The Dallas Cowboys have had a lot of regular season success over the past few years, which makes their performance in 2024 extremely disappointing. Sitting at 3-6, their playoff hopes are on life support as Week 11 begins to unfold. Mike McCarthy and his current team are all on notice that they will likely seek employment elsewhere in 2024.
Their two most recent high-level coordinators are having a lot of success this season, however. Kellen Moore, former OC under Jason Garrett and McCarthy, is now in charge of the Philadelphia Eagles offense. Dan Quinn, the defensive coordinator of the last three 12-5 Cowboys seasons, is now the head coach of Washington. Their former colleagues met on the opposite sidelines on Thursday night and Quinn’s Commanders took home a 26-18 victory.
Both teams entered their TNF game with a combined record of 14-5, but despite some questionable calls in their favor throughout, Washington collapsed late.
Quinn’s troops entered the fourth quarter with a 10-6 lead, but a stupid call by Quinn on fourth down gave Moore’s offense the opening it needed to score three rushing touchdowns; his new signature. Washington scored a no-rush TD with just 28 seconds left to close the gap, but the onside kick attempt failed.
What’s interesting to Cowboys fans is how far each’s former units have fallen in terms of performance and standings since their departure.
Moore joined Garrett’s staff during his 2019 season and took the Cowboys offense from 17th to 6th in scoring. With a mulligan in 2020 for Prescott’s broken leg, he also had them ranked 1st and 4th in his other seasons. However, playoff disappointment and McCarthy’s desire to return to playing (to save his job, presumably) led Moore to join the Los Angeles Chargers in 2023.
McCarthy found success initially, as the Cowboys returned to the No. 1 offense in 2023. But there was a catch. Quinn’s defense was a monster at creating extra opportunities for the offense by being at or near the top in forced turnovers over the last three seasons.
Without Quinn in tow, the turnovers stopped and even before the Cowboys lost Prescott again for the season, their offense was in the bottom third of the NFL in 2024.
Quinn’s defense finished seventh, fifth and fifth in points allowed during his three seasons in Dallas. Jerry Jones was able to convince Quinn to stay in Dallas over the past few seasons despite interviews with head coaches across the league, but Quinn ultimately rushed to land with the division’s rival commanders.
Moore was fired along with head coach Brandon Staley and his entire staff in Los Angeles and landed in Philadelphia. Both cooked through their first seasons elsewhere in the NFC East.
This article was originally published on Cowboys Wire: Cowboys Bowl I coordinator goes to Eagles as Commanders collapse in fourth quarter
