Dallas Devastation: The 4 Chapters Of Cowboys Loss To Rams
"Devastating'' is the word. "Devastating'' in Dallas, in four chapters, because of the opportunities handed to, and then frittered away by, the Cowboys in Sunday's Week 1 20-17 loss at The Los Angeles Rams.
READ MORE: Rams Upend Cowboys, 20-17: 10 'Whitty' Observations
DEVASTATION Chapter 1: Injuries and Personnel - D The first part of this chapter's take is inarguable: "Devastating'' is certainly the right word when two young, key, arrow-up starters are lost to injury. Linebacker Leighton Vander Esch (collarbone) is out for a time; tight end Blake Jarwin (knee) is out for the season.
The Cowboys will have a Jones family-led personnel meeting to start this week. They will ask coach Mike McCarthy and personnel boss Will McClay about other tight ends and other linebackers, in the end probably settling on playing who they have (Dalton Schultz and Blake Bell and Joe Thomas and soon, Sean Lee, respectively). They will also ask about right tackles, about whether rookie Terence Steele held up fine as a starter, about how veteran Cam Erving (who also sustained an injury) got beat out last week by Steele, and about how they'll be OK by Week 4 when La'el Collins comes off IR.
READ MORE: Vander Esch (Collarbone) And Jarwin (Knee) Going To IR
And then they will get to the interior defensive line and to safety, where the Joneses will ask whether Snacks Harrison and Earl Thomas can make a play to contribute to a win.
I know Harrison wants to come here; he lives in DFW and is ready to go. We assume the same about Thomas, and while his emotional problems run deeper than most know ... owner Jerry Jones would be guilty of GM malpractice if he didn't push his staffers once again for more answers.
At the same time, as I wrote last week ...
READ MORE: That Earl Thomas To Cowboys Story? 'You're Wasting Your Time'
It's more likely that Brandon Carr gets on the field, or that Chido Awuzie takes some snap at safety, or kids Donovan Wilson and Reggie Robinson II get a shot.
DEVASTATION Chapter 2: In the Standings - What an emotionally positive opportunity that fate handed the Cowboys all day Sunday. They got to sit in their Ritz-Carlton hotel rooms in L.A. and watch on TV as Washington embarrassed Philadelphia - the Eagles being the only other good team in the NFC East.
That Philly loss combined with a Dallas win and the Cowboys have a nice firm grip of the division lead right from the starting gate.
A gap in the NFC East was handed to them. Hey, a referee might've taken a catch away from Michael Gallup. But the Cowboys themselves dropped this particular ball.
DEVASTATION Chapter 3: In Performance and Play-Calling - “I think there are some bright spots on our team,” Ezekiel Elliott said about the performance.
I can say that Elliott himself played well and I can say that Aldon Smith (imagine how sore he is today! played well and I don’t know exactly who else from Week 1 belongs on the list of "bright spots.''
And "devastating'' in terms of play-calling? McCarthy and his new staff - billed as being "better'' than Jason Garrett and his old staff, even though that's not really how this stuff works - had seven months to prepare for a way to score more than 17 points.
I hear some saying, "Well, that proves that you need preseason!'' Funny thing: There are 16 games this weekend and there are 16 teams proving that they didn’t need preseason.
Indeed, if you look at the truly good programs in the NFL - New Orleans, New England, Seattle, Baltimore, Kansas City - they didn't seem to have any "lack-of-preseason'' problems.
I wonder why.
So, this problem took its seven months to prepare. And made quite an issue during Camp Cover-Up of not telling anybody their "secrets.'' Jerseys with no numbers. A depth chart listing only 10 offensive starters. A fib about the identity of the first-team tackle. A promise of being cleverly "multiple.''
And it scored 17 points, and one of the ways it went about doing that was by somehow deciding that fourth-and-3, while down three, is a perfect go-for-it circumstance. And then it worsened the decision by needing three yards but having rookie receiver CeeDee Lamb run a two-yard route.
“Not really a 'rookie mistake','' said CeeDee in a pretty clever explanation, "but (rather) a 'mistake from a rookie.' I need to make that conversion and make that play. And I didn’t.''
Ironically, for those who support McCarthy's brilliant use of modern analytics, he:
a) Explained that his reason was about a "gut'' feeling. "I just thought that would have been a huge momentum play for us,'' McCarthy said. (Which, by the way, is a fine part of a decision-making mix.)
b) Spend the first 54 years of his life, before an abrupt, maybe-made-for-TV turnaround, expressing disinterest in and even distaste for modern analytics.
My man Bryan Broaddus said to me on the 105.3 The Fan postgame show (speaking specifically about Lamb's route), "Well, Fish, the safety made a good play.''
To which I responded, "Yup. And the Cowboys made a bad one.'' And they lost the game in part due to it.
Which is pretty much how football works.
To those who argue that the "chart'' says fourth-and-3 is always a go-for-it: No coach ever "always goes for it'' because they are (or should be) smarter than the "chart.'' Until you show me a "chart'' that has McCarthy's "momentum'' and the Rams' Aaron Donald factored into it, it cannot be an automatic guide.
And a P.S.: If somebody's pamphlet somewhere is telling McCarthy that should always go for it on fourth-and-3 ... the Cowboys oughta cut punter Chris Jones.
Heck, use the roster spot on Earl Thomas. After all, who needs a punter when you have "aggression''!
DEVASTATION Chapter 4: In Philosophy - Ah, "aggression'' and all these other macho buzzwords that carry so little meaning ...
"I love the aggressiveness,'' QB Dak Prescott said specifically about that fourth-and-3.
My response? Man, it's a good thing the Cowboys weren't NON-aggressive ... or else she would’ve scored 16 points!
I find it strange that McCarthy after the game talked about all the "good things'' Dak did. He really didn't do many of those at all; no QB of a 17-point offense does.
I find it strange that COO Stephen Jones said before the game that the only difference between Dak and Pat Mahomes is the latter's Super Bowl win. In Mahomes' last 39 games as the Kansas Chiefs QB, the number of times he's been been held to 17 points is ... once. Otherwise, during that span, he’s never been held under 23 - and the Chiefs epitomize this era's offenses that generally score twice as many points as Dallas scored on Sunday.
"I judge myself off of wins,'' said Prescott, maybe taking the right approach in admitting to the devastation and building toward Sunday's home-opener against visiting Atlanta. "So it was obviously a loss ... and not a performance I’m going to be proud of.'
