The Dallas Cowboys finished their 2020 season 6-10 after a very disappointing week 17 performance against the New York Giants. The Cowboys came into the week needing to win and a Washington loss to win the NFC East and they came out with a week 17 performance that Cowboys fans are way too accustomed to. Bad quarterback play, costly penalties and poor coaching all played a part in Sunday’s 23-19 loss. 

When you go 6-10, a lot went wrong for you as a football team. I have put together five plays from the season that played a huge role in the Cowboys missing the playoffs for the second consecutive season.

1. Dak Prescott goes down against the Giants in week 5. 

Listen, I don’t know how the Cowboys season turns out if Dak is healthy throughout the season or how many more games they win. The Cowboys were already 1-3 at this point but once Dak went down, it took the Cowboys a couple weeks to really process what had happened with their leader no longer there.

2. Cowboys decide to do a fake punt down 20-16 against the Washington football team. 

This was the most costly loss of a season. The loss cemented that Washington would have the tiebreaker over the Cowboys. The Cowboys had just beat a red hot Minnesota team in Minnesota coming off their bye week. There were a lot of plays leading up to this decision that put the Cowboys in the situation to be down 20-16. (Jaylon Smith not being able to convert pick 6 and Ceedee Lamb dropped touchdown that would have tied the game at 17)

However, after this decision Washington outscored the Cowboys 21-0 and won the game 41-16 and took control of the division. 

3. Andy Dalton suffers concussion against Washington in week 7. 

This was the second game without Dak Prescott and the Cowboys didn’t play well enough to win this game. Once the concussion was confirmed for Dalton, the Cowboys spent the next week telling everybody that Ben DiNucci was the next Tony Romo. Once he got out of the field against Philadelphia, we all quickly found out DiNucci belonged no where near an NFL football field. 

4. Ceedee Lamb gets two yards on 4th and 3 against the Los Angeles Rams in week 1. 

This play was a sign of things to come from Mike McCarthy. McCarthy trusted his rookie receiver to execute a 4th and 3 in his first game as Cowboys head coach. If the Cowboys kick a field goal here to tie the game at 20, who knows what happens the rest of the game. 

5. Odell Beckham Jr. ices game with 50 yard touchdown run in week 4. 

After falling behind 41-14 to the Cleveland Browns, the Cowboys fought all the way back to make the score 41-38 with 3:25 left in the game. The Cowboys decided to do an onside kick, which they didn’t recover and set the Browns offense up at midfield. First play of the drive, the Browns ran an end around and Odell ran backwards for about 15 yards and was able to get around Aldon Smith to turn the corner and complete the 50 yard touchdown run. After this game is when you started to hear the rumblings out of the locker room from players about the coaching staff.