Another loss, another similar structure to how it went down. Except this time, the Cowboys saw all of their issues compound into an historic loss for the franchise. Sunday’s 38-point blowout to the Detroit Lion s is the team’s worst in AT&T Stadium since it opened in 2009.
From the jump, the Lions outmatched the Cowboys physically by dominating the trenches on both sides of the ball and fighting just enough in the secondary to disrupt rhythm and timing with Dak Prescott and his receivers.
It’s the same structure we saw when the Cowboys lost to the Ravens. And the Saints. And the Packers in January. Remember the loss to the Bills in December of last year? Or the 49ers?
In each of those games, the same core issue was present: a lack of physicality and a lack of toughness, both mentally and physically, when staring in the face of an early deficit. It’s only gotten worse, as the Cowboys are now experiencing losses that are etching themselves in the wrong part of the franchise history books.
“It was very concerning,” owner and general manager Jerry Jones said postgame. “It was very humbling…We’ve got a lot of work to do.”
The issues around toughness and physicality are not lost on the locker room, as multiple players pointed to those trends without being prompted during the media’s postgame availability.
“It’s not just trying to out-rough people,” starting nickel cornerback Jourdan Lewis said. “That’s running to the ball, understanding and being disciplined every single play. That’s also mental toughness, more so anything. Anybody can go run and hit. You have to be mentally tough to go do it every single down.”
But is correcting toughness and becoming more physical something that can just happen overnight? Or is it something ingrained in a culture and a system that has lacked those key aspects for at least the last two seasons?
When you look at the teams that have been contenders during the playoffs, you see squads that are a physical challenge and have proven to be tough outs on the strength of their culture. Look at the Chiefs, the Ravens, the 49ers. Look at the Detroit Lions. Tough football teams.
Is anyone saying that about the Dallas Cowboys?
“We obviously got hit in the mouth today,” wide receiver CeeDee Lamb said. “It’s terrible. We gotta dwell on it going into the bye week. We have another week to sit on it. We have to come back ready to work and get the fundamentals down again. There’s things we have to clean up, and being fundamental in playing football is one of those things.”
The fortunate part for the Cowboys is that they will have that extra time during the bye that Lamb alluded to for identifying issues. A common theme in the locker room availability after the loss was the team needing to “look in the mirror” to see how each individual can help the overall team goal, specifically as it pertains to being mentally and physically tough.
“Obviously, you gotta look in the mirror,” linebacker Damone Clark said. “That’s the biggest thing. We’re not going to hit the panic button. We’ll stay right there in the middle, stay neutral. This ain’t the first rodeo. Obviously, we have to correct it and I know the guys in this locker room will correct it.”
Dak Prescott called on his teammates to approach the time in between Sundays with more intensity in response to a question about how the team could be more physical, as he points to practice time needing to have more intention moving forward.
“We’ve gotta practice harder, simple as that,” Prescott said. “You can’t turn it on on Sundays. I’ve said that before to the guys, we’ve just gotta reiterate that every day in practice and in our preparation. We’ve gotta practice harder, prepare harder and come out here and play harder. That’s a choice.”
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