FRISCO, Texas – The Dallas Cowboys were exhibited last Sunday in their stadium, although it is debatable to say that it was before their people, with so much visible and scandalous fans of the Denver Broncos in the stadium.
But when they begin the formal preparation to face the Atlanta Falcons, also in their AT&T Stadium, that should just remain as a great lesson, bad anecdote and move on, that they have not even reached the middle of their regular season, for better or better. worse.
The same was true before the game against the Broncos, in which many fans, journalists and perhaps even members of the organization were already planning their trip to Los Angeles in February to see them at the Super Bowl.
The Cowboys have nine games left, with the same number of weeks to try to make the postseason first, starting with the Falcons.
“I know what the players are made of and I know the makeup of our staff (of coaches),” Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones told 105.3 FM The Fan Dallas radio station Tuesday morning. “They are going to respond in the way that we would like them to respond. We have seen our team play much better than that.”
The Cowboys have to adjust key positions and situations, ranging from fundamentals to execution; there are specific locations that they should attend to immediately this week.
The main one goes beyond the performance of Dak Prescott and the offense, where it is very likely that for the second consecutive week the starting left tackle will be Terence Steele, because the options are few to replace Tyron Smith, who has a sore ankle.
The team also can’t afford to make drastic changes to the line every week. The other option would be Ty Nsekhe, who is unlikely to radically change the situation. It would be better to try to give Steele more help or include Connor McGovern as an extra blocker in certain game plan situations.
“You better have an answer for every single thing that came up in this game because we will surely see them in the next few weeks,” offensive coordinator Kellen Moore said Monday, referring to upcoming opponents might try to match their game plans. to Denver. “This is a league of knockoffs.”
It’s unlikely that Dak Prescott’s attack, his impressive group of receivers or his running backs will be consistently silenced the rest of the way. It is impossible to think from context that CeeDee Lamb and Amari Cooper will have such a bad game, plus Michael Gallup is ready to return to the field this Sunday to join Cedrick Wilson and Noah Brown.
But the real problem for the Cowboys this week will be to prepare and demand more from their defense, which the previous Sunday was not “made up” by the offense, which could not save them from chaos against Denver.
The Cowboys defense allowed 190 rushing yards; almost 100 after first contact. And that of course opens the game by passing.
“Those are basics and fundamentals,” said coach Mike McCarthy. “It seemed like we were improvising. These are things you always focus on… They were just more physical than us and that can’t be, they can’t beat you that way.”
The Falcons, who beat the New Orleans Saints on Sunday, have thirteen in total yards per game on offense; 12 per pass and the 12th worst in points scored per game so far this season.
“There are things to fix,” acknowledged defensive coordinator Dan Quinn. “And that’s what we’re going to try to do, I promise you 100 percent. It’s the lesson you should learn if you perform poorly, otherwise it was useless.”
“So we have to make sure we are ready to turn to energy, effort and tenacity on Sunday.”
