ARLINGTON, Texas -- The 2024 Dallas Cowboys' season is stuck in a bottomless, dark abyss following their 34-10 Monday night home loss against the Houston Texans.
Dallas fell to 3-7 following their fifth consecutive loss, and they are now the first team in NFL history to trail by at least 20 points in six consecutive home games. The Cowboys current season is off to the franchise's worst 10-game start since 2020 when quarterback Dak Prescott broke his ankle, and Prescott is now also out for the year following hamstring surgery this season. In 2021 and 2022 when Prescott was out briefly because of injury, Dallas was able to overcome his absence with now-eight-year veteran backup Cooper Rush filling in. Rush is a caretaker who doesn't raise a team's floor, something that didn't matter when Dallas had a real deal ground game with Tony Pollard and Ezekiel Elliott leading the way with the Cowboys averaging 129.9 rushing yards per game across those two seasons. The Cowboys defense was also ferocious in its support of Rush when they won five of his six starts across 2021 and 2022, allowing 15.6 points per game in his appearances.
The 2024 season has gone a little bit differently. Dallas has been outscored 68-16 in Rush's two starts: a 34-6 Week 10 home loss against the Philadelphia Eagles and Monday night's defeat in Week 11. In his first start against Philadelphia this season, Rush became just the third player in the last 20 years with over 20 pass attempts (23) and under 50 passing yards in a game (45), per CBS Sports Research. On Monday, Rush's counting stats were better: he threw for 354 yards, a touchdown (a 64-yard catch-and-run touchdown to KaVontae Turpin on a slant) and an interception on 32 of 55 passing.
"I thought Rush played a little better tonight frankly, and I know we were trying to get the ball to CeeDee. We did that to some degree," Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said postgame Monday night.
However, the eye test said something a little different. He missed connecting with All-Pro wide receiver CeeDee Lamb, among other receivers, multiple times. Lamb's body language on multiple throws indicated his frustration. Rush also threw the ball in the dirt a number of times when the pocket collapsed.
"Missed two passes I want to say as far as behind [tonight], but the rest were pretty good," Lamb said postgame Monday night. "I feel like he's going to be better as the season goes and progresses. You could tell that he's gotten better from week on to week two for him as far as starting. So the confidence is there for him, happy for him. Obviously, we're moving the ball, but at the end of the day, we still got to score. We still got to win the game. ... We [the Cowboys as a whole] haven't been putting our pieces together. We don't really have it figured out right now, and that sucks."
Why not start Trey Lance?
Lance was the third overall selection in the 2021 NFL Draft by the San Francisco 49ers by way of North Dakota State even though he only threw 318 collegiate passes, a small sample size. Last year, 28 NFL quarterbacks threw more passes in 2023 than Lance did in three seasons of college football at North Dakota State from 2018-2020.
Dallas acquired Lance via trade for a fourth-round pick on the eve of the 2023 preseason finale after it was clear the 49ers became Brock Purdy's team while Lance dealt with injuries and never really had a shot in San Francisco. Lance and Rush are both set to be free agents at the end season. Why not see what the 24-year-old Lance can do since this team has already shown it's going nowhere fast with a soon-to-be 31-year-old Rush?
"I don't know about that," Jones said about starting Trey Lance. "I want to give our team the very best chance it can to, in all phases be successful. We're going to go here with the quarterback that gives us the best chance to win the game. ... We'll make that decision. You got to make it real quick though this week. ... I think our best chance is to have Rush in here, and the goal is to win the game."
Lance is obviously unrefined, but there's a chance he improves upon receiving actual game reps with a game plan built around him as the starting quarterback. His athletic tools are such that he can make something out of nothing like this 46-yard touchdown sprint against the Los Angeles Chargers in the 2024 preseason finale.
"I've seen a lot of improvement," Jones said. "I think he does some things really outstanding. I think his footwork is noticeably better and so I see the value of the reps that he's had. I'm seeing improvement there."
Coach Mike McCarthy even admitted that he wished he could've found Lance a possession Monday night with the game well out of hand.
"I'm playing who we have to win the game, everyone who's healthy," McCarthy said postgame. "We had a long week of practice, but we had a number of guys that didn't make it. So, you know, these guys practice, we're playing the best players to win the game. I think the one thing I guess I should've did at the end, and I just I didn't do, was put Trey Lance in there. I could've gotten him a series. That's one thing that I would second guess myself on. But other than that, we got guys going down, there was a number of guys that went down during the game. You just got to keep playing."
McCarthy also called Lance as "more than a gadget player." Time to treat him as such and start him to see if his athletic traits can show some sign of promise because it's clear that as long as Rush remains the starter, the offense will continue to remain predictable amid its injury-plagued struggles.
"Yeah, I really just didn't want to get into, you know, putting him in for a play or two," McCarthy said. "He's more than a gadget player, in my opinion. So, we had him prepared to take a series, and frankly, there at the end, I should have gave him that series, and I regret not doing that."