The Dallas Cowboys fell to 5-4 after a disappointing 28-24 loss to the Minnesota Vikings. The Cowboys are now tied for first place in the NFC East with the Philadelphia Eagles heading into Week 11.

Quick Notes

Sunday night was just the fourth time that Dak Prescott has finished a game without a rushing attempt in 57 career games. The Cowboys are now 1-3 in those games.

Connor Williams underwent arthroscopic knee surgery on Tuesday. It is unknown at this time how much time he will miss. As a rookie, Williams missed two games after a right knee procedure in 2018. Xavier Su’a-Filo will step in for Williams.

From Wednesday’s practice report, offensive lineman Zack Martin (back/ankle/elbow) and La’el Collins (knee, back) were absent.

Amari Cooper also missed practice Wednesday due to a knee injury. At this point, it is almost expected that Cooper will not practice much but will be available on game-day.

It was reported on Tuesday that the Cowboys will be attending a workout for Colin Kaepernick on Saturday. I don’t believe that the Cowboys will sign go on to sign him but it is worth monitoring. Kaepernick last played in the NFL in 2016.

Stock Up

Dak Prescott

Dak played what I thought was the best game of his career. He completed 28-46 passes for 397 yards and three touchdowns. To me, it goes beyond the numbers as to why I think this was Prescott’s best game of his career and that is because he was put in unfavorable situations all night by his coaches. He completed all five passes on third and 7+ yards with 17.8 yards per attempt. The unfavorable situations that I was referring to were caused by the Cowboys continuing to run on first down when it was not successful.

Cowboys ran the ball on first down 16 times for 39 yards, which set them up for those third and longs all night.

Amari Cooper / Randall Cobb / Michael Gallup

With the running game nonexistent, the receiving core played one of their best games of the season. Cooper brought in 11 catches for 147 yards and a touchdown. Cobb had his best game as a Cowboy bringing in 6 passes for 106 yards and actually had a touchdown that wasn’t called back due to a penalty. Gallup brought in 4 passes for 76 yards and a touchdown.

Stock Down

Chidobe Awuzie

This is becoming a trend that the Cowboys are going to have to address. It appears that Chido has lost his confidence and teams are actively seeking him out on plays to put their #1 read on him and more times than not, they have success when they go in his direction.

I also want to point out that Chido is far from the only problem on this defense as the run defense was atrocious in this game and allowed the Vikings to run the ball 10 straight times until they scored a touchdown late in the third quarter.

Coaching

Now, we get to the biggest problem on the team. There is no doubt in my mind that the Cowboys head into each game with a huge disadvantage in terms of coaching and Sunday night was another example of that.

I didn’t like the decision to attempt a 57-yard field goal on the first offensive drive because I believe that you should only attempt field goals from that distance at the end of a half or game. Garrett made the call to punt with an opportunity to kick a 58-yard field goal on 4th and 4 at the Vikings 40-yard line later in the game. I believe those are both situations that you should leave your offense on the field.

I believe that this is as close to losing the team that head coach Jason Garrett has been during his tenure in Dallas due to placing blame on everyone else (Dak, Kellen Moore, Tavon) and not holding himself accountable for any of Sunday’s shortcomings. Reports came out early this week that Tavon and teammates were not happy that Tavon was hung out to dry by their head coach regarding the lack of communication on the decision to call for a fair catch on the last Minnesota punt. Garrett said he did speak with Tavon on Wednesday.