IRVING — The sting of defeat has subsided. So too has the feeling of dismay that accompanied it. The Cowboys have since rebounded with a victory over Chicago that ensures they won’t be doomed to another 8-8 season.
Calm has been restored at Valley Ranch.
Dallas is 12 days removed from a 33-10 loss to Philadelphia on Thanksgiving, when the Eagles stormed into Arlington and ambushed their NFC East rivals.
“That game is done with,” Cowboys coach Jason Garrett said. “It’s been done with. It ain’t coming back.”
But it left a mark on the vanquished. In the immediate aftermath of the rout, Cowboys players and coaches expressed shock, frustration and bewilderment.
“A big part of the NFL is, ‘Don’t panic,’” Dallas defensive coordinator Rod Marinelli said later.
They were wise words that proved prophetic. After all, the Cowboys and Eagles are once again tied atop the division standings, just as they were before their first meeting.
But following the loss to the Eagles last month, it was hard not to sense there was some alarm inside the team’s headquarters, which is why Marinelli tried to quell the concern. The Eagles, after all, annihilated the Cowboys to the point that tight end Jason Witten could only accept the severity of the setback.
“They just outplayed us,” he said.
A disastrous day
About everything that could go wrong for the Cowboys did against the Eagles. The vaunted offensive line faltered. The ground attack that ran smoothly for most of the season stammered and sputtered. Quarterback Tony Romo appeared discombobulated and authored his lousiest performance of the season. The defense collapsed, looking like the 2013 version that was the NFL’s worst. The Cowboys even were on the negative side of the turnover differential. In summary, it was bad.
“I think it’s a great learning opportunity,” Garrett said. “We’re going to use it as such when we get with our players. We’re going to evaluate it very thoroughly in all three phases of our team and learn from the stuff that wasn’t right and hopefully build on the stuff that was. I don’t really believe in just throw the film away.”
This week, the Cowboys will instead pore over the gory details, reviewing how the massacre unfolded before building a plan to make sure it doesn’t happen again.
What they’ll see is a malfunctioning offense that scored a season-low 10 points and placed additional stress on an overwhelmed defense because it couldn’t maintain control of the ball.
The Cowboys had 12 possessions, and half of them ended in four plays or fewer. The short drives were a byproduct of a 33 percent conversion rate on third downs that prevented the Cowboys from establishing any rhythm.
Romo completed only 18 of his 29 pass attempts for 199 yards and threw two interceptions. Under pressure on 14 of his 33 dropbacks, Romo looked out of sorts. His accuracy suffered and he was sacked four times, contributing to six plays that resulted in lost yardage during a game in which he took 62 snaps.
Blocking problems
Romo’s poor showing, stigmatized by the sixth-worst quarterback rating of his career, proved ruinous for the Cowboys.
That was because DeMarco Murray never gained any traction. The NFL’s leading rusher produced a season-low 73 yards on 20 attempts. His longest carry that afternoon equaled 9 yards, and he was unable to bail out the Cowboys in a game in which Romo wasn’t playing well enough to rescue them.
The struggles Murray and Romo experienced were tied to the failures of an offensive line that didn’t block with the consistency it had in the previous 11 games. The Cowboys didn’t control the line of scrimmage and were pushed back by a Philadelphia defensive front led by end Fletcher Cox and linebacker Connor Barwin.
The offensive inefficiency troubled Garrett, who clapped mindlessly anyways.
“We had some very manageable third downs throughout this game, particularly the early part of the game, that we didn’t cash in on, and that hurt us,” he said. “When that happens, you challenge your defense against a really good offense. We needed to make sure that we converted, stayed on the field, drove the football. You’ve got to sustain drives.”
Because they didn’t, the Cowboys gave the Eagles more opportunities to attack, creating a recipe for disaster. Entering the game, Dallas had roughly 87 hours to ready themselves for the Eagles’ highly caffeinated offense.
The quick turnaround came after the Cowboys beat the New York Giants on Nov. 23 in a game that kicked off at night in northern New Jersey. Upon returning to Irving, the Cowboys staged light practices, trying to rest, recover and do as much work as they could. It proved a challenging balancing act, because in order to prepare for Philadelphia coach Chip Kelly’s system, the Cowboys had to make additional adjustments to their normal routine by accelerating the tempo of their drills.
Soon after the game started, the Cowboys were staggered by Kelly’s offense. They conceded points on five of the Eagles’ first six possessions. They also failed to contain the edges, giving LeSean McCoy the opportunity to run wild on the perimeter. He supplied 159 of the 256 rushing yards the Eagles accumulated.
“We were losing gaps, which we don’t usually do,” defensive end Jeremy Mincey said.
“I think we were overanxious.”
Defense torched
To make matters worse, quarterback Mark Sanchez zapped the Dallas secondary repeatedly, completing 20 of 29 attempts for 217 yards and a touchdown. A defense that was on the field for an average of 60.5 plays per game before the loss to the Eagles was rocked during 75 snaps as it conceded a season-high 464 yards and 33 points.
Philadelphia’s domination, Garrett said, resulted from the absence of “consistency of our execution really in all three phases of our football team.”
Considering the Cowboys were granted 10 days to prepare for the Eagles this time and have had the opportunity to digest the film from the worst loss of the season, the chances of Dallas collapsing Sunday like it did on Thanksgiving are slimmer. Garrett said, “hopefully we’ll take full advantage” of the more-favorable schedule.
“We’ll see what the plan is coming into [this] week,” right guard Zack Martin added. “You have somewhat of an idea of what [Philadelphia] will come out with. It just comes down to whether we can do our jobs.”
Twelve days after the Cowboys experienced the horror of losing to Philadelphia by 23 points, they aren’t overcome with panic. Rather, they’re thinking of revenge and plotting to exact it.
Asked about the rematch, receiver Dez Bryant didn’t hide his anticipation.
“All I’m going to say is, you already know I’m looking forward to it,” he said.
On Twitter:
@RainerSabinDMN
Calm has been restored at Valley Ranch.
Dallas is 12 days removed from a 33-10 loss to Philadelphia on Thanksgiving, when the Eagles stormed into Arlington and ambushed their NFC East rivals.
“That game is done with,” Cowboys coach Jason Garrett said. “It’s been done with. It ain’t coming back.”
But it left a mark on the vanquished. In the immediate aftermath of the rout, Cowboys players and coaches expressed shock, frustration and bewilderment.
“A big part of the NFL is, ‘Don’t panic,’” Dallas defensive coordinator Rod Marinelli said later.
They were wise words that proved prophetic. After all, the Cowboys and Eagles are once again tied atop the division standings, just as they were before their first meeting.
But following the loss to the Eagles last month, it was hard not to sense there was some alarm inside the team’s headquarters, which is why Marinelli tried to quell the concern. The Eagles, after all, annihilated the Cowboys to the point that tight end Jason Witten could only accept the severity of the setback.
“They just outplayed us,” he said.
A disastrous day
About everything that could go wrong for the Cowboys did against the Eagles. The vaunted offensive line faltered. The ground attack that ran smoothly for most of the season stammered and sputtered. Quarterback Tony Romo appeared discombobulated and authored his lousiest performance of the season. The defense collapsed, looking like the 2013 version that was the NFL’s worst. The Cowboys even were on the negative side of the turnover differential. In summary, it was bad.
“I think it’s a great learning opportunity,” Garrett said. “We’re going to use it as such when we get with our players. We’re going to evaluate it very thoroughly in all three phases of our team and learn from the stuff that wasn’t right and hopefully build on the stuff that was. I don’t really believe in just throw the film away.”
This week, the Cowboys will instead pore over the gory details, reviewing how the massacre unfolded before building a plan to make sure it doesn’t happen again.
What they’ll see is a malfunctioning offense that scored a season-low 10 points and placed additional stress on an overwhelmed defense because it couldn’t maintain control of the ball.
The Cowboys had 12 possessions, and half of them ended in four plays or fewer. The short drives were a byproduct of a 33 percent conversion rate on third downs that prevented the Cowboys from establishing any rhythm.
Romo completed only 18 of his 29 pass attempts for 199 yards and threw two interceptions. Under pressure on 14 of his 33 dropbacks, Romo looked out of sorts. His accuracy suffered and he was sacked four times, contributing to six plays that resulted in lost yardage during a game in which he took 62 snaps.
Blocking problems
Romo’s poor showing, stigmatized by the sixth-worst quarterback rating of his career, proved ruinous for the Cowboys.
That was because DeMarco Murray never gained any traction. The NFL’s leading rusher produced a season-low 73 yards on 20 attempts. His longest carry that afternoon equaled 9 yards, and he was unable to bail out the Cowboys in a game in which Romo wasn’t playing well enough to rescue them.
The struggles Murray and Romo experienced were tied to the failures of an offensive line that didn’t block with the consistency it had in the previous 11 games. The Cowboys didn’t control the line of scrimmage and were pushed back by a Philadelphia defensive front led by end Fletcher Cox and linebacker Connor Barwin.
The offensive inefficiency troubled Garrett, who clapped mindlessly anyways.
“We had some very manageable third downs throughout this game, particularly the early part of the game, that we didn’t cash in on, and that hurt us,” he said. “When that happens, you challenge your defense against a really good offense. We needed to make sure that we converted, stayed on the field, drove the football. You’ve got to sustain drives.”
Because they didn’t, the Cowboys gave the Eagles more opportunities to attack, creating a recipe for disaster. Entering the game, Dallas had roughly 87 hours to ready themselves for the Eagles’ highly caffeinated offense.
The quick turnaround came after the Cowboys beat the New York Giants on Nov. 23 in a game that kicked off at night in northern New Jersey. Upon returning to Irving, the Cowboys staged light practices, trying to rest, recover and do as much work as they could. It proved a challenging balancing act, because in order to prepare for Philadelphia coach Chip Kelly’s system, the Cowboys had to make additional adjustments to their normal routine by accelerating the tempo of their drills.
Soon after the game started, the Cowboys were staggered by Kelly’s offense. They conceded points on five of the Eagles’ first six possessions. They also failed to contain the edges, giving LeSean McCoy the opportunity to run wild on the perimeter. He supplied 159 of the 256 rushing yards the Eagles accumulated.
“We were losing gaps, which we don’t usually do,” defensive end Jeremy Mincey said.
“I think we were overanxious.”
Defense torched
To make matters worse, quarterback Mark Sanchez zapped the Dallas secondary repeatedly, completing 20 of 29 attempts for 217 yards and a touchdown. A defense that was on the field for an average of 60.5 plays per game before the loss to the Eagles was rocked during 75 snaps as it conceded a season-high 464 yards and 33 points.
Philadelphia’s domination, Garrett said, resulted from the absence of “consistency of our execution really in all three phases of our football team.”
Considering the Cowboys were granted 10 days to prepare for the Eagles this time and have had the opportunity to digest the film from the worst loss of the season, the chances of Dallas collapsing Sunday like it did on Thanksgiving are slimmer. Garrett said, “hopefully we’ll take full advantage” of the more-favorable schedule.
“We’ll see what the plan is coming into [this] week,” right guard Zack Martin added. “You have somewhat of an idea of what [Philadelphia] will come out with. It just comes down to whether we can do our jobs.”
Twelve days after the Cowboys experienced the horror of losing to Philadelphia by 23 points, they aren’t overcome with panic. Rather, they’re thinking of revenge and plotting to exact it.
Asked about the rematch, receiver Dez Bryant didn’t hide his anticipation.
“All I’m going to say is, you already know I’m looking forward to it,” he said.
On Twitter:
@RainerSabinDMN
