ARLINGTON, Texas — Any hope the Dallas Cowboys had, however slim, of making the NFL playoffs all but disappeared after losing their second straight game and falling to 6-7-1 on the season. The loss to the Vikings was filled with both offensive and defensive mistakes, and in the end, Dallas emerged from its “minibye” week with very few answers to what Minnesota presented.
Defensively, a great start to the game — an interception resulting from a pass deflected by safety Donovan Wilson and caught by All-Pro defensive tackle Quinnen Williams — turned into 34 points allowed under the command of quarterback JJ McCarthy. On offense, the situation wasn’t much better, and head coach and offensive play-caller Brian Schottenheimer took the responsibility head-on.
“I’m frustrated,” he said. “We didn’t find a way to win this game. I’m frustrated by how bad we were on third down. We’re better than that. I’m better than that.”
And he is right. The Cowboys only converted two of 12 third-down opportunities, and two one-yard rushing touchdowns — one by Javonte Williams and one by Malik Davis — were their only red zone scores. Brandon Aubrey had an unusual day, marked by two missed field goals, both of more than 50 yards, although it was his four made field goals that accounted for 12 of the team’s 26 points.
A week earlier, in a loss to the Detroit Lions, Aubrey contributed 15 of Dallas’ 30 points, a two-week stretch that leaves Dak Prescott and company searching for answers as to why their kicker, despite being All-Pro, is averaging nearly as many points as the offense, answers that will surely keep Schottenheimer up at night.
“It’s always going to start with me and the things I did wrong or didn’t execute well,” he said of the offensive problems against Minnesota. “Brian Flores was better than me today. I’m not going to sleep well tonight, but I promise you that tomorrow I’ll get up, work my hardest and I’ll figure it out.”
The frustration over the loss, and everything that has happened since the team chained three victories in 10 days—two against the two most recent Super Bowl champions and one of them a historic 21-point comeback against the Eagles—is palpable. In the postgame press conference, Prescott made his emotions clear when answering questions.
The All-Pro quarterback expected more from the season and the matchup against the Vikings, and he joins teammates and coaches in trying to process the disappointment.
“Yeah, I mean, at this point it sucks,” he said. “It’s hard to even think back on those highs, but yeah, you beat two good teams. You beat both Super Bowl teams here in a matter of, what, eight days? Nine days? Something like that. And then you go on the road to play a really good team, and they beat us last week.
“… We didn’t do the things necessary to win or to score in the red zone. And we came into this game with no answer against Cover 0, and we didn’t score in the red zone. You put those two things together and you’re going to lose by eight points. It’s unfortunate and it sucks, but it’s the reality of the NFL, and this is very difficult.”
And it won’t get any easier for the Cowboys.
While their playoff hopes aren’t mathematically over, they practically are. The loss to Minnesota now leaves them with just a one percent chance of making it to the postseason, with the wild card option already ruled out, leaving only one path: win the three remaining games and hope that the Eagles lose their final three games.
Despite the poor start to the first half of the season, the Cowboys still had everything in front of them after their three-win streak. However, with the most recent defeat, the only thing in front of them now is a mirror.
“We didn’t find a way to win this game,” Schottenheimer added. “I knew it would be a game like this. I wasn’t surprised. Kevin [O’Connell] He is a great coach. “Brian is a great coach and unfortunately this game came down to our inability, especially in the red zone, and some specific situations.”
“We weren’t very good defensively on fourth down. … At the end of the day, when you play a team like this, you have to dominate the game situations, and we didn’t do that.”
The already difficult task became infinitely more difficult Sunday night, and it’s a bitter pill the Cowboys will have to swallow as they try to close out the season in the best way possible.
