The Dallas Cowboys lost their season opener on Thursday night to the Philadelphia Eagles. It was a chaotic game in many ways as it began with a player ejection for spitting and featured a lightning delay. That makes two in a 365-day period for the Cowboys.
It was a tough loss that Dallas will have to sit on for a while what with the game taking place on a Thursday. There were some pretty noteworthy performances and others we would like to see improved upon when this team hosts the New York Giants
next week.
Let’s get into those.
Here is our first Stock Report of the regular season.
Stock Up: Javonte Williams
When the Cowboys chose not to have any of their running backs participate in the preseason we all rolled our eyes. Maybe you didn’t, but I will certainly raise my hand. While Javonte Williams hardly set the world on fire he did have the team’s only touchdowns on the night. Yes, plural.
More important than anything Williams looked the part of an RB1 and justified the faith that the coaching staff was seemingly placing in him. We certainly still have some issues with it overall, but he significantly raised our expectations of the room, and that is important.
Stock Up: Kenny Clark
The Cowboys made mention many times in the aftermath of the Micah Parsons trade as to how important receiving Kenny Clark in return was. Kudos to them, they called their shot.
Even though Jalen Hurts had just about everything he wanted from a running perspective, it was Clark who helped mitigate the damage. He very clearly is going to help this team bolster the run defense, which the front office swore was part of their reasoning behind the trade so in that sense have been partly justified, and that he played so well only a week after being dealt is very impressive.
Stock Up: Marshawn Kneeland
Sorry to continually bring up the Parsons trade, but it obviously impacts the context of everything, at least in the first game that Dallas played after moving him. In that sense there were always going to be eyes on the new starting pass rushers, recall this was also the first game without DeMarcus Lawrence, and second-year man Marshawn Kneeland stepped right up.
Despite some questionable holding penalties that were not called which would have benefitted him even more, Kneeland proved that he has a lot for the Cowboys to work with. His impact was notable as he kept forcing Hurts to move around, which he unfortunately did very well.
Stock Up: Sam Williams
The same logic here is applicable to Sam Williams and the Cowboys have gone as far in the wake of the trade to suggest that he could be in line for an extension soon. If he plays like he did on Thursday then that may very well happen.
Obviously the team’s pass rushers struggled throughout the first half and ultimately could not contain Hurts, but they stood tall when they were needed most in the fourth quarter. There is something to work with there.
Stock Up: Matt Eberflus
As noted the Cowboys defense really answered the call late. While the weather delay clearly disrupted things for both offenses, just before it the Cowboys defense “stopped” the Eagles for the first time on the evening in that they only allowed a field goal as opposed to a touchdown which had been the case on every possession prior.
We can acknowledge that the delay changed things all the way around, but that shouldn’t take away from what Flus and Co. did to do their part down the stretch. They gave the offense a chance and deserve props for not caving like a lot of people thought they would in the aftermath of the Parsons stuff.
Stock Up: Brian Schottenheimer
Schotty is listed only once here, but he deserves a stock up as both the team’s head coach and offensive play-caller.
From a head coaching perspective Schotty navigated a really treacherous situation and had his team ready to play. This isn’t specific to the Parsons stuff, either. From the moment that Schotty was hired he faced inordinate questions, and then a lot of drama that surrounded the team. He made sure none of that mattered.
From a play-caller perspective, the Cowboys offense came out incredibly hot. The delay may have served to cool the entire game off, but Schotty was firing away and proving that he can fully handle things. The run game was successful (see Javonte Williams up top) and Dak Prescott looked as comfortable as he has been in some time.
Static Stock: Dak Prescott
Dak is a static stock this week, which may come as a surprise. In the aftermath of the game I tweeted that some blame should fall on his shoulders and was met with a lot of pushback.
My logic, for those interested, requires the acceptance of multiple things being true simultaneously. There are far bigger and more primary culprits for why the Cowboys lost (you can see we are about to reach the stock down portion of this exercise), but the offense got the ball back with a chance to take the lead on three straight possessions. They obviously failed to do much, a lot of that was because of the stock downs we are about to discuss, but some of that blame has to fall on the quarterback.
Prescott can’t throw and catch passes at the same time. We all know this. He was let down severely by several players around him.
Expectations of the franchise quarterback can be unfair a lot. This isn’t that. This is simply saying that putting up zero points in the second half cannot happen.
Stock Down: CeeDee Lamb
I’ve been doing Stock Report for a long time and cannot recall an instance where CeeDee Lamb was a stock down off of the top of my head. Surely he was on it at some point, even as recently as last year, but for the most part he is absent from even consideration.
The first half was great for him. But it is hard to overlook the multiple drops that were critical as the team tried to steal the game down the stretch. We can say that his attempt on the fourth down was impressive and that it was probably the most difficult “drop” he had to haul in. But that can be true at the same time that, like with Dak, he has to make that play. That is why he is CeeDee Lamb, after all.
You can make a very strong argument that Lamb’s mistakes cost the Cowboys the game.
Stock Down: Miles Sanders
It goes without saying that Miles Sanders’ fumble was devastating. It felt that way in the moment and hindsight certainly validates the claim. You cannot turn the ball over. You certainly cannot do it when you are so close to a touchdown and a Brandon Aubrey pitching wedge away from points.
Sanders had a huge run on the play just before which put the team in that position, although you can certainly argue that he should have scored on that play, and if he does then this is all moot anyway.
While we are discussing hypothetical moot points, the Reed Blankenship hit on Jake Ferguson as penalty-worthy is debatable. It seemed like an in-the-moment thing that Reed had no real control on the result of. Perhaps you disagree.
That penalty came on third down. If that penalty isn’t called then the Cowboys trot out Aubrey and likely pick up three points. As a result of the penalty, they received a new set of downs and Sanders immediately fumbled right before the delay.
It is fair to wonder how the post-delay goes for Dallas if they are trailing 24-23 instead of 24-20. Does the offense get it done knowing that all they need is a field goal? We will never know.
Stock Down: Jake Ferguson
On the subject of Jake Ferguson, Prescott had another moment where he put a ball right on him that should have been caught for a touchdown. This hardly makes the extension that Dallas gave Ferguson a mistake, but like with Lamb, you expect the players you pay to deliver when the moment asks them to.
It is frustrating to see a mostly-great game from the quarterback where his primary and most trusted, not to mention most compensated, pass-catchers let him down.
That is the ultimate story of the game.
