3 thoughts on Dallas Cowboys inevitable loss to Texans: 5th straight setback, still winless at home

You kind of got a clue it was going to be curtains for the Dallas Cowboys when part of the roof fell on the field at AT&T Stadium hours before kickoff Monday night against the Houston Texans.

Fortunately, no one was hurt.

It was seemingly fitting for a 2024 Cowboys season that had seemingly fallen apart from the outset.

The collapse of part of the stadium and the inevitable carnage delivered by the Texans on primetime television before the national audience was simply par for course.

The outcome took longer than expected to be the decided but it was inevitable in a 34-10 setback that formally decided the best pro team in Texas in 2024, as the Cowboys dropped to 3-7 on the season.

It was the second game since quarterback Dak Prescott was lost for the season with a torn hamstring. He was officially placed on injured reserve on Monday. The team has had 11 placed on injured reserve since August.

It was the Cowboys fifth straight loss and they remain winless at home in 2024, dropping to 0-5 after reeling off 16 straight regular-season wins at AT&T Stadium in 2022-2023.

The Cowboys trailed by triple digits in all five contests, losing 44-19 to the New Orleans Saints, 28-25 to the Baltimore Ravens, 47-9 to the Detroit Lions and 34-6 to the Philadelphia Eagles before the Texans.

The Cowboys have trailed by at least 20 points in six straight home games dating back to the playoff loss to Green Bay Packers last January. That is the longest streak in NFL history.

The Cowboys have allowed 37.4 points at home in 2024. That would be the most points allowed at home by any team in a season in NFL history.

The 1960 inaugural Cowboys currently hold this record (36.5 PPG allowed at home).

Here are three thoughts on the loss to the Texans:

1. The passing stats of Cooper Rush made no sense.

Rush, staring for a second week in place of the injured Prescott, completed 32 of 55 passes for 355 yards with one touchdown and one interception in the game. That would seem logical in a game that was long out of reach.

But going into the fourth quarter, Rush had 39 pass attempts to just 13 rushing attempts for the team. And the Cowboys were down just 20-10 after three quarters.

While most of the attempts were short passes, that is simply not the kind of game Rush is going to win.

He had an awful interception in the first quarter that took points off the board and many off target throws that were simply out of his wheel house.

It didn’t help that the Cowboys had little success when they did run the ball.

Rico Dowdle had 28 yards on 10 attempts.

Of course, as the Cowboys have said many times this season. He didn’t enough opportunities.

2. Say what you will about Mike McCarthy’s future with the Cowboys but this team won’t quit on him.

The numerous blowouts say one thing but they were more attributable to being overmatched, which was due to injuries and poor roster management in the offseason.

The Cowboys are simply not a good football team and they make mistakes that is typical of that.

Consider the desperate fake punt in the first quarter that nearly gifted the Texans points. Houston gave it right back when they shunned a short field goal and threw an interception on fourth down.

Of course, the Cowboys did the same when the turned down a 64-yard field goal because of a penalty but ended up with nothing when a fourth down pass went incomplete.

Or how about when the Texans were finally able to blow the game open thanks largely to rookie left tackle Tyler Guyton, who gave up a sack to Derek Barnett.

Rush fumbled the ball and Guyton picked it up and inexplicably began to run with it. Barnett recovered and rumbled in for the touchdown to make the score 27-10.

The Texans made it 34-10 late in the fourth and the Houston got enjoy winning the in-state rivalry with “Houston Texans” chants.

4. Apparently kicker Brandon Aubrey is human after all.

There is no question that Aubrey has surpassed Baltimore Ravens kicker Justin Tucker is the NFL’s best.

He proved that in the second quarter when he nailed a 53-yarder to make the score 14-10.

It was Aubrey’s 20th make from 50 yards or longer, setting a new Cowboys team record. He also became the first kicker in NFL history 10 field goals from 50 yards or more in back-to-back seasons.

Aubrey is just in his second second and has just 17 games under his belt.

Aubrey has been so good that his teammates have nickname him “Butter”.

But he was anything but that late in the second quarter when he slipped on his approach and missed a 40-yard field goal, denying the Cowboys a chance to narrow the score to 17-13 at halftime.

Aubrey more than made up for it in the third quarter with a 64-yarder that would have been good from 70, making the score 20-13.

But the Cowboys took the points off the scoreboard when the Texans were flagged for a head slap, gifting them a first down.

Typical of the Cowboys, they get nothing on drive as a Rush pass on fourth-and-2 from the 8 goes incomplete.