Cowboys Week 4 Postgame Report – Diving into the Future
Last night we saw a very depleted Cowboys team take on the Packers (who have looked great so far) and tie. Dak Prescott is once again playing at his MVP level from 2023, missing superstar WR CeeDee Lamb and two offensive linemen in Cooper Beebe and Tyler Booker. We saw Dak put up 319 yards and three touchdowns through the air, along with a 2-yard QB draw for a touchdown.
Without CeeDee on the field, WR George Pickens stepped up big time with a MONSTER game: 8 catches on 11 targets, 134 yards and two touchdowns, along with a crazy 28-yard catch when we needed it. Down 11 right before half, Dak threw a moon ball at the left pylon that Pickens came down with on the goal line while double-covered.
In OT, Jalen Tolbert had a wild play too. On 2nd & 7, the pocket completely broke down around Dak. He rolled right and threw to a spot a yard outside the sideline at the 5-yard line. Tolbert saw this and came back to the ball from inside the end zone, keeping his feet in bounds and completing the catch.
Without our starting center and right guard, backups Brock Hoffman and TJ Bass also stepped up and played well against a very solid Packer defensive front. At the end of the game, sophomore left tackle Tyler Guyton also came out after being evaluated for a concussion, for which there is no update yet. Nate Thomas came in for our overtime drive and played decent enough, but we know Dak is great against pressure. The run game looked good all night, but Miles Sanders also went down. Hopefully, rookie RB Jaydon Blue can get a chance to play next week if Sanders can’t go.
While the offense did everything it needed to in dropping another 40-burger, something has to change with our defense. Losing Parsons on the edge this season has been hard for us, but that is far from our only issue: Defensive Coordinator Matt Eberflus and his zone-only scheme force Dak to play Superman week in and week out. You can’t beat teams allowing 28.5 points per game.
I’ve compiled a checklist for the Cowboys to keep this team moving in the right direction if we are going to keep this core together.
Extend George Pickens – We just watched George Pickens totally break out as a Cowboy. Dak is the best QB he’s ever played with, and now that they are on the same page, having him and CeeDee Lamb out there at the same time will be a deadly combination. The only thing that worries me is that he has the same agent as Micah Parsons, and after that whole fiasco, Jerry Jones will have a lot of ground to make up between them.
Fire Matt Eberflus – Okay, he was dealt a crappy hand, losing Micah Parsons right before the season, but it’s too late for Eberflus in Dallas. In 2025, you cannot simply run zone coverage, especially without a pass rush. The way that our defense gets stretched on LITERALLY EVERY SINGLE DROPBACK is awful. I’m sweating now thinking about Garrett Wilson’s inevitable 15 targets next week. If we are paying Trevon Diggs and Daron Bland a combined (average) $42.4 million a year, we need to trust them in man coverage.
Get healthy – Our WR1, RB2, 4/5 Offensive Linemen, and multiple CBs have missed at least parts of games so far. Oh yeah, and we traded arguably the best player on the team. We still have yet to see rookies Jaydon Blue and Shavon Revel (who can’t return until week 7 due to injury) at positions where we are thin. It sucks, but that’s football. We can only hope that the injury bug doesn’t stick around.
Coming out of a game that we opened as 7-point home underdogs with a tie isn’t the worst thing in the world. But man, beating Green Bay would have healed my soul after they had chewed us up and spit us out over and over again, just to take a future Hall of Fame player from us.
Jerry better get his act together and get what he can done. Go Cowboys.