Sunday night at AT&T Stadium was a “Murphy's Law” type of evening for the Dallas Cowboys. With that said, here are our Cowboys takeaways from Week 1 loss vs. Buccaneers.
The Cowboys offensive line was just as undisciplined and inconsistent as one might expect from such an inexperienced unit. The offense as a whole was abysmal, and 10 penalties for 73 yards suggests that Dallas hasn't gotten any closer to rectifying their discipline issues from last season. The cherry on top of the team's terrible Sunday was a major injury to Dak Prescott's throwing hand, one that will reportedly require surgery and take several weeks to heal.
Sure enough, there are plenty of harsh truths to take away from the Cowboys' train wreck of a season opener. These are just a few of them.
3. Mike McCarthy has not addressed the Dallas Cowboys' discipline issues
Penalties are a reflection of a team's coaching staff, end of story. Mike McCarthy knows that, which is why he spent this past offseason crafting a narrative that the team was focused on being more disciplined. It started as soon as last season's playoff loss to the 49ers ended. After Sunday night, it's clear that any attempts to address that issue have failed.
Dallas' ongoing penalty problem has gotten lost amongst a plethora of other concerns that are currently bogging the team down in the wake of their first game of the season. Injuries happen. That's an uncontrollable issue. Personnel problems aren't a game day concern either, at least not for the players and coaches. The Cowboys' constant knack for putting themselves behind the eight ball by committing penalties, however, is an inexcusable lack of execution. An article written by Connor Zimmerlee of Sports Illustrated detailed Cowboys right tackle Terence Steele's own comments on his performance against Tampa Bay, which included four individual penalties.
“I had three presnap penalties,” Steele said after the game. “It’s inexcusable. That’s something you can’t have. Coach puts a big emphasis on it.”
The players aren't unaccountable for their own penalties. They're professionals, and they need to execute better. The buck stops with McCarthy. He knows penalties are a problem for this team. He needs to find a way to fix it. Whatever he has tried so far clearly hasn't worked.
2. The Dallas Cowboys' offense does not have enough weapons
Sunday night was a lost cause long before Prescott went down with an injury. Prescott struggled in his own right, but the Cowboys wide receivers didn't make things easy for him. Even CeeDee Lamb was dropping passes. Every offense has bad games, but it's hard to envision the players that took the field at AT&T Stadium against Tampa Bay evolving into a productive group of players.
Jerry Jones has said all offseason that he wants to wait and see what his young receivers have in the tank. After Sunday night, he should have seen enough. Noah Brown's five catches for 68 yards wasn't bad. Dalton Schultz was solid as well, with seven catches for 62 yards. Lamb struggled, but he's more than earned the benefit of the doubt. Aside from those three players, none of the receivers that Dallas rolled out against the Bucs were any good.
The biggest problem with Dallas' lack of receiving talent is that the front office appears to be waiting on a solution from someone already inside the building. James Washington has never been much more than an afterthought in the NFL. Jalen Tolbert might have been thought of as a starter when Dallas drafted him, but they couldn't even trust him to take the field in the season opener. Michael Gallup is talented, but he's coming off a serious injury. The Cowboys need help at wide receiver, and nobody they have currently on the roster is enough to change that fact on their own. Now with Cooper Rush forced to start at quarterback for the time being, the situation is even more dire.
1. Micah Parsons and Dan Quinn are capable of keeping the Dallas Cowboys afloat
There's been a lot of doom and gloom surrounding Cowboys nation after Sunday evening, and for good reason. There weren't many positives to take from the game. Perhaps the only one was Parsons' dominance as a pass rusher and the defense's general competence for the majority of the game.
Tampa Bay could have very easily run away with Sunday night's game a lot sooner than they did. With Dallas' offense spinning their tires, the Cowboys defense stepped up early.
Thanks to two red zone sacks by Micah Parsons in the first half, the Cowboys trailed by just nine points at halftime to an excellent football team while stumbling through a tragic offensive performance. In the second half, Donovan Wilson rejuvenated the team with an interception that made it possible for Dallas to get back in the game. Obviously that didn't end up happening, but the defense still deserves credit for making a play when they had to.
Parsons is the best player on the Cowboys' roster. That was true before Prescott went down, and it's even more true now that he's set to miss a few weeks. Led by Parsons and Dan Quinn, Dallas' defense went out against a very talented offense and kept the Cowboys in the game for a long time. If they can do it against Tampa Bay, they can certainly do it against other, less dynamic offenses.
No Week 1 outcome ends a season, no matter how bad. The Cowboys still have 16 more games to play, and about half of them will feature Prescott once he returns from injury. The Cowboys have their work cut out for them, but they still have a chance to sneak into the playoffs if they can tread water long enough for Prescott to return to the field. The defense will determine whether or not that is a possibility for this team.
Follow Us
Subscribe