As far as season opening losses go, there has never been one more disappointing and deflating in Dallas Cowboys history than Sunday’s 19-3 loss to Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
For a team that entered the season with the charge of repeating as NFC East champs and with the hopes of reaching the Super Bowl for the first time since 1995, the Cowboys performance could not have been worse.
The defense got run over in the ground game and the offense was putrid and punchless.
And that was before quarterback Dak Prescott suffered a fractured thumb in the fourth quarter, requiring surgery on Monday and sidelining him for up to eight weeks.
And he was just one of three starters lost. Left guard Connor McGovern suffered a high ankle sprain and safety Jayron Kearse left the team’s somber post-game locker room on crutches with a knee injury.
It’s only Week 1 as coach Mike McCarthy said and the journey is just beginning for the Cowboys.
“The reality is we got a lot of work to do,” McCarthy said. “We won’t go undefeated this year. I’m 0-1, we’re 0-1 as a football team. Obviously, I got a little more work to do coming out of this game than I would like, but that’s our business.”
Yet, it came with a sense of hopeless finality.
Starting with the obvious, there is no real path forward for the Cowboys team and offense with Prescott lost for two months.
The quarterback-based scheme was built around him. Any hopes of success were founded on the idea that Prescott would play at the highest level as the trigger man.
Prescott, the $40 million quarterback, was expected to make up for deficiencies at receiver and a subpar offensive line.
But Prescott was downright awful from the start in what was arguably the second-worst performance of his career and easily his worst game since signing a four-year, $160 million contract extension before last season.
Prescott completed 14 of 29 passes for 134 yards with an interception before hitting his hand on Buccaneers linebacker Shaq Barrett’s hand. His 47.2 quarterback rating was the worst of his career. He had a 45.4 as a rookie in a game in 2016 and a 30.4 in a game in 2017.
His completion percentage of 48.3 against the Buccaneers was the second worst of career with the worst coming as a rookie.
Prescott’s 134 yards were the second fewest he has had in a game that he has started and finished in his career, dating back to a 102-yard performance in 2017.
Again, this was not in plan for Prescott seven seasons into his career and supposedly in his prime as the franchise quarterback.
He got no help from a receivers corps that only had one proven option in CeeDee Lamb and his opening performance as the team’s No. 1 receiver was as bad or worst than Prescott’s.
Lamb had an unforgivable two catches for 29 yards on 11 targets.
Also question the play calling of offensive coordinator Kellen Moore who called a double reverse on the third play of the game, resulting in an 8-yard loss by running back Tony Pollard.
It was too cute, too early.
Running back Ezekiel Elliott had a strong opening effort with 10 carries for 52 yards but a team that lacks a plethora of explosive playmakers has to find a way to generate big plays.
Buccaneers linebacker Devin White said they knew what the Cowboys are trying to do on offense.
“I think it was just great preparation,” White said. “This time going into the game already having film against them against us and knowing how they like to attack us. So I think we were able to put together a better game plan than last year. … Last year we learned they really weren’t going to commit to the run game and the runs they did, they were going to try to get outside and not run into the interior.
“But most of the [passing] game was quick-game — a lot of curls, a lot of hitches, a lot of slants. We kind of knew that going in so we were able to attack it.”
So the Cowboys offense got outplayed and outcoached.
And a defense that was supposed to be the strength the team gave up 152 yards on the ground, including 127 on 21 carries by straight line back Leonard Fournette, who simply played bully ball against the Cowboys defensive backs after running through gaping holes in the line.
All-pro linebacker Micah Parsons generated some excitement with two sacks in the first half before being schemed out of the game. He said everyone was down and upset in the locker room as they were trying to figure out what happened.
So what is the path forward for the Cowboys without Prescott?
The team will try to rally around backup quarterback Cooper Rush.
But he has just one career start — albeit a win against the Minnesota Vikings last season.
That was just one game against a team with no film on him and arguably his Caddyshack moment with a full complement of veteran receivers to throw to.
Having Rush as the starter for possibly two months doesn’t engender confidence that there will be much of a season left whenever Prescott returns.
As McCarthy said, the Cowboys have a lot of work to do.
But all hope may be lost after Week 1.
The last three times the Cowboys lost their starting quarterback for significant games in a season were in 2010, 2015 and 2020. The Cowboys finished 6-10, 4-12 and 6-10 in those years, respectively.
Grand opening. Grand closing.
