Dallas City News

For the third straight home game and second in a row on this young 2024 season, the Dallas Cowboys were completely outmatched by their opponent for nearly the full 60 minutes of play. Unlike last week’s 44-19 runaway loss to the Saints, the Cowboys rallied in the fourth quarter against the Baltimore Ravens but couldn’t overcome a 28-6 deficit, not scoring their first offensive touchdown until under nine minutes to play. The Cowboys have not been able to find their winning ways at home which are typically building a lead early, putting their defense in position to rush the passer, and controlling the ball in the short passing game. Instead, this script has been completely flipped on them to face large deficits that force them to defend the run and push the ball downfield themselves.

The Cowboys knew they’d see a steady dose of run from the Ravens no matter what, with Lamar Jackson and Derrick Henry sitting at 0-2 and ready to test Mike Zimmer’s defense to the breaking point to avoid a catastrophic 0-3 start. For the most part, Dallas was not able to match this intensity as a 1-1 team themselves. For the second straight week, linebackers and secondary players led the way in tackles as the front four failed time and time again to hold up at the point of attack. While this made things look easy at times for a Ravens offense that did not face a third down longer than eight yards until the third quarter, nothing came easy for the Cowboys offense, It was again ineffective running the ball, often found themselves behind the chains with penalties, and struggled to establish top WR CeeDee Lamb as a way to stretch the defense.

It was KaVontae Turpin and Jalen Tolbert that helped soften up the Ravens defense late with fourth quarter touchdowns that showed positive fight for Mike McCarthy’s team, giving the team something to build on going into a short week before the divisional opener at the New York Giants on Thursday night. Tight end Jake Ferguson also made his presence felt in his return from a knee injury, leading the team in targets, catches, and receiving yards as a player the Cowboys will need more consistency from early in games to get things going in their favor again this season.

Here are a few other notes on the Cowboys’ disappointing three-point loss to the Ravens.

Andrew Dieb-Imagn Images

• The Cowboys unraveled completely on defense last week against the Saints because of their inability to stop the run opened up any throw that Derek Carr wanted. In this game, their secondary faced a different type of challenge as the Ravens can still challenge vertically, but their focus was clearly on running the ball. The numbers Dallas had to commit to the run defense early as a sign of respect for the Ravens’ physicality was telling, as Malik Hooker was occupied with the backfield action on Charlie Kolar’s 30-yard run-and-catch to set up the game’s first score. One play later, it was both Hooker and Donovan Wilson getting their eyes caught in the backfield against a two-back set from Baltimore to give Jackson a crease to run the ball in from nine yards out.

This Cowboys defense is simply not used to playing tight formations with numbers at the line of scrimmage, and even in these new looks installed by Zimmer that should help them against the run, their lack of size and push upfield is making them ineffective. This is also leaving plenty of one-on-one matchups on the backend for opposing quarterbacks to pick on, like Zay Flowers working against Trevon Diggs for a crucial third-down conversion in the final two minutes that allowed the Ravens to run out the clock.

• Opportunities for the Cowboys defense to rush the passer were few and far between in this game, but it did lead to their first stop of the game in the second quarter. Lined up as a stand up rusher against the center, Micah Parsons was able to take full advantage of the matchup and win quickly alongside Osa Odighizuwa to pressure Jackson. The Cowboys offense would not be able to build on any of this momentum, as they started with a first-down run with Ezekiel Elliott for no gain, and ended up avoiding a safety before punting out of their own end zone.

Early down runs, particularly between the tackles, continue to feel like wasted plays for this Dallas offense right now – desperately looking for a balance that doesn’t put even more pressure on Prescott along with rookies Tyler Guyton and Cooper Beebe to hold up in pass protection. This may be the second week in a row where the Cowboys point to the deficit on the scoreboard rather than their own players to explain why they couldn’t run the ball. The truth is though, the list of players that scare opposing defensive coordinators from a matchup standpoint is razor thin right now, and none of these Dallas backs (with Rico Dowdle leading the way with eight carries against the Ravens) make the cut.

• Speaking of Tyler Guyton, his late first half holding penalty proved costly as it negated a pass interference penalty against CeeDee Lamb that would have put the ball at the one-yard line. Lamb was frustrated to that point in the game, and having him setup the Cowboys’ first touchdown going into halftime may have completely changed the flow of this game.

Guyton needs to do a better job trusting his length as well as initial punch in pass protection to help keep rushers at bay and give Prescott more opportunities to step into throws. This is what Guyton excelled at as a right tackle at Oklahoma, but so far the position change as well as an increase in speed and athleticism he’s facing at the NFL level have made it much more difficult for Guyton to win with just athleticism.

• Of all the encouraging things that happened during the Cowboys’ furious comeback attempt, getting KaVontae Turpin more involved on offense may have been the best. The Cowboys desperately needed another receiver besides Lamb to establish himself against the Saints, but were unable to do so while also missing Ferguson at TE. Even with Ferguson’s return, the pointed effort to target Turpin out of a clean pocket shows that there is enough in McCarthy’s playbook to continue building on for this offense to finally turn a corner.

Turpin, along with Jalen Tolbert, scored on similar type routes down the middle, which is an area Dallas must continue putting a priority on. Prescott continues to show that he is one of the most accurate QBs in the league when given a chance to throw on receivers working against linebackers or safeties, throwing with anticipation and timing to create yards after the catch.

Turpin caught all three of his targets for 51 yards in this game, his second in a row with at least three targets and a reception after being shutout in the opener against the Browns.