ATLANTA — Players and coaches, including on the Dallas Cowboys, rarely stray away from the next opponent. There’s an understanding that you can’t achieve long-term goals if you don’t take care of the immediate business that lies ahead.
For Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy, avoiding conversation about long-term aspirations isn’t only because of that next-game mentality; it’s also out of a reluctance to say what doesn’t need to be said.
“I know everybody wants to talk about long term,” McCarthy said when asked about how the Cowboys, at 3-5, could still turn things around. “We have five losses. We clearly understands where that puts us as far as what it’ll take.”
A Cowboys turn around will also be contingent on them avoiding one thing that’s been common in all their losses this season.
The Cowboys had nine penalties for 55 yards on Sunday. They’ve had much worse before in both columns. The problem on Sunday for Dallas was how they amassed their penalties. Seven of their nine penalties were pre-snap problems.
Road environments can always be tough, and an incredibly loud Mercedes-Bens Stadium in Atlanta was no exception, but noise wasn’t the only reason for Dallas’ struggles in the penalty department. They had an illegal formation, a delay of game, and even had a 12-men in the huddle call that forced a Cowboys punt at a pivotal second half juncture.
“We’re making too many self-inflicted wounds, and the disappointing part about it is some of the pre-snap penalties are totally unacceptable,” McCarthy said. “We came in here wanting to go no huddle, up-tempo, turbo on the ball type of things. You see in the first series, it was effective, and I wish we got more to it. But, you know, we’re slowing ourselves down.”
And further cementing why they’re 3-5 currently. The Cowboys entered Sunday’s game as the sixth most penalized team in the league. They were averaging 7.6 penalties per game. Only one team behind them, the Minnesota Vikings, entered this weekend with a winning record.
“We’ve got to quit beating ourselves, right,” Cowboys guard Zack Martin said. “I’m not taking anything away from Atlanta. They’re a good football team, and they did some good things against us tonight, but the stuff we can control: it just keeps popping up. We just can’t have that. Our margin of error is too little to do those types of things.”
Penalties aren’t the only way the Cowboys have hurt themselves. Last week, McCarthy said they had multiple communication errors on an opening drive against the 49ers that stalled. Against the Falcons, they had one play where there was a misalignment.
The Falcons had a 4th down in Dallas territory up 7-3 in the second quarter. A fourth down stop would’ve been huge for the Cowboys. Instead, the Cowboys ran Cover 0, sent a blitz, and were out flanked on a wheel route that resulted in a 36-yard touchdown to Darnell Mooney.
“Everybody was on the same plane,” Cowboys corner Trevon Diggs said. “It was a pick route. It’s an easy [Cover 0] beater. Next time, we’ll make sure we get it done.”
That’s the hope for a Cowboys team that’s on a three-game losing streak for the first time since 2020. How to figure out these mistakes remains another issue, however.
“I can’t put my finger on it, to be honest with you,” Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott said. “That’s one of the most frustrating things about it. Whether its guys taking turns, whether it’s us all not being on the same page, whether it’s the cadence or the substitutions, like you said, coming from the sideline.
“Some very frustrating, detailed matters in key parts of the games that when you do that, you’re not going to win. You’re not going to win. Especially in this league against a good team, you’re not going to win. You just go back and look at the timing of those penalties when they were. I’m not surprised that this is the outcome of the game.”
