Good, bad, ugly: Points off the board, fake punt failure, double fumble among Cowboys’ Week 11 woes

THE Cowboys seemingly have no answers on how to salvage anything positive from their 2024 season. Losing their fifth straight game 34-10 to the Houston Texans, they still managed to find new ways to be inept, starting before kickoff when they couldn’t even open the stadium without it turning into a near disaster.

Several familiar bugaboos were back, with penalties, turnovers, injuries, poorly executed tricks, and questionable game management decisions all heavily influencing the outcome…and thus appearing in this week’s recap of the good, bad and ugly. of the game. But that doesn’t even count the wacky stuff that no one has ever seen before in an NFL game.

As usual, there were some positive moments for those who watched closely enough. Brandon Aubrey and KaVontae Turpin, for example, had individual standout moments…even if only one of them ultimately counted.

Here’s a comprehensive review of what went right, what went wrong, and what went off the rails. This is the good, the bad and the ugly of week 11.

Good: do a recast in the opening play

The stadium’s self-destruction before the game should have been an omen, as things nearly fell apart precipitously for Dallas once the game actually got underway. On the very first play from scrimmage, Texans receiver Nico Collins took a short pass and quickly left the building, racing 77 yards to the end zone. The Cowboys were down just 16 seconds into the game…until they weren’t. Thank you, Larémy Tunsil. The Houston tackle, the most penalized man in the NFL this season, was flagged for going too far down the field, bringing the ball all the way and giving the Dallas defense a chance to restart the game. ..

Bad: defensive play after this overhaul

Too bad they didn’t take advantage of the gift. Mazi Smith gave the Texans those five yards back with a holding call on the very next snap, which only helped jump-start the Texans’ offense. Five plays later, Joe Mixon blew up the heart of the Cowboys defense, staying intact on a 45-yard run to give Houston an only slightly late one-touchdown lead. Another of the marquee running backs who changed teams this past offseason (the Texans only got him for a seventh-round pick), Mixon finished the night with 109 yards and three scores in 20 races.

Ugly: Another fake punt failure

Oops, they did it again. After Week 9’s miserably failed fake punt in Atlanta, the Cowboys’ special teams unit took over during their first practice Monday. Bryan Anger actually connected on that throw, but Juanyeh Thomas was dropped five yards from the sticks to give Houston the ball, already in field goal territory and with a 7-0 lead. The play call prompted Dak Prescott to raise his hands in disbelief as he watched from an upstairs box. Special teams coordinator Fassel said Monday that players on the field check for fakes themselves based on clues they have been trained to look for. Maybe, but this one smacked of desperation.

Good: Defense repels Texans after fake punt

Somehow, handing the ball to the Texans at the Dallas 33 didn’t end up costing the Cowboys, as the defense stood tall and pulled off an all-too-rare turnover. Rather than attempt a 48-yard field goal to extend their lead, the Texans chose to go for it on 4th and 3. Trying to hook up with Collins once again, Houston quarterback CJ Stroud instead found Cowboys safety Malik Hooker for an easy interception. It was just the Cowboys’ ninth takeaway of the season and helped keep things close a little longer Monday night.

Bad: wipe Aubrey’s bomb, then bomb

With fewer than 19 points per game (and averaging just 14 per outing during the current losing streak), the Cowboys are arguably not in a position to take points off the board, regardless of the circumstances. Yet they chose to nullify Brandon Aubrey’s final long-range sniper shot, a 64-yarder that, ever so briefly, turned the game into a one-goal score in the final minutes of the third quarter . The idea was to take the 15 free penalty yards, extend a good drive and come away with seven instead of three. Except the Cowboys put together a series of almost comical plays that included a missed snap, a pass that hit Texans safety Calen Bullock in the hands and should have been a 93-yard pick-six, a holding penalty on Luke Schoonmaker, and a fourth off-target pass attempt to newcomer Jonathan Mingo who failed and gave the ball back to the Texans in their 10. The result? Almost five minutes of possession lost… and zero points. The Cowboys remained locked in at 10 a.m. until the final gunshot.

Ugly: O-linemen trying to become running backs

When the 2024 Cowboys history book is finally — and thankfully — closed, perhaps no piece will more completely encapsulate this entire life-altering ordeal than this one. First-round pick Tyler Guyton (pressured into starting duty this season before perhaps being ready, thanks to the offseason departure of Tyron Smith), allowed defensive end Derek Barnett to slide behind Cooper Rush and knock the ball out of his hands. Suddenly, with no one to block, Guyton had the ball in his hands. And the 322-pound rookie decided to run into traffic. Safety Jalen Pitre knocked the ball away from Guyton; Barnett recovered it and returned it 28 yards for a touchdown. Yes, only the 2024 Cowboys could manage to lose two fumbles on the same play. The blooper moment also marked back-to-back games in which a Cowboys offensive lineman inexplicably attempted to recover a loose ball while was on the run rather than just stumbling upon it.

Good: Turpin goes into turbo mode

KaVontae Turpin has been one of the team’s few bright spots this season. Already a Pro Bowl-caliber return man, the speedster also makes his presence felt in the passing game as the team’s third-most targeted wide receiver, behind only CeeDee Lamb and Jalen Tolbert. The problem with Turpin is that sooner or later he will always break one. And he did it Monday night, turning a routine short pass into a 64-yard rush and scoring. And Turpin hit the jets to do it, hitting a top speed of 22.36 miles per hour en route to the end zone. According to Next Gen Stats, this is the fastest speed by a running back in the entire league so far this season. ESPN’s Seth Walder points out that this was only the second slant route Turpin ran this year; maybe this game should move to a heavier rotation.

Bad: a wave of injuries hits the starters

The course of the Cowboys’ season has already been irrevocably altered by injuries to key playmakers: Dak Prescott, Micah Parsons, DeMarcus Lawrence, DaRon Bland, Brandin Cooks, Marshawn Kneeland and Sam Williams, to name a few. some. On a night when they were also without Jourdan Lewis, the Week 11 contest significantly increased the ranks of players now worried about moving forward. Tight end Jake Ferguson suffered a concussion in the first quarter and safety Markquese Bell suffered a gruesome shoulder injury in the second. The O-line suffered a triple hit: Zack Martin left the game with an ankle injury, Tyler Smith suffered an ankle injury himself, and Tyler Guyton took a blow to the shoulder that left him taken out of the match. With a short week before Week 12 and then just a few days before the Thanksgiving game, any injuries suffered Monday night could end up becoming even more significant.

Ugly: Defense throws penalty party on 4th quarter play

Things got heated as the game progressed, with the intrastate rivalry bringing out some composure between the two Texas teams. Nine penalties on each side sparked more than a few skirmishes, with the biggest scuffle taking place with about four minutes remaining. Cowboys linebacker Marist Liufau and Houston’s Laremy Tunsil battled well away from a five-yard run play, and when several Texans jumped into the mix, so did a large number of Cowboys. It ended quickly, with officials throwing five flags, each for a different player. Liufau, DeMarvion Overshown, Mazi Smith and Trevon Diggs were all flagged for unnecessary roughness on the same play, but all of that was fortunately offset by Tunsil’s penalty for the same foul. In a frustrating game for a desperate Dallas team, emotions boiled over on several occasions. This is likely to continue to happen as 2024 progresses.

This article was originally published on Cowboys Wire: Good, bad, ugly: Points off the board, fake punt failure, double fumble among Cowboys’ Week 11 woes