and falling forward. Javonte Wiliams ripped off a big, physical run that had Cowboys fans in Soldier Field cheering loudly.
That is, until a Bears defender ripped the ball right from Wiliams’ hands at the end of the play. The fumble recovery lit a fire under the Bears’ offense, and Wiliams found Rome Odunze for a big touchdown bomb over the head of Trevon Diggs.
The Cowboys looked to respond, getting back to running the ball and staying ahead of the chains. However, one play proved to be pivotal: a run with CeeDee Lamb, which was negated anyway by offsetting penalties, saw the receiver leave the game with an injury. He briefly returned to the field on the next drive, but did not finish the game after that.
The offense stalled on that drive, resulting in a Brandon Aubrey field goal, and things got harder from there for the Cowboys offense. Chicago only needed one play after the field goal to respond. A flea-flicker play found a wide open rookie Luther Burden for a 65-yard touchdown.
Things looked to be turning around early in the second quarter. A big play to George Pickens sparked a drive that ended with Pickens catching a touchdown, and Dak Prescott hit Jalen Tolbert on the two-point try to tie things up 14 apiece.
Dallas held the Bears to a field goal on the next drive, but their offense went three-and-out right after, which led to an efficient drive from the Bears resulting in a wide open Cole Kmet in the endzone for another score. Just like that, the Bears were up 24-14 at halftime.
The Cowboys got the ball to start the second half, but things stalled out and they punted. That’s when the Bears imposed their will on Eberflus and his unit. Chicago engineered a 19 play drive that ate up 76 yards over 10 minutes, taking things right up to the fourth quarter and ending with a touchdown.
From there, it was pretty much all window dressing. The ball bounced off Pickens’ hands and into a defender’s, and another Prescott pass was picked off in the endzone on a last ditch fourth-down attempt, but the game was over after that third quarter drive.
The Lamb injury makes for a convenient excuse, but the reality is there is no excuse for this performance. The Bears came into this one with plenty of questions, and the Cowboys handed them all the answers. They played with little fight, a worrying contrast to the past two weeks, and looked lost in all three phases for most of the day.
The road doesn’t get easier, either. They head back home next week, but it’s to face Micah Parsons and a Packers team that will be looking to exorcise some demons after losing to the Browns this week. Nobody’s season is ever done in September, but the Cowboys appear to be teetering on the brink.
