Things are looking bleak for the Dallas Cowboys as they enter Week 10. Not only will they be facing their top rivals, the 6-2 Philadelphia Eagles, on Sunday, they do so with a 3-5 record and with Dak Prescott now sidelined and out for the season due to a hamstring injury.
Ryan Fitzpatrick, an analyst for Thursday Night Football and a former 17-year veteran as an NFL quarterback, says he knew the writing was on the wall dating back to their Week 4 game on Thursday night against the New York Giants. Although the Cowboys won that game, 20-15, they did so in a sluggish manner against a vastly inferior opponent. It was also the game where Micah Parsons suffered his ankle injury and DeMarcus Lawrence sustained a Lisfranc injury — an injury that has sidelined the two key starters ever since.
“Since I saw them play in our game on Thursday Night Football, their season has been over,” says Fitzpatrick in a one-on-one interview on behalf of his new show, Fitz & Whit, a Wave Sports + Entertainment Original. “It's just not the same Cowboys team this year. They do have top-end talent, but their offensive and defensive lines are not the same that they've been in years past, they've really struggled this year and they try to come up with ways to fix that.”
Fitzpatrick points towards the fact that the Cowboys aren't the same on the offensive and defensive lines this season. It's hard to argue against that point considering Dallas ranks 31st in rushing yards and third-to-last in rushing yards allowed on defense. In other words, they're losing the battle in the trenches on a weekly basis, which has caused a 12-win team from last season to become a losing one.
“Obviously, injuries haven't helped them out either, but it's just not the same dominant, physical Cowboy teams that we're used to seeing on the offensive and defensive sides of the ball in the trenches,” says Fitzpatrick. “So with that, I gave up on them weeks ago. It was Week 4 that I gave up on them and, unfortunately, I think it's going to be a long season for them.”
Since that Week 4 victory against the Giants, the Cowboys have since gone 1-3 and are in the midst of a three-game losing streak. Dallas has allowed an average of 34.6 points per game in the absence of Parsons, the worst mark in the league over the past three games.
The Cowboys will start Cooper Rush, who has gone 5-1 in his six career starts. He's best known for helping keep Dallas afloat during the first few games of the 2022 season when Dak Prescott was sidelined due to injury.
However, the Cowboys face a tough stretch of games, matching up against the Houston Texans and Washington Commanders in their next two games after facing the Eagles. If Dallas goes 1-2 or loses all of those games during that stretch, it's hard to envision them making a push for the playoffs, especially considering they're two and a half games behind the Green Bay Packers for the final Wild Card spot in the NFC.
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