Dallas City News

Saints victory over Cowboys conjures ‘Pickle Juice Game’ flashback for Mike Zimmer – Patrik Walker, DallasCowboys.com

Mike Zimmer explains about what happened on Sunday.

Zimmer disputes Micah Parsons’ assessment that it was an effort issue, though.

“I don’t know that’s the case,” he said. “I think we got lined up fine. We were trying to move the front some and they caught us a couple times, and when they were moving guys, so I’ve just got to do a better job.

“… I said, ‘I’ve watched you guys for over three months now. Right? I’ve never seen us at one practice like that. I’ve never seen us [give up] plays in a practice like that.’ I mean, these guys, typically, they are on point and do everything the right way. They play very, very hard. They like to compete.

“Again. I didn’t allow them to use our strength, which is being able to get him into some third down situations and passing situations. So I’ve got to do a better job.”

Cowboys Studs and Duds: Did anyone or anything look like a vibe in Sunday’s debacle? – Mike Crum, The Cowboys Wire

It was really hard to evaluate the Cowboys offense on Sunday, but they had some positives and negatives while playing from behind all day.

Studs: First half passing offense

The Cowboys’ offense tried to keep the game competitive early, even with the Saints scoring 21 points on their first 12 plays. Dak Prescott was 17-23 for 184 yards with a touchdown and an interception, scoring on five of their first six drives. The interception was courtesy of a slipping receiver. Dallas scored 16 points in the first two quarters, putting them on pace for 32 points overall. That would be enough to win most games, but it would’ve still lost to the Saints’ first-half scoring. The offense was competitive early, but the defense could never get a stop to give them a chance at a comeback.

Duds: Red-zone offense

If Dallas scored touchdowns on every drive they were held to a field goal, they’d still have lost by two scores. The offense wasn’t an issue in this game because the defense was so poor that the good early offense became meaningless. On a macro level, looking ahead, the Dallas offense has to score more touchdowns. Going 0-3 in the redzone will cost them every time, but hopefully, as the rookie offensive linemen and young weapons develop, the team will get better.

A miscommunication cost Dallas four points early when Prescott missed a wide-open CeeDee Lamb in the endzone for a 29-yard score. Dallas would end up in the red zone a play later, but the drive stalled, leading to a field goal. A pass to Ezekiel Elliott came up short, putting Dallas behind the chains, and then the Saints caused a strip sack to stop another redzone drive. Getting better in this area could be a key to more competitive games.

Cowboys RB Rico Dowdle’s postgame message is indicative of a major problem – Mauricio Rodriguez, A to Z Sports

It is almost like the Cowboys could have seen this coming at running back.

Cowboys running back Rico Dowdle, who led the Cowboys on Sunday with 30 rushing yards, was asked a simple question postgame: What is the identity of the running back group? His response was an underwhelming one.

“I wouldn’t say, right now… I wouldn’t really have an answer for that question,” Dowdle responded. “We haven’t had a lot of at bats at the plate.”

Listen, I understand Dowdle is responding to the question from the point of view that it’s only Week 2. There’s time to figure things out. But I’m not sure many of the contenders around the NFL would have a similar answer as many offenses know exactly what they want to do when running the rock.

The interaction reminded me of CeeDee Lamb after the San Francisco 49ers loss last year, when he replied to questions about the identity of the offense with a blunt “I don’t know.” Shortly after that, the Cowboys completely revamped their approach on offense.

Recovery from ugly, early-season loss is nothing new for McCarthy Era Cowboys – Jess Haynie, Blogging The Boys

It is hardly time to panic yet.

In 2021, the Cowboys opened with a dramatic loss on the road to Tampa Bay. Dak Prescott and Tom Brady dueled to the end, with Brady doing his legendary thing to engineer a last-minute drive for a game-winning field goal. It was a good loss for Dallas, if you believe in those things, against the reigning Super Bowl Champions. They’d go on to win their next six games on the road to one of those 12-5 seasons we’ve grown accustomed to.

Dallas would again lose a season-opener to the Buccaneers in 2022, but this one was not even close to being a moral victory. At home against a much lesser Tampa team, the same one that went 8-9 and got destroyed by the Cowboys in the playoffs, Dallas lost 19-3 with complete ineptitude offensively and defensively. Like Alvin Kamara this past Sunday, Bucs RB Leonard Fournette went off for 137 total yards on 23 touches. But despite how badly that game went, Dallas would recover with a four-game win streak and another 12-5 finish, then got revenge on the Bucs in the first round of the postseason.

Last year the bad loss didn’t come until Week 3 but it still happened, this time at the hands of the Arizona Cardinals. Dallas had steamrolled soft New York competition the first two weeks in the Giants and Jets, winning both by a combined 70-10 score. But overconfidence wasn’t so much the issue in Arizona as injuries; Trevon Diggs suffered his season-ending injury earlier that week and Dallas was also without Tyron Smith and Zack Martin on the offensive line. The Cardinals, despite having career backup Josh Dobbs at QB, took advantage and embarrassed Dallas 28-16. But as you know, once again, Dallas handled that humiliation and posted their third-straight 12-5 record.

So what does this even mean? Each year is different and you can only put so much stock in trends from season to season. But as Cowboys fans are desperately looking for hope after what transpired on Sunday, perhaps this offers some modicum of comfort. If the win over Cleveland boosted our expectations too high, don’t let this loss drag them too low. The true caliber of this Dallas team is probably somewhere in the middle.

Cowboys Reveal Some Much-Needed Good News After Devastating Week 2 Loss – Jovan Alford, Sports DFW

Cowboys TE Jake Ferguson is well on track for a Week 3 return.

Speaking of Week 3, Cowboys EVP Stephen Jones provided a good injury update on starting tight end Jake Ferguson on Monday. According to Jon Machota of The Athletic, Jones said on 105.3 The Fan that Ferguson was “real close” to playing on Sunday and “the expectation is for him to be back” this week.

Ferguson suffered an MCL sprain in Dallas’ Week 1 win over the Browns. The 25-year-old tight end told reporters last week that his pain level was a 0 on Wednesday and thought he initially had an ACL injury.

The third-year tight end did not practice before Dallas’ Week 2 matchup against the Saints but was listed as doubtful.

Second-year tight end Luke Schoonmaker stepped up for the injured Ferguson, recording six receptions (six targets) for 43 yards. However, Dallas’ offense will be better with Ferguson on the field.

Time to exercise panic or patience for winless NFL teams heading into Week 3? – Jeffri Chadiha, NFL.com

The Cowboys are getting a very desperate Baltimore Ravens team this week as they look to respond to a bad loss themselves.

The Ravens have too much talent to envision a complete meltdown, but starting 0-2 is something this team rarely does. It’s only happened once since John Harbaugh became the head coach — in 2015 — and what’s discouraging is that there are a multitude of problems. The defense is going through its share of growing pains under new coordinator Zach Orr, as that unit gave up a 10-point, fourth-quarter lead in Sunday’s 26-23 loss to Las Vegas. The offense has struggled when it comes to critical moments, as well. First, the Ravens had to deal with Lamar Jackson’s missed throws at the end of that season-opening loss to Kansas City, and then they hurt themselves with penalties (11 for 109 yards) and failed third-down conversions (3-for-11) vs. Las Vegas. And even though Derrick Henry played better against the Raiders, his overall impact has been underwhelming behind a revamped offensive line that’s been far from reliable. One of the few things the Ravens can point to for positivity is the fact that a handful of plays have kept them from being 2-0. A slow start in a deep AFC can be ominous — especially since this team’s next three games are against Dallas, Buffalo and Cincinnati — but Baltimore has too much talent and quality coaching to be counted out so early. VERDICT: PATIENCE