- Eight is Enough. The Cowboys haven’t won a road playoff game (0-8) since beating the 49ers at muddy Candlestick Park in the ’92 NFC Championship Game. If they don’t win one next season, their time between road playoff wins will surpass 10,000 days. Unfathomable.
- I’ve ripped Jason Garrett’s play-calling and game management all season, but I thought he was on point with a couple of key second-half decisions. They were the right calls that resulted in the wrong result. After Dak Prescott scored to make it 23-15, Garrett decided to kick deep. NFL teams are recovering only 8 percent of onside kicks this season, and the Cowboys’ defense is among the Top 10. Good as the Rams’ offense is, I gave Dallas better than an 8-percent chance of forcing a punt. With three timeouts and the two-minute warning, a defensive stop would give Prescott the ball back with about 1:45 remaining and needing a touchdown and 2-point conversion to tie. But on third-and-7 from the Rams’ 28, Goff surprised the Cowboys – specifically safety Jeff Heath – with an 11-yard designed run that sealed the deal. I also agreed with Garrett’s choice to run Zeke Elliott left behind Tyron Smith on fourth-and-1 at the Rams’ 35 down only eight points earlier in the fourth quarter. It’s been a signature play for the Cowboys all season – the NFL rushing champ behind a perennial Pro Bowl left tackle. But center Joe Looney was blown up by Ndamukong Suh immediately and a hole never developed. On two pivotal fourth-quarter plays the Cowboys just weren’t good enough in the trenches. Don’t blame this one on the head coach.
- This confounding game was, in a nutshell, why offensive coordinator Scott Linehan should be fired. Dak had two rushes. Zeke had two catches. Both numbers, by design, should be five-plus.
- It’s staggering how awful NFL officiating has been this season, and Saturday night another gaffe cost the Cowboys a chance for points just before halftime. Though blocked without a good view of the play, referee John Parry whistled Prescott to be “in the grasp” and down, even though the player with his arms wrapped around the quarterback was clearly teammate La’el Collins. Said Parry after the game: “From my view the quarterback’s progress had stopped moving forward. There were hands around him and another defender was coming, so we went in the grasp to protect the quarterback.” Parry made a crucial call – the “sack” resulted in an eight-yard loss that pushed Dallas out of field-goal position to the Rams’ 44 – based on something that absolutely didn’t happen. Criminal.
- One of the nuances Prescott needs to improve before 2019 is his play-faking. The Rams – fueled by Goff’s demonstrative fakes – simply made harder, faster, crisper, more believable cuts than the Cowboys. Goff’s outstretched hand froze Dallas’ linebackers, if even for only a nano-second. Prescott, meanwhile, several times merely hinted at a fake handoff with nothing more than a subtle, barely noticeable movement of the ball. It’s a small thing, that could transform into something big. Prescott wasn’t bad. He threw for 266 yards and a touchdown, ran for a score, didn’t commit a turnover and was sacked only once. Normally, that’s a winning formula for Dallas. But on a night when the Rams took away Zeke’s running, Dak wasn’t good enough to go win a huge game on the road. So much for all the supposed confidence, momentum and “being on a roll” from playing the entire game in Week 17 against the Giants.
- Something about the Rams and the run game in the playoffs doesn’t sit well with Dallas. In 1986, the Cowboys allowed 248 yards to Eric Dickerson. Saturday night it was 100+ to both C.J. Anderson and Todd Gurley. First time two backs ran that wild on Dallas since the Ravens’ Willis McGahee and Le’Ron McClain shut down Texas Stadium with a whimper in 2008. This flimsy resistance might have been equal parts intensity, scheme and … signals? The Rams apparently knew the Cowboys’ plans pre-snap, based on tips like how closely tackle Maliek Collins shaded the center or whether Tyrone Crawford had his left or right hand on the ground. Said Rams’ center John Sullivan: “We felt we had a lot of good tells on what they were going to do in front of us.” Bottom line: The Rams’ hitters knew what pitchers were coming.
- While the Rams ran wild, their defense sold out to keep Elliott in check. And it worked. He gained only 47 yards on 20 carries against a run defense that was last in the league, giving up 5.1 yards per rush. Dak to Amari Cooper was supposed to be the check-mate to defenses committing defensive backs to stop Zeke, but the duo – though it did connect for Dallas’ first touchdown – simply didn’t make enough big plays to scare L.A. out of its strategy.
- Still love the trade for Cooper. It saved the Cowboys’ season. But it might also have done just enough to make us regret it. Translation: Cooper’s addition helped the Cowboys turn around a 3-5 season, win a division and a playoff game. But it didn’t get them to the NFC Championship Game. Ultimate cost of the trade? A first-round draft pick and a shiny new contract extension for Garrett. Gulp.
- Welcome to another off-season of Jerry Jones telling us his team was thisssss close. The Cowboys have a young nucleus, with no starters over 30. Solid quarterback. NFL rushing champ. Top 10 defense. This season, he’ll say, was just a tap on the door. Next season, as a form of natural progression, the Cowboys will kick it in. But history tells us it’s not that easy. In fact, there is usually zero carryover from a late playoff loss. Just ask the Jaguars and Vikings, who lost in last year’s conference championship games, entered this season with all sorts of “next step” optimism and promptly missed the playoffs. Last three times the Cowboys made the postseason, the following year they went 6-10, 4-12 and 9-7. They have no first-round draft pick and next year face a first-place schedule. No guarantee they’ll get back to the divisional round in 2020, or even the playoffs.
- Hot Boyz = Not Boys. The Cowboys’ defensive line has Demarcus Lawrence and Randy Gregory and cool celebrations and a cute nickname. The Rams’ offensive line didn’t land a single player in the Pro Bowl or on the All-Pro team. But on Saturday night, it was complete domination for L.A. Jared Goff wasn’t hurried, much less sacked. And the Cowboys were gashed for 273 rushing yards including 123 to Anderson, who looks to have borrowed Jerome Bettis’ physique and a month ago was unemployed. “We got beaten,” said Crawford. “It’s a scar we’re going to have to wear the rest of our life.”
