Dallas Cowboys’ painful loss leads to a ‘red alert’

By Dwain Price, NDG Sports

ARLINGTON – Another see-saw game against a quality football team led to yet another disappointing loss for the Dallas Cowboys.

And like many of the other stomach-churning losses this season, Sunday’s game at AT&T Stadium against the Minnesota Vikings — which the Cowboys unceremoniously lost, 28-24 — was still up for grabs in the waning moments.

Play-calling came into question down the stretch after quarterback Dak Prescott drove the Cowboys from their own 5-yard line and was facing a second-and-2 from the Minnesota 11. But instead of continuing to ride Prescott’s very hot hand, the Cowboys instead lost three yards on two straight running plays by Ezekiel Elliott, who finished the game with just 47 yards rushing on 20 carries.

From there, a fourth-down pass to Elliott was broken up by linebacker Eric Kendricks, frustrating fans to no end and throwing the Cowboys into a tie for first place in the NFC East with the Philadelphia Eagles with a 5-4 record.

“Obviously we were trying to score a touchdown,” coach Jason Garrett said of the plan near the end of the game. “We got into a second and short situation and we tried to run it a couple of times just to get the first down, and they did a good job defending the runs and it went to a fourth-down situation and we just weren’t able to convert.”

The prevailing answer was the Cowboys were trying to milk the clock before scoring a touchdown, and it backfired. The Cowboys knew when they scored a touchdown late in the second quarter, they left 1:54 on the clock and the Vikings went down and kicked a field goal to lead 17-14 at the half.

“You don’t to leave too much time on the clock for them,” Prescott said. “So, I’m not going to question the play calling.

“There were opportunities. We just have to do better at executing those plays. It’s as simple as that. Every guy in that locker room would say that.”

Time for a “red alert”

Every guy in that locker room would probably also say that it’s imperative that the Cowboys start doing a better job against the NFL’s better teams. The only win the Cowboys have over a team with a winning record is that 37-10 shellacking they put on the Eagles on Oct. 20.

“Our backs are against the wall,” linebacker Jaylon Smith said. “Red alert! You have to bring it to your attention.

“Execution is the name of the game, and we didn’t get enough turnovers. We have to get off to a better start, and that’s going to be our focus,” Smith pointed out. “We’re coming in bright and early and we’re eager to get back.”

As is their custom, the Cowboys fell behind, 14-0, with 32 seconds remaining in the first quarter after Kirk Cousins flipped a 1-yard touchdown pass to Kyle Rudolph. Prescott then tossed a 23-yard TD to Michael Gallup and a 22-yarder to Randall Cobb which tied the game at 14-14, with 1:54 to go in the opening half.

That was more than enough time for Cousins to get the Vikings down the field and in position for a field goal, which Dan Bailey booted from 26 yards to give Minnesota a 17-14 lead at the half.

Meanwhile, as the Vikings put eight players in the box to stop the running exploits of Elliott, Minnesota running back Dalvin Cook finished with 97 yards rushing on 26 carries and collected another 86 yards on seven receptions.

Amari Cooper (11 catches, 147 yards) did some nifty footwork near the sidelines with his toes and hauled in a 12-yard TD to put Dallas ahead, 21-20, with 7:01 left in the third quarter. But the Vikings came storming right back and not only got a 2-yard touchdown dash from Cook, but Cousins also successfully threw the two-point conversion to Rudolph for a 28-21 Minnesota lead.

Why all the sudden interest in the running game?

However, in the end, after the Cowboys drew to within four points and were driving to take a lead, many thought would have happened had they continued using Prescott to throw the ball instead of using Elliott to run the ball.

“Obviously there was a lot of attention there (by Minnesota on the Cowboys’ running game) — they have a really good front,” Garrett said. “They have good linebackers, they have a good run defense.
“They were trying to make sure they stopped the run. I thought we did a good job responding to that. We were pretty effective throwing the football.”

Prescott was 28-of-46 for 397 yards and three touchdowns and that lone interception which came on the Hail Mary pass on the game’s final play. However, for him to put up those type of numbers and walk away with a loss is obviously not comforting for Cowboys Nation.

“Yeah, it’s frustrating, definitely frustrating,” Prescott said. “We had a chance, an opportunity right there at the end. A quarterback can’t ask for more – the ball in your hands, fourth down, chance to make a throw to win the game.

“(Kendricks) made a great play. They made more plays than we did when it counted and beat us situationally. Slow start or not, we have to stop doing that, but we got over that, right? We overcame that and, as I said, gave ourselves an opportunity.”

The Cowboys’ next opportunity for a victory will come Sunday at noon when they face the Lions in Detroit.

“We’ll look at it and be disappointed with how we played defensively,” said linebacker Sean Lee, when asked what will they take from the loss to the Vikings. “We just have to find a way to get off the field, and we can’t let a team run like that.

“There’s still a lot ahead of us, and we need to start winning games like this against good football teams.”