It’s hard to characterize that Cowboys Week 9 game as anything but the same old 2024 story. They had their chances, they could have won, and yet they slowly took it away from themselves. The 27-21 final score is not indicative of Dallas’ effort today.
Dak Prescott’s hamstring injury that knocked him out for the rest of the second half is a much bigger story; the game itself was nothing we haven’t seen before.
CeeDee Lamb was also injured in this one, and it continued to get worse as the game went on.
There were some positive performances, specifically from guys like Rico Dowdle and DeMarvion Overshown, but those were outweighed by showings from Terence Steele and Zack Martin.
The issues of old reared their head again for the Cowboys, and it’s simply hard to see them overcoming some of those weaknesses at this point.
Let’s dive in deeper on this defeat in Atlanta with a look at both the first and second half here in Week 9.
First Half
For some reason, the Cowboys have taken a liking to receiving the ball first after the coin toss this season. If that strategy worked, I’d have no problem with it, but it has not worked for Dallas yet.
It seems like Mike McCarthy finally saw the light on that problem as they did the reverse to start Week 9, and it (somewhat) paid off.
The Cowboys defense pulled off a three-and-out after kicking off to Atlanta, got down the field easily on offense, but ultimately stalled out and settled for a field goal.
Unfortunately, it seemed like Dallas was chasing the early success of that drive for the rest of the half, and even the game.
In the drives that followed, the Cowboys went three-and-out themselves, and forced a turnover just to turn it over on downs themselves on a brutal play call from McCarthy.
That was the story of the game in many ways: blunders costing Dallas time and time again.
Trevon Diggs essentially ran into somebody to give the Falcons the easiest touchdown they’ll ever score, the offensive line got smoked to the tune of multiple first-half sacks against the worst pass rush in football, and they had four drives fail in awful fashion.
Perhaps the biggest bright spot here was Dowdle’s juggling catch to give the Cowboys their first, and only, touchdown of the day.
This was a half of mistakes and missed opportunities, and anybody that watched the full game knows that trend continued.
Second Half
So, after starting the game by deferring the toss, the Cowboys had the hope of getting the ball at halftime on their side. They only trailed by four and could have taken the lead with a big opening drive.
Instead, they had a false start on the first play out of the locker room, went three-and-out, and decided that was a great time for a fake punt that failed miserably.
That moment may become a key point in this season. It was a true low point for this organization.
What followed was an easy touchdown drive from the Falcons, and a real punt from Dallas after somehow having 12 men in the huddle on a critical 4th and 1 play. The mishaps and blunders were never-ending in this one.
The Cowboys did manage to get a stop and score following that, though it was only a field goal as Brandon Aubrey’s leg saved Dallas again.
That ended up being the last truly meaningful score of the game, as Jalen Tolbert’s final drive touchdown acted more as a garbage-time statistical boost.
Of course, the biggest story here was not the game itself, but the injury to Prescott that I mentioned.
You can say whatever you want about the Cowboys quarterback, but as he goes, they go. If Prescott misses any time, you can essentially pack this season up and move on to 2025.
Atlanta took it to Dallas today; they were the cleaner team, especially in the second half, and they deserved the win.
The Cowboys Week 9 showing is another example of this team just not being good enough.
