ARLINGTON, Texas -- The Dallas Cowboys' home opener couldn't have gone much worse on Sunday, thanks to their 44-19 faceplant against the visiting New Orleans Saints.
Their vaunted defense got a slice of "humble pie" stuffed in its face, becoming the fifth team since 2000 to allow its opponent to score a touchdown on each of their first six drives to start a game. That will make life hard for any offense.
The Cowboys offense stayed within striking distance of the Saints early, trailing 21-13 after 2023 First Team All-Pro CeeDee Lamb's 65-yard catch-and-run touchdown through double coverage. However, once Dallas wide receiver Jalen Brooks fell down on a slant route, which led to quarterback Dak Prescott's first of two interceptions on Sunday, the Saints added two more touchdowns before halftime, which led to a 35-16 deficit. A three-score hole is awfully hard to climb out of, and the Cowboys certainly didn't do that on Sunday.
"It was hard to say that we were pressing," Prescott said postgame. "You're trying to play complementary football and if your defense is struggling to stop a group, you want to do your part and score us downs and come back. We weren't able to score touchdowns but were able to move the ball up and down the field. I can't say that we were pressing necessarily. Going from last week to this week, there were some things that we wanted to get better at. We got better at third downs this week, but now it's the red zone that I think we scored some touchdowns. It makes the defense feel a bit better, and it's a while different feel within the game for both sides of the ball."
"They were doubling me, and I kind of told Dak a double team don't really intimidate me at all. I'm expecting that all year, and I still can win. Great execution by us. We need more of that," Lamb said when discussing his 65-yard receiving touchdown.
When it came to zoom out and provide his big-picture analysis of Dallas' overall performance, Lamb didn't mince words.
"New Orleans won the game. We played terrible. We didn't play complementary football. The scoreboard says it all," Lamb said. "We [Lamb and Prescott, the Cowboys offense as a whole] just got to execute. This game came down to execution. Who can execute the most, who can make the most plays, who could dominate the line of scrimmage and obviously win on the outside. That we didn't do that, and they did."
Both teams were pretty solid on third down with New Orleans converting five of its eight (62.5%) for first downs while Dallas converted six of its 13 (46.2%), but the stark contrast came in the red zone. The Saints turned four of their five drives inside the opposing 20 into touchdowns while the Cowboys failed to reach the end zone on all three of the such possessions. Prescott missed a play-action throw to running Ezekiel Elliott on a possession in which he was all alone after a blitz. The toss bounced harmlessly at Elliott's feet. That's a pass Prescott wants back. He also threw a critical fourth-and-4 throw to rookie, undrafted tight end Brevyn Spann-Ford, and the pass fell incomplete. Prescott takes accountability for that one. Going forward, he may scramble more inside the 20.
"I just didn't convert in the red zone," Prescott said. "I think it's the biggest one. They didn't throw anything else we weren't ready for. They gave us some looks that we were prepared for. Maybe not quite brought the blitz, bluffed out of a couple. We were still able to get some first downs. But then we got in the red zone. Short arm to throw to Zeke and hand gets free in my face. Misconnection with CeeDee [Lamb]. Pulled the fourth down, probably could scramble trying to trust in the young tight end, wanted to use his body and put it away from him. That's somebody I don't have a lot of reps on. I put that one on me. As I said, probably could have gone into scramble mode. But just a few plays out there and as I said if we get in the end zone, I think we're talking a different game and damn sure different feel to this game."
The 31-year-old, three-time Pro Bowl quarterback's second interception of the day was squarely on him as he attempted to squeeze a ball to Lamb with safety Tyrann Mathieu lurking. That's a play that might not happen if the Cowboys defense wasn't in the midst of allowing New Orleans' offense to have a historic afternoon.
"Great play by him [Mathieu]," Prescott said. "We've got another crossing route right there. He did a good job of covering that and playing through that at the same time running and making that play. So, credit to him. That's on me. I can look CeeDee off more or get back to that first drive in the second window, that's one of those."
Through two games, Prescott has thrown two touchdowns and two interceptions in addition to 472 passing yards on 46 of 71 passing (64.8%). The result is an 81.4 passer rating through two games in Dallas' 1-1 start to 2024, a far cry from his 105.9 passer rating in 2023, which was a career high and the second-best in the NFL.
"My expectations are crazy high," Prescott said of how he would judge his performance through two games. "So, I'm not going to give you a great, maybe a realistic answer. I'm seeing it well, putting the ball where I want to. That one interception is going to get at me, just because Tyrann made a hell of a play. Did a good job of playing through one route and getting to the other. Outside of that, there may be a few throws that I want to get back. But as far as seeing the defense getting to the beginning of the offense and what I want in the position and in the plays that we want to, I feel good about it and confident that we're going to continue to get better as a team."
More is being asked of Prescott in 2024, and it's not just because of his new, four-year, $240 million extension that made him the NFL's highest-paid player. Dallas opted to let Pro Bowl running back Tony Pollard walk to the Tennessee Titans in free agency on a three-year, $21.8 million deal, and they replaced him with Elliott, undrafted veteran running Rico Dowdle and 2023 sixth-round pick Deuce Vaughn. That group has led to Dallas averaging 85 rushing yards per game through two weeks, the eighth-fewest in football.
That lack of balance has made it hard for Dallas to create big plays through play-action or otherwise. The Cowboys had 76 plays of 20 or more yards last season, tied for the fourth-most in the NFL. They only have four this season, which is tied for the eighth-fewest in the league with "Sunday Night Football" and "Monday Night Football" left to be played in Week 2. Prescott may have to be close to perfect like he was in the 2023 regular season whether he wants to admit it or not.
"That's a good question. I don't want to say you have to be perfect," Prescott said when asked about lack of big plays. "Everybody's got to do their job and trust their job and understand that's where the big plays come from. Part of it for me, I think maybe it's felt like I was at this point last year. It was a lot later in the year when I did it, but going back to using my feet more, whether it's scrambling, extending the plays to look to throw the ball down the field or maybe just going and getting a couple yards and getting down. I wouldn't say it's about being perfect, but understanding that I do have that ability and that is a huge part of our offense. Got to bring it to life, I think."
The driving element of that big play ability is Prescott's connection with Lamb, but that's still a work progress after Lamb held out for his four-year, $136 million deal this past offseason. The duo have connected on just nine of Lamb's 17 targets for 151 yards and a touchdown. That rate likely needs to be closer to 70% than 50% for the Cowboys to turn things around. Prescott missed Lamb in the back right portion of the end zone for a touchdown on drive that ended in a Brandon Aubrey field goal on Sunday.
"Simply just trying to communicate. Maybe those misses, maybe what he saw, what he thought versus what I did and then, honestly, just finding a solution," Prescott said of his timing with Lamb. "Great communicator CeeDee [Lamb] is. As I've mentioned before his expectations and standard for our connection and this offense are just as high as mine. No matter what the route is, neither of us are happy unless it's a perfect play. It's just about being more clean. As I said we missed some time. Everybody knows that but we have to have those communications to substitute for the time missed."
The clock is ticking on the Dallas duo to get their 2023 magic back because their schedule isn't getting an easier. They host 2023 NFL MVP Lamar Jackson and the Baltimore Ravens in Week 3.
