Cowboys Can’t Stop Gibbs, Lose to Detroit on TNF
This suuuuuuucks.
Just when the Cowboys were getting hot, we completely rolled over on our backs and got torched all night long. Defense looked abysmal once again, Offense played very up-and-down, and we even got burned on Special Teams.
Even after getting within three late in the game, we still found a way to lose by 14 to a Lions team that was somewhat banged-up. Amon-Ra St. Brown played after being a game-time decision, having hurt his ankle last week vs. Green Bay. St. Brown had six catches for 92 yards, and almost all of them felt like huge chunk plays.
We knew Jahmyr Gibbs was going to be a problem against this defense, but I had a little hope that it wouldn’t be as bad as it was. He finished with 120 total yards and a hat trick of touchdowns against us. He was catching passes in the flat all night, and even was splitting out wide to catch slant routes.
Offensively, we played extremely sloppily with penalties, taking sacks, an injury to CeeDee Lamb, and TWO tip-drill interceptions that were not Dak’s fault; a slant to George Pickens was played perfectly by one defender and tipped to another, and a last-second ball ripped away from Ryan Flournoy before he could secure the catch. We ended up settling for FIVE field goals, which is something you just can’t do against the Lions. At least Brandon Aubrey made them all (29 yards, 42 yards, 55 yards, 57 yards, and 63 yards).
For some reason, Flournoy was called on a bunch during the game, even before CeeDee was concussed (by the way, CeeDee was BALLING before he had a scary-looking concussion right after half). He ended the game with nine catches on 13 targets for 115 yards and a wide-open 42-yard touchdown that put us within 3 points with 10 minutes left. George Pickens had a pretty quiet night, which should not have been the game plan, but I’m thrilled to see Flournoy step up into the WR3 role.
Jake Ferguson had a costly fumble early in the game and a BRUTAL hands-to-the-face call that negated a HUGE pass interference call when we really needed momentum. He was also called for offensive pass interference in the 4th, which I thought was total BS. Alex Anzalone made WAY more contact with him, and it should have at the very least been offsetting instead of just OPI. He wasn’t alone, but he definitely was a problem for us tonight.
I also never thought I’d say this, but BOY did we miss LT Tyler Guyton out there tonight. Nate Thomas had a few bonehead moments on the night – specifically, he let up a sack on a play he looked to his right to block NOBODY and then realized the defensive end to his left was all the way around him. Tyler Guyton is not perfect, but at least he makes an effort.
We also missed Jadeveon Clowney, who has quietly been one of our best defensive players this year. A solid pass rusher and a great run defender would have been pretty helpful on a night Detroit could do anything they wanted.
I mean, we all knew this team wasn’t actually going to pull any miracles off down the stretch, but it was really fun while it lasted. Dallas falls to 6-6-1 on the year, with now only a 9% chance to make the playoffs according to the Amazon Broadcast.
What we should look at is next offseason – our window doesn’t truly start until next year. Matt Eberflus should be left in Detroit without a ride home because clearly letting up 44 points is not something we can overcome every week. Pickens and Javonte need extensions. We need to draft a Corner, since DaRon Bland and Trevon Diggs are getting paid like Fortune 500 CEOs to either sit on the bench or get burnt like toast for 60 minutes a week. We should also look into replacing Terrence Steele, our right tackle, who has taken a significant step back.
We’ve got 2026 and 2027 to make a serious run with this group of guys; we just have to keep the right ones around. The season is all but over, unfortunately, but we’ll have a real team for all of next season.
Go Cowboys.