With playoff hopes hanging by a thread, the Dallas Cowboys welcomed the L.A. Chargers to town for a Thanksgiving Day game. In the end, the only thing Dallas fans had to be thankful for was the clock hitting zero.
Philip Rivers threw for 434 yards and three touchdowns as he made the Cowboys defenders look like just a few more of his many children. On the other side, Dak Prescott managed just 179 yards and threw two more interceptions as desperation for the game, and the season, set in.
Rivers threw touchdowns to three different receivers. The biggest day went to Keenan Allen, who had 172 yards on 11 catches. More than once, Allen’s running ability after the catch left Cowboys falling over themselves.
The absences of RB Ezekiel Elliott and LB Sean Lee on each side of the ball were once again painfully obvious. The last three weeks have made it clear that Dallas cannot execute without these two key players. The Chargers, with only four wins before today, had no trouble handling business.
Other Notes
- For the second week in a row, Dallas failed to get a sack. Rivers has always done a good job of getting the ball out quickly, but he was barely pressured the whole day. The short week may have taken too much gas out of the pass rushers.
- The wait for Dez Bryant to become the franchise leader in touchdowns catches continues. He only had three catches for 37 yards today. One good opportunity came to him on a deep pass into the endzone, but Dez was tangled up with the corner and couldn’t pull it in.
- This was the worst game we’ve seen from the Cowboys secondary all year. Chargers were wide open half the day and our guys never seemed to be close enough to the action. The missed tackles were too many to count.
- Alfred Morris and Rod Smith each had nine carries with nearly even yardage; 36 for Morris and 41 for Smith. It was Rod who scored the team’s only touchdown, but a failed two-point conversion is what landed Dallas with just six points for the day.
- Zack Martin left the game with a concussion in the first half and did not return.
- Dallas only gets a week off, not the usual 10 days, as they host Washington next Thursday night.
Nothing epitomizes this season more, than Dak finally breaking an historic TD drought of 10 quarters (even Campo didn’t do it), on a pretty bootleg and then it comes OFF THE BOARD because of holding on Dez.
The Chargers have a porous run defense, the Cowboys had the right idea to exploit it, they had Tyron Smith back, and the offense is still comatose.
If this drought is about the absence of Elliott, then it is about how defenses plan for him that opened up the passing game, more than the actual rushing yards then to now. It looks like Dak cannot run an offense without it.
I will spot some sophomore regression, some forcing the issue because the offense is struggling, but I don’t buy it as a serious indictment on Dak as a pro QB. Aikman had a very similar downturn in 1996 when Irvin was suspended and Emmitt Smith was out with a neck injury after diving over the pile on the goal line in Chicago that year.
Dak will progress from the things he’s overreaching on, but I still see the offensive lethargy as receivers and schemes driven. Not Dak, not the RB’s. When you are this bad, the OL cannot escape blame either of course. But to me the problem mostly is that there are no easy hits anymore, nobody is getting open consistently, and that is making Dak try for lower % throws.
That’s not his game. Firing Linehan, still leaves the fact that Garrett has presided over the same lethargy. Your HC has to be better than this.