The quickest way to sabotage playing complementary football is by beating yourself, and the Dallas Cowboys did just that in a 27-21 defeat to the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday afternoon.
Early in the third quarter, with the Cowboys trailing by four points, they faced a fourth-and-two from their own 28-yard line. Bryan Anger attempted a pass down the sideline to C.J. Goodwin, but Goodwin couldn’t make a play on the ball, giving the Falcons great field position. From Anger’s perspective, the aggressiveness in the play is part of what makes special teams coordinator John “Bones” Fassel so successful, though sometimes the outcome just doesn’t go your way.
“We get it, it’s a major play, we don’t get it, still a ton of game left and we can recover,” Anger said. “I like the aggressiveness that we have, you got to go for it, that’s what coach [Fassel] is known for in his career and he’s had major success, he’s one of the best to do it, ever. You’ve got to take the shots, you’re not going to get some here and there, but you’ve got to take them.”
It’s important to note that on fake punts, there are no penalties for pass interference. So when Falcons cornerback Natrone Brooks made contact with C.J. Goodwin—contact that typically would have drawn a penalty—it was actually a perfect defense against the play.
“He played it great, he kind of knew it was coming…” Goodwin said. “That was a smart play by them, it was something we would’ve done too.”
Five plays and 38 yards later, Kirk Cousins found Ray-Ray McCloud for an 11-yard touchdown, pushing the Falcons’ lead to 11 points. Despite how demoralizing that play was for Dallas’ momentum, it likely won’t be the last time we see the Cowboys attempt a fake punt this season.
“In Bones I trust, I loved it,” Goodwin said about the fake punt call. “We’ll do it again later, it’ll work next time.”
While Fassel took responsibility for the call, which he recommended to Mike McCarthy before the play and McCarthy approved, he doesn’t regret it.
“I don’t regret it,” Fassel said. “I think it was a sound situation to make that call. There are times where I’ve called it before and it didn’t work and I regretted it. There are also times where I haven’t called it and I wish I would have, and I regretted that. This is one where I called it and it didn’t work, but I don’t regret it.”
Fourth down was a major issue for the Cowboys, who converted just one of five attempts, with a tackle for loss on an end-around to CeeDee Lamb, an incompletion from Dak Prescott at the end of the first half, and a drop from KaVontae Turpin in the fourth quarter, in addition to the failed fake punt. Their four turnovers on downs marked the most they’ve had in a game since at least 1993.
“The only thing that really slowed us down was ourselves today,” head coach Mike McCarthy said.
Then came perhaps the most frustrating aspect: the penalties. Staying on track has been a persistent issue for the Cowboys, and that trend continued in Atlanta with nine penalties for 55 yards. On Dallas’ second drive, KaVontae Turpin’s 48-yard return to the Cowboys’ 46-yard line was nullified by a Luke Schoonmaker holding penalty, and the Cowboys went three-and-out.
That was just one example of Dallas’ self-inflicted mistakes that disrupted drives. Jake Ferguson, Tyler Guyton, and Terence Steele all committed false start penalties during the game, making matters worse. Heading into the game, much of the focus had been on improving communication and execution, but the Cowboys came up short in both areas once again.
“We’ve got to get to winning,” McCarthy said. “We’re making too many self-inflicted wounds and the disappointing part about it is some are repeated. The pre-snap penalties are totally unacceptable.”
The road to winning starts in practice, an area where McCarthy and his staff discipline players for presnap infractions by removing them from plays. But that may not be enough. With two home games coming up, hopefully, these issues will be addressed, but there’s still work to be done.
“That’s something we’ve got to continue to work on and make sure we get the mechanics tighter, because it definitely bit us,” McCarthy said.
Now sitting at 3-5, with injuries piling up and frustrations mounting, the Cowboys will face division rival Philadelphia Eagles at AT&T Stadium next Sunday, hoping to snap their losing streak and earn their first win since October 6.
