Browns 49, Cowboys 38: 10 'Whitty' Observations - 'Outrageously Lopsided'
Cleveland Browns 49, Dallas Cowboys 38 and coach Mike McCarthy's review leads us right into our Week 4 10 'Whitty' Observations - "Outrageously Lopsided'' are, incredibly, his words ...
10. Announced, COVID-friendly crowd at AT&T Stadium was 25,021. Given this performance, Jerry Jones can continue this limited attendance policy because there will be no clamoring to witness that mess in person.
9. For my money, this game featured the NFL’s best uniforms (Cowboys) vs. the worst (Browns). Since you have plenty of downtime during the pandemic, try explaining to a casual observer why the team called the “Browns” wears bland, orange helmets and plays its home games in a stadium featuring a “Dawg Pound.”
8. Let’s face it, the Cowboys’ season – and all of 2020, really – needs a mulligan. If your golf group allows two off the first tee, these first four games are the skull-sliced drive that lands out of bounds into a back yard. Do-over, anyone? (Or, hate to say it, COVID come calling?)
7. Only the 2020 Cowboys can block an extra point kick and … wind up allowing two points. Not sure what Jaylon Smith was thinking trying to pick up the blocked ball at his own 20. Gotta wonder what assistant coach Leon Lett was thinking on the sideline?
6. After four games, the Cowboys had run 10 offensive plays with the lead this season. Unfathomable.
Said coach Mike McCarthy: “It ultimately falls at my feet. ... What I don’t like is the pattern of the 4 games. The points are outrageous, time of possession is totally lopsided and we’re minus-7 in the turnover ratio. Not a winning formula.”
McCarthy also called his team a "come-from-behind'' team. But as true as that might be ... they're not very good at it.
5. Okay, we’ve seen enough of Tony Pollard. Returning kickoffs just past the 20. Dropping passes. Missing blitz pick-ups. Late touchdown notwithstanding, time to see if he can play some defensive back. I know of a team that needs lotsa help.
4. Dak Prescott is now the first quarterback in NFL history to throw for 400+ yards in three consecutive games. Yawn. So, what, he’s the best garbage-time passer in the league? 500 yards, four touchdowns, another loss.
3. Give the Cowboys credit for, if anything, not quitting. Down 41-14 in the fourth quarter, they again made it more than interesting with three touchdowns and three two-point conversions. But with a chance at another miracle comeback, Aldon Smith whiffed on a tackle of Odell Beckham that would’ve been a 10-yard loss and instead turned into a 50-yard touchdown run that put us all out of our hapless, hopeless misery.
2. After another abysmal performance, it’s not too early to ask: Is this the worst defense in the Cowboys’ 60-year history?
The last three weeks have seen them surrender 39 points to the Falcons, 38 to the Seahawks and 49 to the Browns. Can’t decide who’s more pathetic: Trysten Hill’s pass rush, Smith’s tackling or Daryl Worley’s coverage.
The 146 points are the most allowed through four games in franchise history. I know it was a different era and the Cowboys boasted five players on the defensive side of the ball that would wind up in the Ring of Honor, but ponder this: In the 1971 playoffs, Dallas allowed 18 total points in three playoff games. Eighteen. Today they spit up 24 in the second quarter.
And try this on for size, DeMarcus Lawrence on the Cowboys defense: “Soft. We have to hold ourselves to a higher standard. I call the shit 'soft,'and we have to get better from it.”
1. Garrett haunts Cowboys. Long-term, it’s Jason. Short-term, it was Myles. The head coach is surely getting a chuckle out of his old team being a once-in-a-lifetime onside "Watermelon'' kick from being 0-4. The current pass-rusher got a similar guffaw out of the Cowboys believing right tackle Terence Steele could block him 1-on-1.
