In the end, the same issues that got Dallas behind the eight ball reared their head Thursday night, ending the Cowboys’ winning streak and putting their season on life support.
“I think guys are pissed off right now,” Dak Prescott said following a 44-30 loss to the Detroit Lions. “I don’t think this is any deflated moment like, ‘Oh, hands are up, we’re done.’ No, no, absolutely not. I think you’re going to get a team that’s pissed, especially as we talk about a team that’s kind of changed since the bye week.”
The Cowboys went to Detroit on a three-game hot streak, including wins over the Eagles and Chiefs. On Thursday, however, the defense reverted to its early-season inability to get stops, the offense turned the ball over, and another key player (CeeDee Lamb) went down with injury.
The Cowboys’ defense allowed 40-plus points for the third time this season, tying the team’s single-season record (1960, 1962, 2013, 2024).
In the previous three games, they’d allowed 21.7 points per game, 312.3 yards, two total rush TDs and generated 2.7 sacks. On Thursday, a struggling secondary got ripped apart, the line couldn’t keep Jahmyr Gibbs out of the end zone, and the pass rush always came too late. Dallas allowed 44 points, 408 total yards, four rush TDs and earned one sack of Jared Goff on Thursday.
“Man, we are way better than [allowing] 44 points,” newcomer Quinnen Williams said, via the team’s official website. “Man, we’ve got a great defense. We’ve got a great defensive line, and we’ve gotta do our job to the best of our ability, and execute, to the best of our ability, and just make more plays — especially in this D-line room. We’ve got the ability to do it.”