The Cowboys lost their third consecutive game tonight on Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving, as everyone knows, is a day of gratitude. Being grateful for the things that go right in life instead of mourning over the things that go wrong. I would love to sit at my keyboard and write this game recap with that kind of mindset. However after the Cowboys 28-6 beat-down at home versus the Los Angeles Chargers, I can think of virtually nothing Dallas Cowboy fans should be grateful about right now.

The Numbers Were Bad. Really Bad.

Dallas ran 49 plays and only accrued 247 yards of total offense, a modest 81 yards rushing and a total of 168 yards through the air. The Offensive line ( who lost guard Zack Martin to a concussion) gave up 2 sacks on quarterback Dak Prescott. Dak has now been sacked 14 times in the last three games. Maybe all the sacks are why Cowboys’ fans are seeing Prescott do something he has very rarely done throughout his tenure as a Cowboy-turn the ball over. Prescott threw 2 inexcusable interceptions in the 4th quarter- one of them returned for a 90 yard touchdown by Chargers’ cornerback Desmond King. The only major statistical category the Cowboys won was “Red Zone Efficiency“, and Dallas only won that because they entered the red zone twice. Just twice. Oh, and that famous Dallas Cowboy pass rush generated 0 sacks on Chargers’ quarterback Philip Rivers’ 33 pass attempts.

A Disturbing Pattern Developing in Big D

Thursday’s game looked painfully similar to the Sunday night loss against Philadelphia. Though it was close throughout the first half , once again, Dallas was completely outclassed in the second. However, an argument can be made that this loss was even worse. Last week when Dallas went into the locker room after the first half, they were still competitive due to strong defensive play. Against LA, Dallas didn’t have anything positive to hang their Cowboys hats on. The defense struggled just as much as the offense.

The Chargers gave Dallas plenty of opportunities to take the lead in the first half. The Chargers missed field goals and failed on 4th down conversions in the red zone, giving the Cowboys golden opportunities on which to capitalize. Dallas proved unable to do so. The result of which was a scoreless game until the 2 minute warning in the second quarter. The only reason the Chargers did not drop 35 points on Dallas was because they were without their kicker for a majority of the game. Ultimately forcing them to go for it on 4th down and leave points on the field. Normally teams with 515 yards of total offense put up more than 28 points.

The Chargers (much like the Eagles) got the ball rolling in the second half. The Cowboys simply couldn’t generate any form of offensive production to remain competitive. Once the 4th quarter came around, Prescott had no choice but to simply throw it down the field and pray.

Those prayers weren’t answered, and the Dallas Cowboys need to take a long look in the mirror.

Regardless of which game was a worse performance, the Cowboys are left with some ugly truths. The first, is that Dallas can’t throw the ball downfield anymore (averaged 5.8 yards per pass). The second, this team can’t make the necessary adjustments, substitutions, game plans, or schemes to stay competitive with anyone (outscored 92-22 in last three games). Whether that is a result of personnel or coaching is a debate that Cowboys fans will be arguing for weeks to come.